Deserializing empty xml attribute value into nullable int property using XmlSerializer

This should work:

[XmlIgnore]
public int? Age { get; set; }

[XmlElement("Age")]
public string AgeAsText
{
  get { return (Age.HasValue) ? Age.ToString() : null; } 
  set { Age = !string.IsNullOrEmpty(value) ? int.Parse(value) : default(int?); }
}