changing profile fields regarding PHONE NUMBER to AGE & GENDER?

I tried the age and gender plugin and it gave me the same result as many have found..... the white screen of death.

I thought as an alternative I could simply change the profile fields regarding conact phone numbers to age and gender fields.

This poses my question... will this conflict with variables in the DB and destroy my site? I have members and do not want to lose everything. Is it possible just to display these new profile titles without changing any paths and variables in question?

Some help on this one would be great as I am not ready to make a mistake that cannot be un-done.

Thanks!