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DH, no sex drive and MeetMe

53 replies

queenofwesteros · 16/04/2014 12:04

Namechanged but regular here. Not sure whether I'm acting like an idiot and would appreciate some perspective please?
DH and I married for 18 years, 2 kids 10 and 14. We get on fabulously well and he is a great partner and father. But. He has had ED issues for years now (8 I think) and I've tried everything I can think of to tackle it with him..taking sex off the menu, just cuddling, being romantic etc etc. There's nothing physically wrong with him, he's been to the doctor, prescribed Viagra (which doesn't always work btw) and had counselling...nothing wrong with him. He assures me he loves me but I want a sex life and feel rejected, unattractive and frumpy. I've talked abut this with him til I'm blue in the face, he promises to make an effort, everything is great for maybe 2 weeks and then slides slowly back into oblivion. I think he feels that he has an "inferior" job to me (I am the breadwinner) but assures me it doesn't bother him and I make pains to assure him that we are a team. Just for context, a couple of years back an old flame got in touch with him through the dreaded Facebook. This led to me discovering a string of texts between them, beyond flirty on her part, not so much on his but it is my biggest regret that I just didn't quietly put the phone back and see how things developed (he swears up and down he just liked the attention but I'll never know whether it would have went further). Instead I went apeshit and warned him that if anything like that happened again he was gone. I think it's relevant to say that his behaviour didn't really change during all this despite me knowing him so well.
So fast forward and my spidey senses are thinking that something's up. We had a massive talk - again - the other week about lack of sex and I asked him to promise to always be honest with me. He promised. He says he has no sex drive any more. He keeps suggesting toys (we had some previously) but I feel that he thinks he can just stick a plastic cock in me (sorry, TMI) and it'll shut me up and let him off the hook. He says he just doesn't want sex. However on snooping on his phone (and yeah shoot me, I know it's not great but there you go, he's on the damn thing night and day), he's been watching porn and googling how to make girls shoot their load in a guy's mouth Sad. Furthermore I saw an email from Meetme which said he had a new nearby secret admirer. I've gone on to the site and checked his profile - he's on there a LOT (last login 3 hours ago) but of course I can't see what he's actually been doing on it. He's never breathed a word of this to me. I feel that maybe he is bored with me though he swears he isn't.
Am I being paranoid? Is he on Meetme just to genuinely meet new people? Is he looking for attention? Leaving isn't an option at the moment. I love him and couldn't upset the kids, and I so want to make our marriage work. But I just have the inkling that something is up.

What do I do?

OP posts:
queenofwesteros · 17/04/2014 10:39

SGB, he is most definitely not doing this deliberately or to make me unhappy, far from it. I think he's gotten himself into a self-pitying cycle of being unable to perform and (as he sees it) fulfilling his "role" of The Big Strong Man in our relationship, which in turn makes things worse. He does need professional help to recognise and deal with it though because his way of dealing with it is just to ignore it and hope it'll all go away.

OP posts:
Crapname · 17/04/2014 11:42

It does sound like he is having problems with feeling emasculated in his career and home life (completely his problem not yours) Pleased to hear you are both going to counselling.
I must say I would be pissed off with the porn, I'm not necessarily adverse to porn but if my DP said he had no sex drive anymore but then happily pleasured himself over porn I would be [hmmm]
However at least it shows that he can maintain an erection without the pressure of 'performing' which I can understand. I imagine it's a vicious cycle of expecting to lose the erection / dreading it / it happening/ disappointing wife etc etc.
Just a suggestion, I know you said you didn't want to try toys as he would be doing it to 'shut you up' but perhaps it would be good to try it for a while, it might help to take the pressure off him to get an erection or maintain one. He would still be pleasuring you and hopefully also enjoying the experience too, it could then eventually lead to other things...

queenofwesteros · 17/04/2014 12:46

Thanks Crap
yes, I think having toys might be an option, just as long as it's on the understanding it's not a replacement for real sex IYSWIM, rather a supplement Smile

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