Older men have of pre retirement age…ie 55-60 get easily annoyed and are grumpy. There is some truth in it. I am one of them. What is the scientific explanation for this
But is it true that they also lose empathy for others and therefore get distant from people and friends.
I havent experienced this yet but is it coming?
It’s because we are near death and young girls don’t take us seriously anymore, so we drink alone or with other losers. Get over it crybaby! 
Pretty sure this will have to be moved from GQ, but I dispute your assertion that men of that age are any grumpier than anyone else.
The people who are easily annoyed and are grumpy for the most part were like that their entire lives.
I dispute your premise. I am in that age range and I am a perfectly pleasant gentleman.
There is some truth in every vague and generic statement.
Every age and gender cohort has some people who are easily annoyed and grumpy.
Here are some reasons why it might be true:
“Irritability” is one of the symptoms of low testosterone, so I wouldn’t be so quick to brush this off. Lower testosterone levels affect people in different ways, both physically and emotionally.
This. “Grumpy” is simply “asshole with gray hair.”
Gaining gray hair may be inevitable. Being an asshole is simply a choice or habit for most of us. For some, they’re just born to it and it’s beyond their control forever after. But not for the vast majority of us.
Me? Late 50s, gray hair, semi-retired, not grumpy, not annoyed, not withdrawn, not lonesome.
Get off my lawn!
Despite this, I’m having more fun now than at 40, not least because I don’t have a lawn.
Speaking as an increasingly grumpy 56-year old:
Partly it’s sickness and disability- nothing works right anymore and we resent it, bitterly.
We’re jaded enough that the fad of the month doesn’t impress us at all; we can barely be troubled to take note of them- it’ll be gone soon enough just like all the ones before it.
We’ve taken our lifetime allotment of bullshit, and we’re not up for more.
We roll our eyes at all the things twenty-somethings are gawdawful stupid enough to fall for.
We’re tired of everything changing, it’s too much to keep up with.
And most of all, we have a rapidly diminishing tolerance for being lectured.
I think this thread is better suited to IMHO rather than General Questions. You can still get a scientific answer there(if there IS one) and people can speculate with their best guesses.
samclem, moderator.
Damn Kids these days think $2 for a Pabst Blue Ribbon is some kind of deal! :rolleyes:
I’m 63 YO and have found myself less and less able to deal with upper management BS. Part of this is that I could afford to retire now and don’t have to worry about getting fired. I’ve been earning a paycheck since 1968 and have never been fired, laid off, etc. It might be an interesting experience especially as one of my daughter-in-laws is a lawyer who specializes in employment law. 
I’m still friendly with my younger coworkers and try to mentor them. I often bring up their concerns to management and will argue for them.
My husband is 60. In the last decade, he’s had a number of surgeries, and every one took him longer to bounce back from than the one before. As a result of that, and failing eyesight, and possible arthritis, he just can’t do the things he used to do. When we bought this house 13 years ago, we did a major remodel of the main living area over 4 months while working full-time. We replaced walls, installed a window and a skylight, completely re-arranged the kitchen - the only part we hired done was laying the carpet.
Now, we hire a crew to clean our gutters and when we make large purchases (large items, not big $$) we pay for delivery rather than use our own trailer. We sold our sailboat because maintaining it was just too hard.
I find it a little annoying, but my husband takes it a lot harder. He sees it as his mortality smacking him upside the head. His frustration is occasionally expressed as anger. He doesn’t want to surrender to age, but at some point, he knows age will win.
I’m older than he is, but I haven’t dealt with the same physical issues, and so far, getting old hasn’t been a big deal, apart from my eyes failing me.
I get the drift of the OP, but could someone please translate the above phrase for me? It seems either there are words there that shouldn’t be there, or words missing that should be there.
This.
Once you reach a certain age you suddenly realize that mostly everything is BS, that what goes around comes around, and that in the long run a lot of things don’t matter.
You can take all this one of two ways: Either you become zen about the whole thing and happily live day to day, or you can berate yourself for believing that what’s now unimportant was really really REALLY important at some point, and you silly fool, how come you didn’t realize it THEN?
Because you never do. That’s how aging works. It’s called wisdom in some circles 
I think the lessening testosterone is definitely a factor. I also think it depends on the man’s personality. My Dad for example is a bit of a narcissist and he’s always believed to a degree in his high intelligence and physical prowess. Now every year as health problems stack up his vices are finally starting to catch up to him, in addition to just not taking good care of himself, and I think his own belief in his invincibility is beginning to diminish and also a little of his mental acuity is beginning to slow down and I catch him not being quite as sharp in his recall as he used to be, or slips of the tongue more often.
He was also a bit of a womanizer and playboy but now his looks are beginning to fade and he’s out of shape and the reality of being alone is setting in, especially in the last few years I sense a desperation to have a companion.
In other ways he has improved though, he spends way more time with me now than he did when I was a kid and my parents divorced, and he also likes to do things with my children, which is sort of shocking if you knew how he used to be, always busy going out, especially to bars.
On the other hand, at my 56 years of age, it seems pretty easy to just smile and laugh.
Grumpy? Hardly. Hit the ground enough times to have learned how to avoid it. When you don’t get what you want, you get experience.
In so many ways we have been there and done that. But now can find myself out of my depth. That’s OK, but sometime hard to admit I’m not a young guy anymore.
So now, I’m taking up guitar and banjo. Rock Climbing is right out.
Give advise when asked for or when needed.
Otherwise, I plan to take care of friends and loved ones and skate.