What is Geographic Atrophy (GA)?

Close your eyes.

Let them adjust.

Now, open them.

Notice how the world around you gets clearer as the light pours in.

Your eyes help you navigate the world and connect you with the people and things you love, so it’s important to understand what’s happening if you experience vision changes.

Geographic Atrophy, or GA, is an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration, or AMD.

This condition can lead to permanent and irreversible vision loss.

To understand how this happens, I want you to think about the palms of your hands.

When you’re able to see all the crisscrossing lines and details it’s because of a part of your eye called the retina.

It turns light—and all of the colors and the shapes it captures—into signals that your brain can understand.

Your retina is located in an area that lines the back of your eye.

Within your retina is a tiny section called the macula. It helps you to process all the fine details of your world—like the lines on your hands—clearly.

It’s the retina—and more specifically the macula—where GA affects your vision the most.

If you’re early in your GA journey, the effects may not be noticeable now, but over time, those details, like the wrinkles on your fingers and the lines across your palms, could start to look hazy or blurred.

Many things can increase your risk of getting GA, such as your age and lifestyle.

Your family history can make up to seventy percent of your risk of getting GA.

When you have GA, excessive debris deposits called drusen can build up in your retina.

When your body recognizes this drusen buildup, it can send your immune system into overdrive, leading to inflammation—and eventually—the destruction of healthy cells in your macula.

While this damage may start small, it progresses, as cells continue to die off, forming larger patches, known as lesions, which grow and spread across the retina.

If you’ve been living with GA, you might notice that driving at night and reading have become harder.

Straight lines, like telephone poles or those on a piece of paper, may have begun to look wavy or distorted. These are all signs that GA is progressing.

As GA continues to progress, you may notice a blurry spot that appears in the center of your vision.

As the lesions caused by GA grow larger, its effect on vision worsens, and can eventually lead to permanent vision loss.

If you are experiencing symptoms of GA, know that you aren’t alone: GA affects nearly one million people across the United States and approximately five million globally.

Finding resources and a supportive community will be an important step in your GA journey.

Play an active role and stay involved with your vision to help you adapt to life with GA.

Visit eyesonGA.com for tips, information, recipes, and helpful home ideas for living with GA.

Every person’s experience with GA is unique. Speak with your doctor about questions you may have regarding GA and its symptoms.