What is the effect of ageism on your love life?

It’s normal to have age preferences in dating, but I think it’s considered ageism when the only reason left for rejecting and shutting down romantic opportunities is your date’s age. In my case, ageism became an obstacle in my love life since women started using other excuses to avoid dating me when clearly my biggest problem was that I was older than them.
I say most significant because I never deny any other of my faults. But when someone rejects or breaks up with you, you can see the difference between issues and excuses. I think seniors should have more dating opportunities since the world strongly dictates, “Age is just a number, and love is just love.” But unfortunately, I think that motto is only left on paper, and we still see age as a dating barrier in real life.