I have to agree with you, surfer - the fairer sex certainly didn’t get the fairer shake!
I think the fact that women start the struggle so much earlier in life inures them to the challenges of pregnancy, birth, menopause, osteoporosis and all the rest. Didn’t say it makes it easier, just perhaps more acceptable (?) knowing that this life cycle is a natural one.
Men, however, don’t expect this hard slap in the face, robbing them of everything they believed (rightly or not) about themselves. There’s no transition or slow decline, no ‘silver fox’ phase - just an abrupt change from a crowing cock rooster to a lifeless, flabby capon.
See, women have always had a ‘Sisterhood’ simply because they all share the nature of their sex; to be a woman is to be a woman with all the good/bad that goes with it.
But men unfortunately, only share in a ‘Brotherhood’ when bloodletting of some kind is involved - war, a disaster, a mass catastrophe or something like prostate cancer.
It’s just the way we’re built and how testosterone makes us soooo very different from women. My wife, as you, gets it and I love her for it. Just my thoughts. Best,
Phil

I want to push back on this, just a little bit. I'm 68 years old and wrapped up six months of ADT in March. My wife is a few months younger than I am - so she's been through menopause and the associated emotional changes and thermostat problems. I remember - it wasn't fun for her.

When I started ADT, I described, as best I could, what was going on with me physically and mentally/emotionally. After a few "welcome to the club" comments, we had a talk. I explained that I understood that she had experienced some of the same things I was going through, and so I had a better appreciation of what she went through several years ago.

But I also explained that there is an important difference. What she went through was a normal part of the aging process. What I was going through was not "natural," it was self-inflicted - the result of taking a pill every morning for six months in an effort to stave off a disease that might kill me if it goes unchecked.

I've been losing my hair, slowly but surely, over the years. I would never consider saying to a woman losing her hair during chemotherapy for breast cancer, "Welcome to the club."