Studies of self-reported health on large cohorts in Sweden indicate that men and women in lower social classes in this country report considerably worse health than men and women in the upper classes. This is in line with many other research findings in many countries. What is interesting in Swedish data, however, is that self-reported health improved during the ten-year period after retirement. This was particularly pronounced during the years of financial crisis during the 1990s. Low decision latitude at work seems to account for part of the poor health in the lower social classes. An important task in future research will be to tie the epidemiological findings on ageing to endocrine factors strongly correlated with ageing, such as female and male sex hormones as well as their precursor, DHEA.