Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Marriage without sex?

137 replies

filee777 · 03/09/2013 17:56

Today I have taken the decision to stop having sex with my husband. Or rather stop expecting him to occasionally have sex with me because he never seems to want it.

I just wondered if anyone else had done the same and had a successful marriage?

OP posts:
valiumredhead · 05/09/2013 18:49

Please stop excusing his dreadful behaviour, whatever the context it's just vile.

valiumredhead · 05/09/2013 18:52

Bastards look at other women when they are out with their wives.

Bastards tell their wives they aren't conventionally beautiful.

Bastards look at porn rather than have sex with their wives who love them.

I suspect your mental health issues world improve greatly if you kicked him into touch.

Sorry if that's harsh but it needs to be called what it is.

valiumredhead · 05/09/2013 18:53

Bastards can also be loving, chatty and good dads.

filee777 · 05/09/2013 18:55

He hasn't watched porn for ages... He is definitely trying and understanding and welcoming to anything that can help him and us. I think it's worth working on.

OP posts:
valiumredhead · 05/09/2013 18:55

Loving to their kids

valiumredhead · 05/09/2013 18:57

Well counselling will certainly bring up some issues. Hopefully you can sort things out.

inthesameplace · 06/09/2013 21:58

Filee777 - Today I asked my wife as nicely and in as friendly a way as possible (a bit shyly but I did) if we could maybe make a 'date' for 'being together' and making love - (I meant cuddling and leading to some sex) - during the course of an hour or even less - because she doesn't like 'wasting time' on this kind of thing) - tomorrow evening (Saturday) since we're not going out.
I also suggested it would be best not too late, meaning not last thing, i.e. not about 2 or 3 in the morning - often her bedtime, since she always goes to bed extremely late.
She looked a bit taken aback but smiled a little, maybe with embarrassment, saying she felt a bit 'frightened' at the prospect but if I had to...
(She obviously meant 'apprehensive' because she's never been frightened of me. I've never done the slightest thing to 'frighten' her. There's nothing scary about me.) But her remark showed she was not going to look forward to it. So I quickly dismissed the idea.
Our counsellor of a while ago had suggested we make a 'date' like this so that intimacy between us would at least be guaranteed to actually happen sometimes, say, once every 10 days or a fortnight maybe, and I wouldn't be left wondering and vaguely hoping all the time. I thought it was a really good idea at the time. But my wife never liked the idea because she said it was far too artificial and it was much better if it just happened spontaneously. She repeated that point of view today.
However she knows full well it never happens spontaneously. Just never! So there's been practically no sex in our marriage for a very long time, and when there has been it's been only a few minutes, always at my instigation, but even that's been ages ago.
The fact is my wife seems to have no wish for sex, not ever, and it's been like that for years.
So like you, when she rejected me today again and did not suggest any alternative, even though she did it nicely and politely, I think I felt I'd come to the end of the road. So I've also decided not to ever approach my partner again because there's a long history to this and I've decided it's pointless to even have a glimmer of hope any longer.
Otherwise we get on great. But it means our marriage is now really a 'best friend' relationship. Without real intimacy and enjoying each others' bodies physically, I somehow feel it isn't a real marriage any longer. Maybe I'm wrong. But I won't be going anywhere. For all sorts of reasons I'm just going to continue to live like this in a sexless marriage.

Just thought I'd let you know we've both made the same decision! But unlike you I'm not going to say anything to my partner. Although it seems illogical I think it would upset her if I made a sort of 'announcement' of it. So I'll just keep quiet about it. But I know I'll almost certainly never ask her again. And I know from long experience that she'll never ask me. There will never be any 'spontaneous' love making. So that's the end of it then.
Like you, it will help me to regain some control over my inner life and not feel dependent on her for a sex life any longer.
I don't want to go into any further detail about our life together except to say we get on really well otherwise, there are no other issues, and she seems very happy living with me but maybe I'm not attractive to her as a man - I really don't know for sure. I don't think I'll ever know.
But I just took a notion to tell you, since you seem to have the same problem. Anyway, this is exactly what happened this afternoon.

filee777 · 07/09/2013 08:13

Sorry to hear that inthe :(

It does make you feel in control though doesn't it? Though my husband is keen to work on things which I am pleased about. I feel a lot more in control now and my comfort eating seems to have eased. Feel free to pm me if you need any support with what your going through. It's tough but ther is so much more to a marriage than sex...

OP posts:
internationallove985 · 07/09/2013 10:38

This may come across as shallow and I would not advise anyone else to do or to not do this before I'm flamed but if I were with someone who did not want to touch me I'd be gone and looking for someone who did. Infact I did cheat once because I was with a guy who didn't want to have sex with me, was I some sort of ogre (were my not unreasonable thoughts) I went out and D.T.D with someone else. I broke off with my partner the next day.
Also why not invest in a vibrator, plenty of women use them and are very open about it as well. xxx

LadyInDisguise · 07/09/2013 20:12

Filee that's a great first step moving forward.
Maybe you might want to start your 'dates' as one when there is no expectation for sex. A way to reconnect on a romantic pov but wo the pressure of sex as such? There is a lot you can do a PIV type of things or do you think that would be a very stressful for him?

filee777 · 10/09/2013 22:41

Lady I think that is exactly how our date will go!

OP posts:
valiumredhead · 10/09/2013 22:53

Do you mean WITHOUT piv? Or does piv mean something other than I think it does?Grin

New posts on this thread. Refresh page