Can human eyes change colour after infancy?

Question

When i was a baby, my eyes were blue. And as i grew, they remained blue. When my parents divorced when i was nine, slowly, so slowly, i didn't realise until i saw a picture of myself as a younger girl, that my eyes had changed to green. And a light, near yellowish green at that.
Is there any sources that prove that human eyes can change colour after pigmentation sets in during infancy? And what causes it?

(Also at the age of 9 around my parents divorce i started to require glasses on a permanent basis, if this helps)

Answer 1

You get the idea. Changing eye color baffles people. It's a FAQ(frequently asked question.

The basis of human eye color. The yellow "amebas" on the right depict pigment cells (with orange nuclei). The pigment cells contain brown pigment granules (shown in various intensities from very light brown to light brown to very dark brown). The lighter the pigment and the fewer the granules - the lighter the iris color.


Blue irises result from minimal pigment and few pigment granules. Green-hazel irises have moderate pigment levels and number of granules. Brown irises have high pigment levels and many granules. Hazel eyes as well as any lighter eyes usually darken with age. Hazel eyes are light brown or yellowish brown


OK, all. Eye color can change over time because of age or, unfortunately, disease.

Eye disease is a cause of color change. So, ask a doctor to examine your eyes if you notice a slow loss of color. The change could be due to Fuch's heterochromic iridocyclitis, Horner's Syndrome, and pigmentary glaucoma, says Brian DeBroff, ophthalmology professor at Yale University.


Aging, however, is the usual cause of color change over time. So, yes, ME. . Color can change as we age. It does so for 10 to 15% of the normal Caucasian population. These people's eyes change slowly over many years after they reach adolescence.


Investigators considered Caucasians (non-East Asian, non-Native American, non-African) because only Caucasians commonly have lighter eyes.


"Some eyes become darker, but most become lighter with increasing age," says Richard A. Sturm, a Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.




How and why eye color changes

Pigment in the stroma (the connective tissue of the front layer of the iris) gives the iris color. Iris color can lighten if the number of pigment granules in the stroma decreases or if the granules produce lighter pigment.. The iris can also lose color if the stroma pigment degrades.


Eyes, unlike skin and hair, do not synthesize color pigment continuously. Instead, eyes retain the pigment granules and accumulate them in the iris stroma. So, if the pigment degrades, the eye color lightens.


Likewise, eyes can darken if the number of pigment granules increase or if the granules make darker pigment.


That's how the color changes. Why does it change? Genetics is the key as experimenters learned by studying twins. They observed the eyes and skin of identical twins and non-identical twins of American Caucasians between the ages of 3 months to 6 years.


Both sets of twins showed a "darkening with age of both the hair and eye colour," says Sturm. The identical twins changed color together, at essentially the same rate. The non-identical twins changed color but at different rates, which indicates a "strong genetic influence in the timing of these colour changes."


Eye color probably changes for the same reason we have one head instead of two: genes. Genes determine all body characteristics — including changing eye color as we age.

Further reading:

• Molecular genetics of pigmentation by Rick Sturm, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland

•Eye Color by OMIM, Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man by Victor A. McKusick

•Oregon State University and Hewlett Packard: The genetics of eye color

•Anthro Limited: How are human eye colors inherited

There is no scientific evidence to relate your eye color change or physical vision problems to stress -brought on by the divorce of your parents. Stress might cause migraine type headches. Or eye-related headaches.

Answer 2

My eyes are green and gold now, but if you look at my school pictures up until about second grade, they used to be very bright blue. My siblings all started with dark blue eyes as well, that has lightened very much as they grew. I've also noticed, since my eyes have bands of different colors (yellow-gold in the middle, then green on the outside), that when I'm crying or very scared (happens often, I'm a big chicken when it comes to movies and such) my eyes appear much more green than usual, enough that other people notice, and nearly no gold is left in then.

Answer 3

Oh yeah...my eyes were really dark brown when I was born. They stayed dark brown until I was a teenager. Then practically overnight they became light brown. Through my teen years they got lighter and by college they were hazel (green on the edges, brown towards the center).

Now I'm in my 30's and they're starting to get a little darker again. Not quite as green anymore...but still light brown.

I have no idea what causes it. I figure it's hormones.

Answer 4

I haven't read anything to confirm scientifically that this happens but it has happened to me. My eyes were blue until I was about 4-5 yrs old then they turned green. In my late teens/early twenties the turned a light brown.

Answer 5

Some of the color change might be due to the size of the pupil in the photo. If the pupil is wider, you will see a more blue color. When the pupil is smaller, (and the colored part is stretched out more) the lighter and more varied colors have a chance to be seen.

Answer 6

yes it did happen to me i had navy blue eyes until i was 5 then they change d green and now i have them light hazel and they usually turn green hazel


i also find out by looking at different pictures and people who would tell me didn't u have blue eyes
that what having hazel eyes is all about

Answer 7

I'm not sure what causes it but I know they do, mainly when were young. My eyes were purple when I was born, then saphire blue as a kid, now they are teal.

Answer 8

Other animal babies' eye color changes. I'd say ours can, easily.

Answer 9

yes they do