Assorted Unguents, Vibrators, & a Sturdy Step Stool:

Assistive products I appreciate as I age.

There is a shelf in my bathroom with a lovely hand-woven basket filled with various prescription and non-prescription creams and salves. Application depends on the ingredients and area(s) afflicted. As the number of potions grew, I began feeling doomed about my aging tissues: post-menopausal mucous membranes, thickened soles of my feet, less collagenized epidermis. I felt that I had arrived at a point where every part of me needed something specific and special. Then one day, after noticing the relief that one of these products had brought me, I did a one-eighty in my thinking. I realized how delighted I was that some smartie-pants had invented these things and that getting ahold of them was not a big problem. As a result of someone’s know-how and efforts, I was living more comfortably in my aging skin, literally.

Least you are thinking this is a newsletter heralding all the joys of life in my 60+ body, it is not. I have my frustrations that no cream, gadget, or life-style change can mitigate. However, I am the first person to unapologetically grab hold of and recommend medicines, products, and life-style changes that will make my life easier and more comfortable and I do so without an apology or feelings of embarrassment.

Vibrators are another example of a life-enhancing tool no aging woman should live without or resist out of embarrassment. The simple fact is this: in order to be orgasmic after menopause, we need to compensate for the decrease in estrogen circulating through our bodies with an increase in horse-power stimulating our genitals. Aiming for the Big Bang? Then you better get a nice lubricant and vibrator or you’ll be at the work-bench pounding nails until the cows come home. This fact need not be shrouded in any covert operation for locating a device, keeping it secret, or worrying about vibrator rehab when you come to realize you’re dependent on your sex toy to maximize your satisfaction. When hungering for a great orgasm, grab your vibrator. Should you need something on the top shelf of your pantry get your sturdy step stool so you minimize your risks of falling. Using the right tools for the job makes a world of difference. This practice reduces the strains inherent in living in a changing body and thus can lessen our complaints and distress about limitations that come with aging.

In my way of looking at things, aging is not as much the problem as not surrendering to the hand you are dealt in the process. Something will go haywire in each of us eventually and suffering to a greater or lesser extent is inevitable. But the alternative is dying at too young an age and missing out on so many pleasures achievable with the will to adapt and modify how you go about doing things.

Surrender with grace, good humor, and a willingness to spend some cash on the things that will make life more comfortable for you, especially if you are lucky enough to grow old in the first place.