What is retinitis pigmentosa?
- Part of the eye
- Rods, cones & genetics
- Group
- Inherited retinal conditions
- Vision functions involved
- Visual field, Light and glare, Night vision
- Main source
- RNIB
Retinitis pigmentosa, often called RP, affects the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye. The cells which help in dim light are usually affected first. The cells used for colour and fine detail can change later.
Ophthalmologist
A medical doctor who specialises in eye conditions and their treatment.
How retinitis pigmentosa can affect day-to-day life
You may recognise some of these situations, or none of them. The point is to find help with the things you want to do.
Moving between light and dark
Going from a bright street into a dim café can leave you struggling to see your surroundings.
Allow time to adjust and ask about lighting or mobility support for places you use regularly.
Noticing things to the side
You may read something straight ahead but miss an object outside the centre of your view.
Explain this difference to others. A sight-loss rehabilitation service can assess safer ways to get around.
Reading as vision changes
Reading can get harder if central sight changes, even after years of clear reading.
Ask for a fresh low-vision assessment when a task you value becomes difficult. Earlier advice may need updating.
Changes you may notice
- Difficulty in dim light and adjusting between bright and dark places.
- Reduced side vision. Central vision can change later too.
Everyone is different. Symptoms on their own cannot identify a condition.
What to do about a new or sudden changeAssessment and care
Ask your ophthalmologist about your specific diagnosis, monitoring and referral for genetic testing and counselling. A genetic result does not automatically mean a treatment is available.
Inheritance
RP can follow dominant, recessive or X-linked inheritance. Family history alone does not identify the gene.
Progression
Onset and speed of change vary. A relative's experience cannot provide a timetable for your own sight.
Diagnosis
Clinical assessment and genetic testing answer different questions. Testing may refine the diagnosis, but sometimes no genetic cause is found.
How vision is affected
When the light changes, sight needs time
A change in the light can bring several difficulties at once. Cones handle detail and colour in brighter light. Rods handle dim light. Cone-rod dystrophy often affects cones first, with rod difficulties developing later, and the balance differs from person to person. Slow adjustment and a lasting problem in dim light are two separate things. Extra time helps with one but does not remove the other.
Think of walking into a hallway from a sunny street, or leaving a dim cafe. The difficulty changes while you stand in the same spot. Tell your eye-care team about both directions: what is hard straight away, what gets easier with time, and what stays hard.
This is a designed teaching sequence, not a measured adaptation curve. A 15 or 60 second playback is a demonstration length, not a prediction of how long anyone takes to adjust. A washed-out screen cannot reproduce light sensitivity or pain. Nothing flashes, and the rest of the page stays unchanged.
Sources checked 5 October 2026: RNIB: inherited retinal conditions, MedlinePlus: cone-rod dystrophy, Macular Society: cone dystrophy.
Illustration hidden. The object you look at stays visible while the doorway and the room edges are harder to use. This is a teaching picture for side-vision changes, not how every person with RP sees.
These topics explain the parts of vision involved. They do not predict your sight, diagnose anything or show the condition itself.
Visual field
Finding a face and noticing the edge of a step make different demands on sight. One uses the centre of your view. The other uses the edges.
Open the visual field labLight and glare
Glare can be uncomfortable and can wash out detail. Where the light comes from matters as much as how much light there is.
Open the light and glare labNight vision
Rods work in dim light. Cones handle colour and fine detail in brighter light. Adjusting to darkness is a separate problem from discomfort in bright light.
Open the night vision labEveryday support
Discuss travel in low light, glare and everyday tasks with a low-vision or rehabilitation service. Retina UK offers inherited-sight-loss support.
A question to take to your appointment
What do we know about my type of RP, and would genetic testing give my family useful information?Prepare your appointment checklist
Sources and review status
Sources checked 4 October 2026. Educational draft, not yet clinically reviewed. No clinician has endorsed this page. Follow the advice of your own eye-care team.
How this content is prepared