Why Being a Cougar Could Be Hazardous to Your Health

It seems only fair. Older men like younger women so why can't older women go after younger men? Of course they can – in fiction (Samantha on Sex and the City) and fact (Demi and Ashton). But now some buzz-killing researchers have found that older women don't get the same benefits as older men from these intergenerational hookups.

Many studies have found that the mortality risk of a man who is seven to nine years older than his wife is cut by 11 percent compared to couples in which both partners are the same age. So that's good news for men who want to marry younger women.

But here's where it gets complicated. Women do best if they marry a man who is exactly the same age, according to a new study from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany. The German scientists looked at data from almost two million Danish couples and found that women who marry a partner seven to nine years younger (the optimum gap for a man) increase their mortality risk by 20 percent.

Older wives don't benefit socially and psychologically from younger husbands; the benefits of the age difference seem to apply only to men. The researchers say one reason might be that the younger wives take care of their older husbands but younger husbands are not essential in the same way to their older wives (women are more likely to have friends who will to step in).

How seriously should you take this research? It's all based on statistics so the relevance to any particular couple is limited. If you're in love, you should go for it. Just don't count on him pushing you around in a wheelchair.