What are your observation regarding problems faced when you are closing on / cross 40?

I didn’t have any issues turning forty at all. I was about to become a father for the first time, my career was going well. And I felt as well as I did when I was 25.

Fifty was a much bigger problem. I went in for a physical and was subjected to a battery of stress tests with dye for echocardiogram, because my EKG had been a little wonky and at the same time my marriage was falling apart. Getting through that year was the hardest of all.

Most of the physical issues I felt over the years have been related to self care much more than age. I felt better on my 60th than at any time since I was 18, from losing weight, exercising, and not smoking or drinking.

One thing you really don’t have much control over is your eyesight.

Between 40–50 is usually when you first start to become aware of the need to keep holding reading materials at arms length until eventually you opt for some cheapo drugstore reading glasses just to see if that will help.

After that it’s progressively downhill as far as being able to read without glasses is concerned. Not a lot you can do about it. Possibly some eye focusing type of exercises but they usually just hold off the inevitable :)

Audrey Auld I’m Forty

Just ageism and people trying to make it significant for you, because they are attached to the idea and probably afraid of it themselves.