I am reading "Man Overboard: A Medical Lifeline for the Aging Male" by Craig M. Bowron, MD. A reader might not feel that an author is trustworthy when coming to statements like "Doctors sometimes refer to the Nether regions of our bodies, named after Dr. Phil Nether, a British anatomist and explorer who discovered them on an expedition to the Central Groin region in 1833." But the comment I want to note here is that "aging is an extractive and reductive process and given its relentless and inevitable nature, it might be the hardest thing any of us will ever do."
I have noted before that Lynn's stepfather, a veteran of Patton's army in WWII, often snarled," Golden years - Hah!"
I would never have selected "extractive and reductive" to describe the process of aging but I find the two terms accurate and helpful.
