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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

Getting married next month - no sex

54 replies

ohshiz · 03/09/2017 15:21

Should I cancel the wedding?

I'm the one not wanting sex. It's not him. It's me. I've never enjoyed it. Can't be arsed frankly.

He says he's gotten use to it but I can't go through with this can I? It's not fair to him.

OP posts:
wiltingfast · 03/09/2017 18:16

Surely it's up him? You can only decide for yourself really.

I think you should talk to him about it, then decide.

ohshiz · 03/09/2017 18:18

I mentioned it again to him. His response was to take my hands into his and say he loves me. That's it; no engagement into the conversation. I kinda wish he would talk about it.

OP posts:
ShitOrBust · 03/09/2017 18:23

If i was him, i wouldn't be happy with no sex.
Dealbreaker for me.

highinthesky · 03/09/2017 18:24

I have complete empathy with you ohshiz.

But it is a bit much to ask someone not to have sex again for the rest of their lives, which is effectively what you are doing. Have you not yet had a proper discussion about children? However much you love each other now, I can't see it lasting unless you grit your teeth and get on with it.

You have to set aside issues with biological functions. Otherwise you'll never interact with anyone on the grounds they have an arsehole.

SandyY2K · 03/09/2017 18:30

How do you feel about an open marriage?
I think your very naive to expect a happy marriage with no sex, when one person wants it.

ohshiz · 03/09/2017 18:31

I'm not naive sandy hence this thread, but thanks, great contribution.

OP posts:
thisfamily · 03/09/2017 18:33

Why does he refuse to discuss the elephant in the room?

GoldenOrb · 03/09/2017 18:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GoldenOrb · 03/09/2017 18:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ohshiz · 03/09/2017 18:34

Family maybe it's not the elephant I think it is. Been together 6 years with two kids and a mortgage. I may be making more of a deal of it than I need do. He might just genuinely love me for me.

OP posts:
thisfamily · 03/09/2017 18:39

ohshiz I do believe he does love you.
Love is not everything though...
I wish you the best whatever you choose, we are always here for you

TatianaLarina · 03/09/2017 18:42

Clearly he does love you for you, and that's great. But he does seem to be dodging the discussion you're trying to have. I think you need to have another couple of gore.

If he says that again can you say: 'I know you love me but that's not relevant to the discussion of our sex life. How is it for you, how do you feel about going without sex, and can you live like this for the rest of your life?'

TatianaLarina · 03/09/2017 18:42

Goes not gore! Shock

BertieBotts · 03/09/2017 18:43

Have a look at the website www.asexuality.org - I found it really eye opening. I later found out I wasn't asexual but it gave me a huge sense of relief, freedom and acceptance of the attitude that it's okay to set the terms of my own sex life, there's really no need, EVER, to compromise in terms of what somebody else wants, just because their expectations are more "normal" in terms of how most people feel, or because other aspects of the relationship are good.

I don't think you should marry him at least while you feel like this. He clearly isn't okay with the frequency of sex/possibility of no sex if he says that he wants a blow job for his birthday. I think many people don't really believe or understand that asexuality can be a thing and so they hold out for hope that the partner's sex drive will increase, think "They must want it sometimes" or even worse think that it's a "normal" difference between men and women (when it's this way around) and that women need to be cajoled into sex anyway - any of this underlying belief is basically a landmine buried in your relationship, because it will lead to you feeling pestered, and hurt because (reasonably) you've told him how you feel and you can't understand why he keeps going on about it when he said it was okay with him, and from his side it will lead to him feeling rejected and low because while he heard you say "I don't like sex, it's not you, it's sex", society is busy bombarding him (especially as a person who clearly enjoys sex even if he's not a person with a high sex drive) with messages that sexual attractiveness is a measurable value of worth, that everyone's into sex "really", that your rejection is personal, that you "owe" him sex for all the nice things he does or that it would be no big deal for you to "just" do sexual favours for him occasionally if you don't want to have full intercourse. (Whereas if you don't want to, this is a big deal). And he's going to feel the lack of sex because he's not asexual, and because most not-asexual people do crave sex on some level even if they tell themselves not to (for religious or moral or whatever other reasons), and actually there's nothing wrong with them for feeling that way - it is the way most humans are wired. But you must be honest with each other which involves being willing to deeply understand where the other is coming from rather than going with what you wish were true.

Read the site, show him any pages which particularly chime with you, get him to understand what he's genuinely agreeing to, push the wedding back if you need to, but don't get married without properly sorting this one out and figuring out if he's going (which he probably is) "Well I would like sex really but I want Ohshiz more." That's unlikely to work. "I would genuinely be happy if I never had sex ever again" (regardless of relationship with Ohshiz) = could work, but is unlikely to be the way he really feels, sorry.

Gre8scott · 03/09/2017 19:41

I dont enjoy it either dont cancel your wedding if he knows and is fine with it then at least you are honest.

Gre8scott · 03/09/2017 19:44

The thing is on mumsnet if you arent into sex you are a total werido i sadly dont understand why people enjoy it so much.but no one gets it

Macncheesewithbacon · 03/09/2017 19:57

Have you read about being asexual?

Ineedmorelemonpledge · 03/09/2017 20:12

But if he was fine about it, would he be asking for a blow job for his birthday?

I worry that he's not being completely honest with himself here. I'd also jot want to spend a future worrying that he'd risk the marriage for an extramarital affair or a visit to a brothel.

Gemini69 · 03/09/2017 20:20

it doesn't matter what any of us think OP... he's told you he loves you and is happy... HE is who matters Flowers

Inthetropics · 03/09/2017 21:15

Imo if a man asks for a blow job as his birthday gift, it'll be hard for him to cope and he is already missing it big time. He might be trying to be in a relationship with no/little sex out of love for you, but will he be able to deal with the lack of sex for years and years? How would you feel if he was to have sex with other people while married to you? Some people agree to this when one of them is asexual, but i reckon it isn't for everyone.

BertieBotts · 03/09/2017 23:40

It's not really that surprising that asexuality is poorly dealt with on MN as it's such a rare thing - estimates at 1% of the population - and for anyone who's not asexual (or some variant, I suppose) sex is akin to affection or social contact or human touch or adult conversation, any of those things that you can't really say you need, it's just nice to have, but genuinely we tend to feel depressed when we don't get enough of, think about the newborn baby stage when you get crazy because you have no time for your friends any more - it's really difficult for people who experience that aspect of sex (which is 99% of people!) to understand what it would be like not to experience that at all. And actually to expect somebody who does experience sex in that way to have a lifelong relationship, which of course a marriage is supposed to be, without sex is unfair on them too, just as it's unfair to expect a partner who finds sex to be a nuisance to regularly engage in it just to keep their partner happy - that's just not good for anybody. It doesn't work because the one who wants/needs sex wants/needs it with a partner who is engaged and enthusiastic, not just somebody unhappily going through the motions, and for the partner who doesn't enjoy sex, going through the motions can also be pretty damaging and crappy of an experience in itself.

Also, perhaps the idea of extramarital sex does work for some asexual-sexual couples but I have huge doubts about this, to me it reads like the kind of clumsy, top-down solution somebody comes up with when they've no experience of the situation from any side, kind of like "If your partner feels left out when you're breastfeeding, you can always express milk for him to feed!" Perhaps it works between a couple where one is asexual and the other sees sex as a purely physical thing that they can separate emotionally from the relationship, but I'd guess this kind of combination is rare.

Gemini's sentiment is lovely but unfortunately exactly how people end up in unhappy marriages, because we are prone to tell each other and ourselves fairytales about how our relationship actually is and what we can handle when we're faced with shitty situations, especially when the wedding is imminent. It feels like such a huge cost to admit that there are issues at that point that it's too dangerous and scary to actually look inside ourselves and see what the reality is.

Obviously, you should talk to him but you can't just accept blindly that he's happy and okay with something if he's saying these things with one hand while making offhand comments that give away his true thoughts with the other. You've got to have these hard conversations together, and truly, life is hard enough on marriages at the best of times, without one (or both) of you feeling like you've made a significant sacrifice to be there.

Gre8scott · 04/09/2017 06:31

Im not asexual i fancy men i just dont want one on top of me

ohshiz · 04/09/2017 15:15

I don't define myself as asexual.

But even if I did, why are people on here so bloody sour and judgemental about it. Angry

OP posts:
FuckYouLinda · 04/09/2017 15:23

why are people on here so bloody sour and judgemental about it

Nothing wrong with being asexual. Nothing wrong with never having sex if you don't want to.

But it is wrong to get tied into a marriage to a person with a presumably healthy sex drive and not discuss how a marriage without sex is going to work for both of you. For example, would an open marriage be permissible, What would the parameters of that permission lie. Is sex on the menu sometimes, or never. Those kind of things.

It sounds to me that you would be happy to never have sex again and that's your right. He sounds like he's thinking your libido has gone temporarily and hoping it will come back after you are married, and that's got the potential to go really bad down the line when newlywed bliss is not what either of you expected it to be. Both of you are wanting different things - again, nothing wrong with that as long as you both are clear about it from the beginning.

HelenaDove · 04/09/2017 16:21

What FuckyouLinda said.

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