“HOW old are you?” It sounds like a simple question but when it is directed at an adult, particularly a woman, it is often accompanied by a small disclaimer: “If you don’t mind me asking…”

That little disclaimer says more than we may realise – it suggests that we already understand age can be a “sensitive” issue. While some people may hesitate before answering or simply decline to say, others, like me, may turn the question into a joke.

Rather than simply giving a number, I sometimes say that I was born in the same year as Taylor Swift. Go figure!

So why has age become something that some of us feel the need to hide? A number is simply a measure of how many years we have lived. However, it can carry expectations about how we should look, behave and even what we should have achieved in life.