Age-related Gendered Diminishment: toward understanding and interventions for a common psychological experience in post-midlife women

Building from clinical observations with women at midlife and beyond, Age-related Gendered Diminishment (AGD) is presented as an integrated construct for a common psychological experience characterized by feelings of invisibility and inconsequentiality for women after midlife. Etiological contributors are suggested and aligned to existing literature describing frequent psychological challenges of women at this stage of life; potential evolutionary and social roots are discussed; and the question of why this complex of symptoms remains under-recognized in mental health contexts is evaluated. Finally, therapeutic interventions aimed at the construction of potential generative identities are proposed with a call for further research to better understand and address this phenomenon.