Sex and Aging

Sex 

 I don’t know about you but I started becoming aware of the opposite sex at about age 10.  I didn’t dwell on it but I still have memories of the girls my age sending me notes in the classroom (asking me if I liked them).  I didn’t run around seeking little girls to play with during recess, but every once in a while I would look up from whatever game I was playing with my friends and would notice that little girl classmates were looking at us (4^th grade).  Then I remember this one little girl, her name was Norma, she didn’t chase after me, matter of fact she didn’t even make conversation, but I caught her looking my way once and she quickly turned the other way.  She was very lady like (not a tomboy) her hair was always done in ponytail or pigtails.  She was always dressed very nice like her mother really cared for her and made sure she always looked her best. 

WOW!  Where did that memory come from?  Long story short, she transferred out of my school 3 months later, and I never saw her again (we did become friends before she even knew that her family would be moving).  She made enough of an impression on me that I asked my mother to name my little sister Norma approximately a year later when she joined the family.  Fortunately my mother like the name and that is my sister’s name (just as pretty and dainty too).

Now back to the subject at hand.  Everyone that follows this blog is mature enough and old enough to understand that men and women are different in just about every way, and thus we handle and react different to just about every situation.  The information I am about to share is tame, factual, and derived from experts.

We are all aware of the different age stages in life; 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and beyond.  Every age stage brings with it, specific levels of comfort and concerns (real or imagined).  Some people at age fifty are barely considering that they are going to start noticing their age progression a little more.  Not until 60 for some do they start getting serious about getting answers to their growing concerns.  This is not a health blog so I am going to give you food for thought and subjects to research if you so desire.

Studies show that five popular areas of concern for men are the following:  1). Impotence, men worry about embarrassment or humiliation, if things don’t work as they should.  2). Weakness, Knowledge is power but for men physical power is equally important.  3). Retirement / Irrelevance, The prospect of retiring fires enormous anxiety because it, too, begs the question, "If I'm not my career, what am I?"  4). Losing wheels and Independence, what a man drives defines who he is, from his first junker to his mid-life crisis sports car.  Ability to get around also weighs heavy.  5). Losing your mind or your wife losing hers.  Perhaps recent headlines are scaring more men into the fear of Alzheimer's: Men are more likely than women to have mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Studies show that five popular areas of concern of aging for women are the following:  1). Losing attractiveness/becoming 'invisible'.  Our society places emphasis, on youth and beauty.  2). Being left alone, A spouse's death figures high among women's fears, as does seeing their children dying first or losing old friends when they relocate for retirement.  3). Becoming a bag-Lady.  Bernie Madoff, the real estate collapse, and the Great Recession 2.0 have only fueled a classic female fear of aging: financial destitution.  4). Cancer. Maybe it's those ubiquitous pink ribbons. Cancer, particularly breast cancer, tops the health concerns women fear most.  5). Being dependent on others. Both men and women alike dread "becoming a burden," according to the Successful Aging Study's Eva Kahana. But for many women, who have traditionally been the caregivers, the prospect of a role reversal is especially uncomfortable. My Source of information was from Caring.com.

I hope I didn’t disappoint you with the Title vs. Content.  I merely meant that whether male or female (sex) we all are affected by aging (even if in slightly different ways).  There is no way I would enter into a discourse of S.E.X. in this blog!!  The best is yet to come….