As they say, dating in your 30s/40s is like going to the dump and looking for the least broken thing.
I strongly disagree...late 30s and 40s are often the time when people are mature enough to want to be gone from their " away from home " first family structure. In some cases kids are grown or they've grown apart from partner.
If anything the extra maturity is a real bonus.
I've met two of three long term partners online.
First divorce was cuz school sweetheart discovered she was gay in her 30s...( explained few things )
Second divorce I knew I was taking a chance on immaturity ...too much schooling...too little real world living jumping straight into kids with not even a gap year - showed up...unpleasantly.
Third partner a world away and so far after 15 years working out okay despite half of that being away from each other months at a time ( covid didn't help).
Looks fade ....personality and valuable personal traits most often grow stronger with time.
....
Been a bit of a challenge moving to Aus as lost the connected group the business provided for 37 years plus long time friends and clients.
Do have lonely points here at times but getting out and riding helps a lot ( I am a loner by nature ) plus I have acquired a family/friends network here which I am attached to tho through my partner.
One close riding partner retired with illness, another from injury and since I'm not riding off pavement anymore the third guy - while we keep in touch - there is not so much common ground.
We go the Bowls Club for social every thursday for food and chat and the occasional other venue for trivia.
That helps a lot.
I thought about joining the bowls activity and also the duplicate bridge club purely to expand personal social contacts. For different reasons I've decided on neither at this point.
I keep active on line with a few forums but I'm quite happy with book, audio book, or bingeing media on my own.
Partner is also "self contained" but I know she values our relationship especially for travelling.
I'm a cup half full person so that helps contain any down periods as does pseudoephredine. I'm a sales guy so eternal optimist and socialize easily but have to be pushed a bit to seek it out.
Have a fairly varied life to share tales of travel and experiences and have always gotten along in social occasions with regular spats online to make things interesting.
Loneliness is an issue for me and I think less so for women until they have to age alone and that for either sex is a real problem.
No grandkids and none to be ....I know that's a big anti-loneliness factor for many.
Good luck ...there are really neat people out there online to date or make friends with and local social venues are terrific ...volunteers etc.