rated R
we talked for over an hour.
it was meant to be a short phone call. she just wanted to say thanks for the christmas gifts i sent, and in return, i will say the same. then, out of nowhere, she said she was not getting “it” at all. for three months now!
i was the one who had to say goodbye, because i realized the converstaion was going on and on and on without a positive outcome. besides, she was in the east coast, and it was almost midnight when we finally said our goodbyes.
they have been married for a little over two years now. she told me she is at a loss about this problem, she literally doesn’t know what to do anymore. her sister is insinuating that her husband might be gay. her brother in law, has been very outspoken in advising her to be all pretty, sexy, and ready when her husband comes, so “it” will happen. as far as she is concerned, she is doing everything she knows to get some, but still. none.
none. no sex for three months!
i am no sex expert. i can only talk according to my own experience, and those of other women, who find this topic pretty common when there is nothing else to talk about in the middle of the night at work. that being said, i will put it out upfront that what i will say is not scientific information.
this is what i think: no sex for three months between a physically healthy married couple in their late 30s, who are physically together, who have only been married for a little over two years, is not normal. there is a glitch somewhere, and not knowing where the glitch is doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
we both agreed on that. she believes the problem is him. analyzing the situation, i couldn’t agree more. “the past few times three months ago were all initiated by me, and i got tired, i just stopped trying.”
again, this is not scientific, but very true to almost all the women i know. primarily, for us, sex is an emotional experience. the act is an expression of the emotional intimacy a couple exlusively shares. i would further say, as a christian, that sex is a sacred experience that seals the uniqueness of a marriage.
it is not surprising to me that this whole no-sex-for-three-months dilemma affects her tremendously. i totally agree with her when she implied she feels like their marriage is drifting away. she also feels totally rejected and neglected, and i do undertsand why.
we went on and on and on without a solution. i ended up getting tired of hearing myself say: “i feel so bad for you, but i have no idea how to help you.”
victoria secrets didn’t help. serious requests and suggestions to seek professional help were all denied. she said she has every reason to believe he is not gay. he voiced out he doesn’t see any problem in their marriage, not even in the sex department.
clearly, this is not the way she sees it, and i fully understand why she feels helpless. aware that it was a redundant suggestion, for the nth time i strongly recommended professional help, but as she redundantly pointed out, her husband would not hear any of it.
i ended up saying my all used up line “i feel bad for you, but i have no idea how to help you.” i do feel that way honestly, but even to myself, i didn’t sound very helpful.
kind people of the blogosphere, what are your thoughts?
how often is “normal”?
men, what are your reasons for ignoring women?
women, how do you feel when ignored?


As a man, I can tell you that this is in no way normal. It may very well be that this is a special situation, but in the situations I’m familiar with, this is an indicator that something is indeed wrong — maybe very seriously. It could be anything from him finding a (seemingly) innocuous alternative to his wife, to him actually finding it with another person. Either way it needs to be addressed ASAP because it’s only going to get worse. Even if she has to go by herself, I would start counseling right away.
Comment by Anonymous — December 22, 2006 @ 8:28 am
Can’t be normal. Might be someone else. Might be physical. Might be a lot of things.
But it isn’t normal.
And I’ll move quickly to the sidelines with that, and say no more.
Comment by The Curmudgeon — December 22, 2006 @ 9:46 am
I was in a relationship like that for years! …and to be honest, I never did figure it out!! We liked each other tremendously, enjoyed each other’s company, I was attracted to him and he said he was attracted to me…but whenever we “did” it, it was AWKWARD…so finally we stopped. My feeling was that we didn’t seem to “fit” physically…we probably could have worked at it more but it was SO hard to talk about, and we broke up because of it. He went on to another woman and I think they are “normal” so he was not gay, as I was suspecting. Maybe it was me???
Comment by rnrealnurse — December 22, 2006 @ 10:21 am
Frankly, I’ve always been inhibited sexually. In fact, it would take several glasses of wine before I’d feel comfortable enough to “do the dirty.”
I was more than happy when my husband finally took the thinly-veiled hints that I wasn’t interested. In all honesty, he repulsed me. I finally had enough of his prescription med addiction and I filed for a divorce in April 2004 after almost 22 years of marriage. Unfortunately, he’s been dragging his feet and the divorce is still not finalized. We’ll likely have been married 25 years before all of this is through.
Normal . . . what’s normal? Give me my vibrator any day (though I’m still having issues with Prozac).
And on that happy note, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
Comment by Catherine — December 22, 2006 @ 10:23 am
This is definitely NOT normal. My opinion? It sounds like he’s cheating. Whether or not it’s with a man or a woman - who knows. If you go from having sex to not having sex - my experience has been that the guy is getting “it” somewhere else!
Comment by unsinkablemb — December 22, 2006 @ 6:42 pm
This might be helpful for her: http://www.troubledwith.com/LoveandSex/A000000735.cfm?topic=love%20and%20sex%3a%20sexual%20dissatisfaction%20in%20marriage
Comment by Anonymous — December 22, 2006 @ 7:05 pm
Sounds like he might be getting it somewhere else. Or he’s gay.
Sounds like a major breakdown in communication though that’s for sure.
Incase I don’t get to talk to you May….Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Comment by kimmyk — December 22, 2006 @ 7:44 pm
Well, I will chime in and say I’m not sure what “normal” is, but this is not normal. Due to my job, I have had quite a few conversations with folks around this issue… and normal is best defined as what gives “life” to the marriage… as agreed upon by the couple. It would be interesting to know his background and his expectations of what marriage should be…
I would start with a physical. Okay, you are a nurse… so I won’t pretend to know more about this than you, but there could be a lot in this department. Depression, ED, diabetes, etc. Also, many men experience a huge drop in sex drive in their late 30s. This seems to be an easy thing to get him to do… at least easier than counseling.
Then I would look at the relationship. I didn’t get the sense as to whether she felt the relationship was good beyond the sex. Also, it would be interesting to know his work, her work, kids, etc. Although he is against counseling, I wonder if there is a guy friend he would talk to?
You are right… this is really difficult. I’m actually glad you didn’t offer her easy answers. And “helpful” does always not mean you solve the problem, but you walk with her through it.
BTW, hope you don’t mind my comments. I stumbled on your blog through another blog linked to yours.
Comment by paul — December 23, 2006 @ 4:17 pm
I too would advise some sort of counseling even if she has to go by herself, which I suspect will be the case.
The great Ben Franklin once said that “sex is like pizza; even when it’s not that good, it’s still pretty good.”
So yes, something is wrong if a married person cannot have some of their emotional needs met by a partner who is making themselves absent. And no, Ben Franklin didn’t say that. Actually he didn’t like pizza and he had a nasty habit of falling to sleep immediately afterwards, or so I have been told.
Comment by shrimplate — December 24, 2006 @ 9:58 am
Sounds like there’s a problem to me. Could be another woman/man, or he’s realized that he’s gay. Maybe sex isn’t as important anymore due to a medical condition. Sad situation but she needs to determine whether he wants to remain married and decide whether the terms are acceptable or not.
Comment by NPs Save Lives — December 24, 2006 @ 3:41 pm
Hmm since he seems to be physically able to rise into the situation not putting any thoughts there but he might be getting sex in the past 3 months but not form her. Or he may have mental or emotional problems as well also… madaming iniisip hehe
Hey Merry Christmas!
Comment by Ferdz — December 25, 2006 @ 2:31 am
Two things, from experience…1) Perhaps there is something else wrong that has nothing to do with sex. Take a look at other aspects of the relationship…are the bills getting paid…how’s the employment situation…what other sort of “outside stressors” exist? I know this may sound stupid in this day and age, but if a man doesn’t feel like he is providing adequately for the family then he doesn’t always feel like a man (especially if he knows his partner is not satisfied with ther sex life–makes him feel even less like a man) This brings me to point number 2) Depression: Take it from someone who “hid” all the signs of clinical depression from his family for years. I know what it feels like (and hope to never feel that way again) When you are in a depressed state emotionally, the last thing you want is sex. And, the last thing you want to do is admit there is smoething wrong with your sex life–just ads to more depression.
I’m not saying this is what is going on, but I do know from a man’s point of view this is what was happening when I was the cause of “not enough sex in the marriage.”
If you are a nurse, or have any other experience with specialized communication skills use them. The most effective way is to put the situation in terms of “I” or “me” or “we” (the word “we” lets him know it is not just being blamed on him) instead of saying “you.” If it is depression, then he is probably very self focused right now. Using the “I” or “me” thing will help divert some of that.
Good luck with this.
Comment by Joe — December 26, 2006 @ 3:58 am
I’m totally with Joe. I’ve been in a relationship where my partner suffered from bouts of depression, and during those times, there was absolutely no sex. Everything else in our relationship was great, even with my partner’s depression, but he just wasn’t interested. I struggled with this for quite a while, because it’s really hard to accept the fact that there’s not much you can do about it (and that it’s not your fault or that your partner doesn’t find you attractive or whatever). The turning point for me finally came when i sat down with my partner–outside of the bedroom–and we talked about how i was feeling and how he was feeling and what it all meant. (And for the record, i know he wasn’t cheating on me, nor is he gay, and if i’d raised any insinuations of such we never would have been able to have an open conversation about the true issues.)
Depression is a difficult thing to even talk about, much less admit to. My advice to your friend is to take a deep breath and think about all of the things in their relationship that are important to her, and that she’s happy with. Then she should sit down and talk to her husband–again, outside of the bedroom–some time when they both can give the subject their undivided attention. She should express how she feels (and i’m with Joe on the “i” and “we” statements), but i don’t think she should hit him with “are you gay?” or “are you cheating on me?” because those are likely to put him on the defensive regardless of whether or not they’re true.
If he can’t talk about it, then they have a problem in their marriage and should seek counseling–even if it’s just her, or they each go to individual counseling. And she should evaluate how important sex is to her–does not having sex often outweigh the good things in their relationship? For me, i was able to accept that nookie wouldn’t happen all that often, but it was okay because i was in a strong, solid, committed relationship and i was very happy with everything else. However, i also had a partner who was very good at communicating and was able to discuss the issue with me.
Hope that helps.
Comment by Ursa Minor — December 26, 2006 @ 10:07 am
Who knows what is “normal”. Who decided? I guess that if one partner is not satified then there is a problem but does that make things “abnormal”? I’ve been married for 16 years. We are both on antidepressant medication which interferes with sex drive and causes some mechanical problems. We have gone 3 months before without sex but we always end up trying again. We’ve come up with a number of solutions to help with the mechanical problems and well, the sex drive…we’re both very patient.
Comment by Leslie — December 29, 2006 @ 4:13 pm
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