What Women Say About Growing Older

Women worry about getting older from the time they are teenagers, but they mostly worry in secret and alone. The WomenSpeak Project lets women speak honestly and freely about their aging concerns and find support to help them overcome their fears.

Plastic Surgery

Around 10% of participants, 91 women, had employed some form of plastic surgery or reconstruction. They reported 38 breast surgeries (27 augmentations, 11 reductions) and 37 facial surgeries. Tummy tuck or liposuction was next-most common, with 19 procedures. They reported 14 other miscellaneous procedures. The 91 women recorded a total of 108 procedures, indicate some had undergone more than one surgery.

Interestingly, one of the most significant correlations in the study occurred in relationship to breast augmentation. The younger a woman perceived the young benchmark to occur, the more likely she was to have undergone breast augmentation surgery. This suggests this surgery is associated with a desire to prolong one’s youth.

Facial and breast surgeries accounted for nearly 70% of all cosmetic procedures, likely a reflection of the aspects of women that receive the most attention from society

Health Status and Concerns

Higher levels of education and employment related to better health. Postgraduate women were most likely to report being in excellent health, whereas women having a high school or technical education were most likely to admit having health concerns.

Women who were unemployed were far more likely to express concerns for their health than those in professional or technical jobs. It was not clear why: did the unemployed have active health problems that contributed to their unemployment? Were they primarily concerned about a lack of employer health insurance?

Health Risk

Women misperceive their health risks for the most common causes of death and disability. This disregard of health concerns may have tremendous impact on our society as the population ages. Fewer than 4% of participants mentioned concern for the two leading causes of death for women (and men): heart disease and cancer.

Although it might not be surprising that respondents younger than 40 ignore health threats that may not manifest for another 20 or 30 years, nearly half of the participants were over 40 and one fourth were over 50. This indicates women are in denial about risks to their health that might actually interfere with successful aging.

“Women seem to blithely ignore their health risks, perhaps because they are so busy taking care of the needs of others,” said Dr. Nancy.