Can You Change Your Age on Plenty of Fish?

Yes, but only during the first two weeks of your membership. In that window you can correct your date of birth yourself through Edit Profile on POF.com. Once the two weeks are up, that option is gone, although the rest of what you wrote, like your description and interests, stays editable from the same place at any time.

POF lets you change your date of birth during your first two weeks as a member, and only then. It is there for fixing a slip: the wrong year picked from a scrolling list, a day and month swapped round, a birthday typed in a hurry at sign-up.

Everything else on your page is looser. Your bio, your description and your interests can all be edited whenever you like, from Edit Profile.

The easy habit is to check your age the same day you sign up. It takes ten seconds then, and it can save you an awkward conversation later.

If you are still inside the two weeks, fix it now rather than later.

1. Go to POF.com.
2. Open Edit Profile.
3. Correct your date of birth.
4. Save.

Then look at your page the way a woman would and check that the age showing is the one you meant. It takes a minute, and once the window closes, it is the one detail on your page you cannot go back and change from Edit Profile.

Past the two weeks, Edit Profile will no longer let you change your date of birth. If the age showing is wrong, POF's help center is the place to ask, but plan on living with the number you have.

If it is only a year or two off, say so when age comes up, lightly. Something like: "Quick confession, the app thinks I am 41. I am 39, I just mistyped the year when I signed up." Said early and with a smile, it is a small, funny detail. Found out at the table, it looks like a lie.

The other route is deleting the account and starting again with the right date. That costs you every match and every conversation you have, and a paid upgrade does not carry over to a new account. For a small error, it is rarely worth it.

Age is one of the first filters on any dating app. A woman who sets her range to stop below your age may never see you at all, however well the two of you would get on in person.

That is why a wrong age hurts in both directions. Listed older than you are, you fall out of ranges you actually fit. Listed younger, you land in ranges where the woman is expecting someone else, and she finds out the moment you meet.

The same logic applies to the range you set for yourself. Pick the ages you would really be happy to take to dinner. Set it too narrow and you run out of women by Wednesday. Set it too wide and you spend your evenings on women you would never ask out.

Some men are tempted to list themselves a few years younger to slip under women's ranges. It does not work for long.

A woman who agreed to meet a 35-year-old and sits down with a 40-year-old feels lied to before the drinks arrive. The evening starts on distrust, and what she remembers afterwards is the lie, not you. And because the date of birth locks after two weeks, the fake number is not something you can quietly walk back later.

The men who handle age well treat it like their height or their job. It is a plain fact, and they are not strange about it. When she asks, tell her.

If you want to have some fun with it, ask her to guess first, tease her a little about the answer, and then give her the real number. A man who can laugh about his age is showing her he is comfortable with it.

Every age has something to show. At 42 you might have a home you have made your own, a job you are good at and no interest in drama. At 26 you might have a free weekend and the energy to say yes to a last-minute plan. Let your photos and your messages show whichever is true, and put your effort into the women whose ranges already include you. Then nobody who agrees to a drink is in for a surprise.