Columnist
‘Apparently, the male menopause is a real phenomenon’
Has your hubby traded in the family hatchback for a flashy sports car? Inked a tattoo onto his triceps and bought a motorbike? Is he suddenly talking about quitting his job and launching a start-up boutique brewery?
Well, fasten your psychological seat belts, girls, because your husband’s midlife crisis has started without him. What’s worse, we have to take it seriously. Yep, the ‘male menopause’ is a real phenomenon.
According to some of Britain’s leading researchers on ageing, we need to stop trivialising the male midlife crisis. Apparently, the realisation that a man is slowing down, balding and becoming less hunky is hugely damaging to his psyche. The awareness that he’s not going to ever make CEO or afford that coveted des res can lead to a severe drop in male self-esteem.
To let off that esteem, some middleaged blokes look for the testosterone injection of a younger girlfriend and a hotter car. Psychologists maintain that the bloke who trades in his wife for the babysitter, starts driving a meno-porsche or competing in ultra marathons needs sympathy and understanding – not a kick up the bum with a pointy boot.
When my partner announced that he wanted to find more ‘meaningful fun’ in life, I tried to be supportive. I bought him padded socks and blister packs, and waited patiently while he ran through at least three time zones – at one stage I think he passed Greenland. When he finally staggered home, expecting endless praise and adulation, I realised that these male-midlife-crisis-marathonrunners are basically keeping fit by doing step aerobics off their own egos.
Because, while he’s hurtling around the countryside in too-tight Lycra, his beleaguered wife is left to take care of the house, the kids and both sets of aged parents, while enduring her own midlife horrors. Not only are middle-aged women treading water professionally but we’re also enduring hormonal u
