I am a 48 year old woman and everything in this article relates just as accurately to me.
Humans age, not just men, and the issues we face are more the same than they are different. Women have a little more physical stuff to contend with, perhaps, menopause as I am just discovering is no joke, but, otherwise, all the same issues.
I watched that lovely "Grumpy Old Men" series on the ABC a few weeks ago and both my 17 year old daughter and I agreed, we were grumpy old men too.
As I said to someone recently when they asked me what the future held for me, here's to getting shorter, fatter and hairier.

What mid life? What about early life? What about late life? Why do we have to map out life into stages at all? And what's wrong with 45 plus men driving sports cars and riding Harley Davidson motor bikes,growing a ponytail from their bald heads and getting a tattoo or two? I'm in this age group and have absolutely no problems with arriving at this stage of my life. For crying out loud, go on, just ask me and I'll tell you all about it. Me Grumpy? Naarr!
[And I'm not as old as Mick Jagger]

Get out of NSW in your research Peter.

AND here is the research, ha!

Forty becomes the new 30

Scientists have defined a new age concept and believe it could explain why populations are ageing but at the same time seem to be getting younger.

The idea could help explain why in many ways people today act younger than their parents did at the same age.

Instead of measuring ageing by how long people have lived, a pair of scientists has factored in how many more years people can still look forward to.

"Using that measure, the average person can get younger in the sense that he or she can have even more years to live as time goes on," said Warren Sanderson of the University of New York.

He and Sergei Scherbov, of the Vienna Institute of Demography at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, have used their method to estimate how the proportion of elderly people in Germany, Japan and the United States will change in the future.

The average German was 39.9 years old in 2000 and could plan to live for another 39.2 years, the research reported in the science journal Nature said.

However, by 2050 the average German would be 51.9 years old and could expect another 37.1 years of life.

So middle age in 2050 would come around 52 instead of 40 as in 2000.

"As people have more and more years to live, they have to save more and plan more and they effectively are behaving as if they were younger," Professor Sanderson said.

Five years ago, the average American was 35.3 years old and could plan for 43.5 more years of life.

By 2050, the researchers estimate it would increase to 41.7 years and 45.8 future years.

"A lot of our skills, our education, our savings and the way we deal with our health care depend a great deal on how many years we have to live," he said.

"This dimension of how many years we have to live has been completely ignored in the discussion of ageing so far."

- Reuters

This is just part of the Unisex Conspiracy - the effort to prove that men and women are the same, so because women have a menopause etc then men must also. But this fantasy about metamorphosing stages of life as though we were insects is just unreal and not recognised in most cultures. In practice boys just grow older with no dramatic change in outlook etc. "teen age" is just as arbitary as refering to the age of the 20th Century. History does not come in quantum lumps and neither do men. Keith

Peter West.

Great article Peter. I think Dave comes the closest to the mark in his comment:
To stay healthy a man has to stay fit, maintain an exercise regime. Try to keep the creative side of one’s personality active. And take time out from work every now and then to focus on something different.

I am now 60YO, and do things activily my kids are fearful of doing. But as Ken stated (Your very normal Ken) women will always remain at issue with us blokes. even into old age.

I've always worried that Australians are becoming more and more like battery hens. This article proves it. It is absolutely pathetic. Miserable and sooky. It may be real, but that's why it's as pathetic as the poor battery hens. These people and the pathetically focussed author need a change of life fast. Better they be shipwrecked on an island than continue as they are. And the same with those following them. I am so very very sad for you. Please take a good focus on divine existence, lift your head, take practical measures and shine.

Deboxit 55

Men suffer from lack of time with one another. In Greek vilages men sit in the sun, hold hands, talk and drink coffee and wine.

Our social isolation, sprawling suburbs and loss of the village is killing men. They become isolated and depressed. Women spend a lot more time networking.

Work has its own rewards but it also restricts social interaction. Men are also more like lone wolves and don't cluster together as readily in our society. However I make time now to have breakfast with friends, to look after myself mentally and physically, and to give myself treats and not just my family. We need to laugh and cry more too.Men need to love themselves more.

I can speak out now in meetings and in the media where once I would have been afraid. I can sit alone in a restaurant anywhere in the world and enjoy myself even if my wife is not with me. We have to find peace within and also be able to realise that contentment does not come from a partner primarily. There is another dimension. Appreciation of the present tense is essential. Laugh at yourself more in the mirror.

Life is an Odyssey...a climb up a mountain with fresh vistas at each turn....a charting of unknown seas. I would not be 20 again. It is a restless insecure age. I enjoy the adventure as I sail the wine-dark sea. I am also fortunate to have found my Penelope and my Ithaca.

Thou speaks wisdom Odysseus, every house in Australian should come with a mandatory shed in back yard. The nest is the nest, the shed is our shed.

Thank you, Sire.

The Odyssey shows that Homer knew that contentment comes from the hearth and not from the glories of the battlefield of Ilium. Many men prefer the distractions of battle and neglect their Ithaca at their very peril. When the cat's away...

War is at the very heart of our malaise...war by men against men, and war against our souls...while girls and women watch from the battlements in bewilderment.

However women now seek the same folly because they are now liberated to enter the world of men...but that is another story in itself...viz. the article here on domestic violence.

Today Odysseus would have been arrested for domestic violence and homicide for killing his wife's rowdy suitors despoiling his home and herds, and seeking his wife's hand in marriage. There would have been no happy ending...no dénouement..just a third book about a court case...Homer's sequel to the Odyssey.

Men are no longer lord of their own domain or their own property. If one comes home and the locks have been changed by one's wife...one has been evicted from one's castle without redress. Hence the plight of modern man.