Mumsnet Talk

I am 41 and have realised that over the past two years, my health has gradually declined.

For example I now get every cold going, and am laid low again with a chesty - but mainly totally draining - virus.

I feel like I'm a few weeks pregnant - totally out of sorts, often nauseous, knackered - but I feel like that all the time now

I eat well, am slightly overweight but not much, I don't exercise madly or anything but have always had a basic level of fitness, I don't drink loads and nothing major has changed.

Is this just a symptom of ageing?

Health gets worse with increase in aging and the resistance also reduces with increase in aging!!

Me, too. I am 40. The last three years I have had flu every winter, I get every chesty cough going and it always requires antibiotics. It's the same again now...really depressing. I think it is because I work my arse off all day as a teacher in a school, try to be a fabulous mum when I get home, (don't often make the best of it....I am SO knackered) and then, when the kids are finally in bed, I settle down to more work - marking, prep, tidying the bombsite that is my house. I just feel like I am failing on every level. And that ultimately affects my ability to stay healthy.

My DH is lovely, he is as busy as me. I am at the end of my tether at the moment. I know something needs to change. I have spoken to DH about it but he can't see how it can happen without major life changes. I am all for that. I am going to end up 10 feet under far too soon otherwise.

So, yes, part of it is ageing. But I think a very great part is that we are running on empty...

Now this is interesting, because when i turned 40 my health improved dramatically. Hardly ever get colds or flu ( and I work in a school) and I am never off sick. However I do get more aches and pains.

I'm 43. Don't actually notice myself getting generally sicker, but my periods are less regular and that does affect my wellbeing, as they're now more frequent and heavier, with worse pain than before. I also have a few more aches and pains, which I have to keep at bay by doing some exercise every day. This isn't a bad problem, though, as it keeps me fitter! At times when I'm carrying extra weight I can feel it in my knees, which is another incentive to keep weight off. A definite sense of "use it or lose it", where I could afford to be more of a slob when I was younger.

I feel that I started to fall apart at 37 1/2. Teeth and lower back especially.

No. I get knackered, but I've always got knackered. I'm 49.

Our immune system does get worse with age but you have to get to your 60s for there to be a major difference, which is why older people get free flu jabs.

My general health has always been fine and it still is, but I am sick to death of going to the doctors with an ache or a pain or a suspicious mark on my skin and her telling me it's my age!

No. What's more I'm 44 and had a baby at 43 and 9 months

Yeah, I had one at 42. Have been in rude health ever since. Was always ill before her, but the OMG the aches and pains now are hideous.

Yes, am 48 and dropping to bits

I turned 40 last month.
This year has been awful for me.
Herniated disc in my back
Gynae issues
Anaemia
Just feel so tired all the time.
It's horrid

Yyy to exhausted all the time. Too tired to move in the evening

Yes - every prev ignored minor ailment is a major PITA.

Periods so bad you can't do a journey more than 45 min - back pain - hypermobility leading to dislocated/subluxed joints that take ages to go back - comedy sweats - thyroid gone so hoarse like tramp - infections need max strength antibiotics. Anemia from piles.

What is REALLY ANNOYING is that all these are minor ailments that punch out all your energy and strength and are often foully painful, but don't count as a reason to stay off work.

Oh! And fecking skin tags!
Why did no ine warn me!?
(Weeps)

Yes and no. In my 40s my teeth fell apart, I wheezed constantly and often felt under par. Since turning 50 I feel much better!

ill join but i dont know if its due to my age or stress.

im pretty sure that mine is due in the most part to reflux and the ensuing cough and loss of voice that come with that....i aspirate into my lungs and get a chest infection often. (just had one, cough free for 1 week then got its daddy)

whatever it is i have noticed a marked decline in my health since turning 40. im not 41 yet

I do wonder if I get more tired. I'm 44 and generally very healthy in that I'm very rarely actually ill, but I often feel knackered. last year I thought I might have thyriod problems but it turned out to be anaemia, I'm a veggie with quite heavy periods, maybe they are getting heavier.

It's really hard to tell though, I have a full time job and d3 dc, I do quite a lot socially, I exercise a fair amount, so I can't tell whether I'm reasonably or excessively tired.

Lots of different experiences. I hear you about 'use it or lose it': I feel weighty now, when (at the same weight but younger) I used to feel fine. What a bugger that losing weight isn't now as simple as three weeks off the sauce

No, health is as before which was generally good. Agree with others teeth seem to be ageing first.

A few teeth troubles now and a disc prolapse corrected by surgery when I was 50. Some arthritis in my knees - so mechanical stuff a bit worse IYSWIM, but general health better. I haven't had flu since one bout in 1986 and I haven't had a cold since I can remember - at least 10 years, probably more. I was still working a 50 plus hour week until I retired a couple of years ago. I'm 69.

Haven't been to the quack's for 8 years. So poorer health certainly not inevitable. Cheer up everyone

I'm nearly 43 and in good health, the only real problem is my knees, but that's a long standing problem I've always had.

No, I am 46 and feel just the same as always (may not look the same, but hey ho!).

AND I had a baby at 43 and11 months <<beats *hairytale>>

My DH is almost 4 years younger than me and recently accused me of 'deception' because I "had not warned him that the body falls apart after 40" - "Speak for thyself" I said .

Having said that, my arms are getting to short for reading in the last couple of years... And I mourn the loss of my waist, not weight gain as such, just the famous middle-age spread, gah!

No, 49 and the complete opposite.

I've always had lts of aches and pains. I'm 43 and last year, after things getting much much worse, spending whole nights unable to sleep because of the pain and losing most of the movement in my left thumb almost overnight, I was diagnosed with hypermobility syndrome. My periods are still fairly regular, but the PMS starts at the moment when i should have finished ovulating (I don't seem to do that every month, any more, specially in winter) and carries on relentlessly until my next ovulation is due. Some periods are 5 day gush fests and others barely happen (though I still get the other symptoms). The appearance of my libido is a whaheyyy get off your x-box and open us a bottle of wine event for me and DH.

And the only compensation for the belly is the boobs.