Has anyone considered old age?

[smooth]

How's it going to be when you get old? When you get to an age where heels and hem lines are low, when a blue rinse is.... Well... I don't know what a blue rinse is... maybe it's some kind of last ditch punk revival thing going on, I don't think it's compulsory  When you're old and grey how do you see life? stale biscuits, wrinkly fruit bowls and whiskers (not for your cat)  There probably won't be any glam in life anymore or much fun come to that. Would you be happy looking like barbara Cartland or will you settle gracefully into old age.... if that's possible.... At what age is it a good idea to stop taking hormones, is there a recommended rough guide for this? I have to admit I've always struggled with seeing myself as typically old in any scenario, TG or not but will a TG person have a harder time off it?
For the guys, will it be flat caps, a whippet and a raincoat and a plot in your local allotment with a pint of best down the pub at lunchtime 
There's an element of humour in this post but at the same time I'm a curious individual and I'm interested to hear others thoughts...
My own thoughts on old age are pretty negative on the whole (very preperation H  ) We're told "put into a pension for your retirement, THE GOLDEN YEARS" I've worked in a few old peoples homes and sheltered accommodations and I didn't see anything golden about it. Some places smelt a bit golden but that was all I noticed 
This is a very British take on it and it's possibly just mine, there are no doubt similar but totally different old people stereotypes in other countries, I seem to remember the more well off ones being called snow birds in Arizona. A migratory flock of grey haired old people who'd descend on Arizona in their RV's from the colder states to escape the winter weather and their aching joints and bones.

[TheUglyDuck]

I guess my interests would probably be very different by that point.

No more computer games or techno. But maybe i'll be wrong lol.

I think i'd still try and enjoy life as a woman and do what any other old lady does. Probably cook alot maybe grow some things.

Who know's it's impossible to tell really.

[Devlyn]

How can I not consider it? Old Age stands behind me and gives me a swift kick in the ass once a minute whether I need it or not! Hugs, Devlyn

[Chloe]

How's it going to be when you get old?

Your as young as you feel i guess it depends on what u consider "old" ? i am 56 and have been accused of being "immature" there comes a point in life when that could be considered a compliment ! It's all the activity and confusion of great "middle age" that needs to be "gotten over" it's not until one actually approaches "the end" that "beginnings" are truly appreciated !

You have "learning", "knowledge" and then there is "Wisdom" i wouldn't want to trade places with any of "the young women" today for all the tea in China ! In gradually, thru life experiences, becoming your own unique person you eventually come to the realization "what gender"(?) really doesn't matter!

Ultimately it's not what you "are, own or have" but what one "does with it" that defines us !

. . . those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is [forever] passing away

[Jeneva]

Old age looms for us all, unless something else claims us first.

How many of us could even make it to "old" age without transitioning?  BTW what do you consider old?  You'll find that us older ladies consider it much higher than you do.

Would you rather be living in regret always wondering what you could have done with those years or being one of the little blue haired ladies or the male counterpart?

Barring Alzheimer you are either going to have memories of finally being right or continual regret at each chance you passed up.


*very sorry for the misgendering, you mentioned blue haired ladies so I assumed and didn't check you marker.  Again I apologize and have corrected it.*

[Padma]

From my observation, what kind of old age you have depends on what you do about making friends. The old folk I know who are most happy and with it and enjoying life have a lot of friends of all kinds of ages. So for me, I plan to keep making friends, I'd rather be poor than lonely, that's my retirement plan .

[J R D]

I'm looking forward to joining AARP in a little over a year.  As for being stereotypically old, I won't be that and I know very few old people who are and I know a lot of old people too. 

[Samantha Stone]

Some of us are already "older" so to speak and I think old is just in the looks not in the mind.  When your young you don't think about growing old.  It's just to far into the future.  In today's world, the age one is considered old is changing.  Being older gives a person a different and sometimes better perspective on things.  Being transgender,  I find the issues quite different for me than I see from the young girls.  My female side was there when growing up and one felt like they were the only one.  So it was suppressed throughout the years and then came back in recent years. 

The more I say the more issues that I realize are there.  I guess what I'm trying to say,  I have less expectations about myself and the future.  My dysphoria is strong and i am in counseling.  I still feel young. 

Thanks for the topic,
Samantha

[Pica Pica]

I've considered it, but can't make any predictions.
I'll probably be like this, but more so.

[Julian]

I'll probably be like this, but more so.

I like that. I hope to be more like me as I grow older.

Body-wise, I'm really glad I won't have boobs to get all saggy.

[Pica Pica]

Bodywise, I'm laughing. I'll probably be more androgynous then, cos old people are. I'll confuse the buggers more. Might get into day dresses.

[Catherine Sarah]

Sorry to upset the status quo.
But for me, the eternal optimist, it's all gun - ho!!

For the 30 odd years I have left, it's all planned. No time to waste. If I'm blessed with a few more than thirty, I've got a few boxes over the page to be ticked, in reserve.

Burn the candle at both ends. Won't it be dreadful to get to the end of life and still find some candle left??

Life is tooooooo short to be aimless. We weren't meant to be here a long time, but we were meant to be here for a good time. Those that fail to plan, plan to fail.  OK, tomorrow I get run over by a bus. At least I was on my way to ticking a few boxes.

For those of you opting for the easy retirement home, don't stay up waiting for me. I'll be in very late. I've got my own key. See you in the morning, perhaps.

Be safe, well and happy
Lotsa huggs
Catherine

[AbraCadabra]

Ha, best be for me to avoid even to comment - and there I still do.

Being 65, I AM OLD AGED, in the book of most if not all. Even the dudes they pay pensions.

The crazy thing is how FAST it actually all happened. Crazy fast! CRAZY.

I did many, many things and then some, in my life to date, transitioning might be the last big one - unless I find a millionaire that thinks I still a proposition for him. Fat chance I guess.

Since coming up to this date 65, I had a few close calls, being struck by lightning on a windsurfer was a more spectacular one, a bad car/truck accident in the Air Force 3 days after I got my licence from them, sundry broken and dislocated bones - and some real bad, a broken heart... followed eventually by a quadruple heart bypass op, and then 2 brain operations following one really silly stumble and fall accident – at some speed, to name few. Oh, yes SRS :-)

A broken marriage, a nice son, the longest engagement ... 19 years!
I mean I have not even mentioned all the various jobs I did in my life, and the move from Germany to SA, then back, then back again...
Building houses for self and partner, and in the early days in SA moving place to place, 13 times in 7 years alone!

I ask you, seriously, COULD ANY OF IT HAVE BEEN PLANNED?! Come on let's be honest.

No! Yet (wo)man plans but God directs - ever so often all these plans just turn out differently, sometimes better - sometimes worse.
Then we have these dream - and even realize them! Some. Then those also pop like soap-bubbles, some sooner, some later. Talk to me I'll tell you.

In the good old end you will hope and try to get by. If you lucky with a partner that make it all some more bearable. If no partner, - well we surely had our chances and opted to do without one? Want a strange man sleeping in your bed next to you? Still? Well, go ahead then :-)

These days, and not being the religious type, I ever so often pray and say thank you for yet another day, another beauty parlour visit, good meal, a nice chat, the smile of a child, the freshness of a flower and the good healing of my SRS-ed Kitty.

So much for my plans - what ever they were, they also fade and become less important, I promise the will.

And now thanks for reading it all, some of it may sound cheesy but believe me it is not - it's just the way the cookie crumbles.

Love,
Axélle

[JulieC.]

It's funny but when I was young in my twenties and just occasionally cross dressing I thought I would give up this "foolish fetish" once I got a little older and got married.  As I have aged it has been quite the opposite.  If I knew then what I know now I would have been a woman before I was 30.  Hind sight....right?  As it stands right now I don't think I will ever have srs but I do look forward to living my life as an old woman....and I'm not that far away.

[smooth]

You can't give up techno, techno is the perfect excuse for sitting in the corner nodding like a mad thing. I think I've seen that before in an old timers home, now I know why.
I don't think old is necessarily a number, maybe it's a frame of mind, maybe it's a collection of un-deniable facts and events that pile up against you. Either way as was said you can't escape it, it creeps up on you when you're not looking and boy! does it go crazy fast!
I'm not sure I agree about being considered older later these days. I think the only difference is that they can keep you going longer once you are old, I can only imagine there must be a profit in it....
"Body-wise, I'm really glad I won't have boobs to get all saggy." I totally get that, I remember the old lady out of There's something about Mary    too much sun and gravity  I'm considering it little top surgery myself, how I miss my T shirts 

I wonder... will the importance that gender now has in our minds, be as important once we're old. I dare say it might be if you never did anything to correct it, but I wonder for those that have, did the novelty (for want of another word) wear off? Could it be that once you've been on both sides off the fence you find an interesting similarity between the two and end up nonchalant. I often found/find that the things that were denied or hard to obtain or experience were the ones I wanted the most. Probably coincidence I'd like to think, otherwise I might start thinking that i'd been subliminally guided to them 
The status quo is steadfast, it's been moulded and set and even the eternal optimist would struggle to put a dent in it. If I did have thirty years left I doubt I'd be able to fill them interestingly even with some of the fun stuff I don't particularly want to do. I've never been good at repetition, beyond a certain point I end up bored. I used too long for a better attention span but it didn't last...
Going back a few years I had the pleasure of feeling a 24 year old, in fact we lived together for a while and in spite of her leaving me tired on occasion it certainly made me feel younger. I'm hoping those memories endure with me for as long as I do.
As for looking forward to old age at all, definitely not, regardless of gender.
I bumbled through my own life, no plan, not even a rough draft. I like it that way. I fear had I had a plan I might have been too focused or single minded to catch site of other little opportunities that came my way. Not business opportunities, better than that, chances to add to my memory banks.
This reply is bumbled as is my life  I bounced off the other replies to create it

[Anatta]

I wonder... will the importance that gender now has in our minds, be as important once we're old.

Kia Ora Smooth,

It would depend on the individual's experience...No doubt for some they will still face challenges regarding their gender identity, for others they won't/don't...

And in a sense this all depends upon ones ability to 'blend-in' as ones affirmed gender...The more one blends in- the less one thinks about ones gender identity being an issue, but if one's gender identity is continually being questioned by others, then naturally one gender identity will continue to play a major roll in ones life...Example "Will I be clocked today ?" "Will somebody call me sir/ma'am ? "

After a number of years[since transitioning] life for some of us can become quite mundane...

Metta Zenda
   

[pretty pauline]

Body-wise, I'm really glad I won't have boobs to get all saggy.

LOL well I certainly hope my boobs don't go saggy, I don't think of old age, I hope I grow old gracefully, I'II probably just be a typically old lady, going to the hair salon more often, getting my color done keeping the grey at bay, hope my husband is still around to take more care of an old lady, I'II probably be just another typical old woman, if I live long enough.
p

[Felix]

I can't wait to be a cranky old man. I'll shuffle around muttering at people, I'll always sit in the front of the bus, and I'll start conversations with young people with "Back in my day..."

[Beth Andrea]

I met a woman who was 100 years old...and she outran me to the car.

I met a man who was 40ish...he was on oxygen, and could barely make it out his door. He had emphysema.

"Old age" is what you make of it, mostly. The rest is the result of taking care of your body when young (or not taking care of it), and genes.

In many ways, I already feel old, like in my 90's "old." Someone here mentioned having friends...that is the fountain of youth, if there is anything. Thanks to therapy and realizing being TG, friends are easier to come by (but still precious).

[Joelene9]

  Old age is what you make of it.  When I was younger when my grandma turned 60, she pruned out as expected for someone that age.  She did make it to 96 though.  I will turn 60 later this year and I observed that with my generation, people did not look or acted in the same way my grandmother's generation did.  I have a friend who still does caving.  He is 65, hikes to the cave site, rapells down into the cave, spends as much as 2 days down there exploring and mapping with his buddies, all in the same age group!   
  Joelene