The aim was to know and understand how subjects recognize themselves in the position of older men and women, how they perceive themselves with hypertension and high blood pressure, and how they experience the anti-hypertensive treatment. It is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory research approach, performed in family health units, in Dourados. The theoretical framework of analysis was the Cultural Studies. We interviewed ten elderly hypertensive patients, two men and eight women, aged 60-88 years, five widows, and all with elementary education. The processes are linked to gender identity, marital status and relationship with the generations. Aging seems to be realized when they are not productive. Hypertension treatment and due process are interspersed in the subjectivity of the elderly, and drug use for some seems to be incorporated into everyday life, but others reported aversion. Thus, the contemporary meanings of old age belong to a unique period and are members of larger historical processes and complex.
Aged health; Primary health care; Hypertension; Drug use