For better, for worse, in sickness and in health.

Surely you know these words, even if you've never recited them, or it's been a while.

They're part of traditional marriage vows.

But what really happens when better becomes worse from a health standpoint?

Do medical issues impact our love connections, the ones we found and the ones we seek?

Health and romance, that's this episode of Dating While Gray, the grown-ups guide to love sex

and relationships. On Laura Stasi. That's this episode of Dating While Gray, The Grown Ups Guide to Love Sex and Relationships.

I'm Laura Stasi.

The more I hear from listeners, the stronger I feel that at this stage of life, if health

hasn't impacted our romantic relationships on some level, we've been lucky.

Take Rachel, for example. She was living in Connecticut when she called and left me a voicemail.

Rachel's in her mid-50s. After going through a gray divorce eight years ago, she's been dating.

In the last couple of years, I've developed some chronic health issues that ate away at a very loving romance I was in,

largely because my partner could see that they would limit his

very active lifestyle in ways that he was not prepared to live with.

We eventually parted ways, but I have continued to search for the man.

I will spend the second half of what I hope will be a long and full life with, although I know in my heart that I'm far more

than some of these issues and that I have much to offer to a life partner who is more taken

with arts and literature and ideas and travel than purely physical activities.

It has left me with a feeling that I have to apologize for these chronic health problems

to any potential partner I might encounter.

So I'm wondering if you can address this issue on dating while gray

...