And then there's your marriage.

Perhaps it started out on fire; you couldn't keep your hands off each other, and your lovemaking was frequent and passionate. But somewhere along the line, things changed. Maybe it was when you got pregnant or when the kids were born. Or perhaps the problem started when his job became ultrastressful. It might have been around the time you started arguing about money, in-laws, or who does what around the house. Maybe it was the twenty pounds you gained or the medicine he takes every day. Or his lack of interest in sex could have something to do with his difficulties maintaining an erection, you wonder. You got dizzy trying to figure things out.

Maybe the signs of your husband's sexual sluggishness were there all along. Looking back, you now realize that you just assumed things would get better. But time passed and nothing changed. In fact, things even got worse. He almost never seems interested in you. So, out of desperation, you resigned yourself to the role of initiator. You had to. If it weren't for you, in fact, you'd never have sex. But now you've grown tired of always being the one to reach out, always being the one to risk rejection, always being the one who cares. And the fights about sex have become exasperating. The loneliness is slowly killing you. And he just doesn't get it. Or, you wonder, "Worse yet, does he? Is he doing this to punish me?"

Finally, when analyzing your feelings, his feelings, your marriage, your motives, his intentions, has gotten you nowhere, perhaps you have tried to get your husband to do something about his lack of desire — talk to your family doctor, get a checkup, go to a therapist. But he won't. He can't understand why you're making such a big deal about this sex thing and why you simply won't stop nagging. Everything would be okay, he tells you, if you would just back off.
Or maybe he has gotten medical or psychological advice in the past but his follow-through stinks. You've grown weary of repeating, "What good does testosterone do sitting on a nightstand?" You don't want to pressure him and damage his fragile male ego. You just don't know what to do anymore.

How can you openly admit that the man you married, the man you love, the man with whom you plan on spending the rest of your life, doesn't desire you? You ask yourself, "What's wrong with me. Aren't I attractive?" How did you manage to hook up with the one man in the world who would prefer doing just about anything other than making love to you? Why isn't he like all the other guys?

Well, your husband may not be like all the other guys, but you're about to discover that he isn't as unique as you think. In fact, after almost three decades of working with couples and knowing what really goes on behind closed doors, I'm here to tell you that your guy isn't unique at all. Believe it or not, there are millions of men who, for a variety of reasons, just aren't in the mood. In fact, I'm convinced that low sexual desire in men is America's best-kept secret. But why, you ask yourself, should this topic be so hush-hush when women talk openly about their "Not tonight, dear" declarations with anyone who will listen? The short answer: it's different for men.

A woman is expected to have dips in her desire for sex; she can talk about it without her femininity or sanity being called into question. A woman can commiserate with her friends about her husband's one-track mind and how she can't hug him without his thinking sex is imminent and be in really good company. (As one man in my practice put it when I tried to normalize his wife's low desire by saying that she's in good company, he said, "I wouldn't say she's 'in good company.' I'd say she has lots of company.")

Because in our culture masculinity and virility are inextricably connected, most men don't share that level of comfort with self-disclosure. In fact, it strikes terror in their hearts to even think that they don't desire sex, let alone admit it publicly.

Imagine a guy sitting around with his male buddies in the locker room saying, "I just hate my wife's one-track mind. All she ever thinks about is sex. I can't even lie next to her in bed without her starting to grope me. I wish she would be interested in me as a person and not just interested in my body." It doesn't happen.

What's the fallout of all this? To begin with, I feel certain that the incidence of low desire in men is vastly underreported. Why? There's too much shame and embarrassment. And that's a tragedy. If men don't talk to their wives, their friends, or their doctors, why in the world would they talk openly to researchers? They probably don't! And because we don't have accurate statistics, men who lack desire believe they are in a very small minority. Feeling like freaks of nature, they remain isolated and don't get the help they need. As a result, their self-esteem and their marriages suffer.

Secondly, since men don't talk about this, their wives wonder what's wrong with them. They believe they're flawed or unattractive. They've had nowhere to turn. Until now.

I have been a marriage therapist for almost three decades, specializing in marriages that other therapists declare dead on arrival. To me, there is no such thing as a marriage that can't be resuscitated. Although helping couples on the brink of divorce is challenging work, I wouldn't trade what I do for anything else. I see miracles happen every day: couples who truly believe divorce is inevitable gradually discover that with a little information, a lot of coaching, and a willingness to leave blame behind, they can reinvent their marriages.

Some years ago, I noticed that many couples in my practice were experiencing major relationship breakdowns because their levels of interest in sex were worlds apart. One spouse was hot, while the other was not. While this sort of disparity happens from time to time in even the best of relationships, there was nothing temporary about the sexual divide wreaking havoc in these marriages. There were long-standing issues of rejection and misunderstanding that spilled over into every aspect of the couples' lives together. I called these relationships sex-starved marriages.

Contrary to what you might think, a sex-starved marriage is not necessarily one that has no sex (although abstinence can and does occur); it is a marriage where one spouse desperately longs for more touch, physical connection and sex, while the other spouse, for a variety of reasons, just isn't interested. The partner with lower desire can't understand why his or her spouse seems so obsessed with their sexual relationship and thinks, "What's the big deal? It's just sex."

However, to the spouse with a higher sexual drive — in this case, you (for the sake of simplicity, let's refer to you as the HDS — higher-drive spouse) — it's a huge deal, and it's not just about sex. It's about feeling wanted, loved, appreciated, sexy, and attractive. It's about feeling close and connected. Sex is truly the tie that binds; it leads to emotional intimacy. And when the spouse with a lower sex drive doesn't understand this, it spells trouble for the marriage.

Longing for more physical closeness, the HDS tries to get his or her partner, the LDS (lower-drive spouse), to understand the importance of having a good sexual relationship. Since she or he doesn't feel the same way, the words fall on deaf ears, and as a result, nothing changes. So the HDS tries again to get through to his or her spouse. Now the LDS feels pressured, angry, and resentful. At this point, intimacy on all levels drops out of the marriage. The spouses stop sitting next to each other on the couch. They stop laughing at each other's jokes. They stop making eye contact. Their talk is perfunctory. They quit being friends. Their marriage is placed at risk of infidelity or divorce.

I found these marriages were so prevalent that I decided to write a book on the subject and called it — you guessed it — The Sex-Starved Marriage. I wrote about the problems that occur in marriage when one spouse is vastly more interested in sex than the other and, more important, what they could do to fix things.

The Sex-Starved Marriage was written for both the HDS and the LDS, to help them understand each other's feelings and offer a game plan for taking their sex life off the back burner and making it more of a priority. Among many other things, I was outspoken about the value of a robust sex life for both spouses, not just the HDS.

It was in that book that I also spilled the beans: women don't have a corner on the low desire market. Based on my observations in my clinical practice with couples, I knew that many men just weren't in the mood for sex. I felt certain that we as a society have perpetuated a myth about the ever-turned-on male. During my travels on the seminar circuit, I have spoken to countless sex and marital therapists across the country and asked them about their observations about low-desire men. They all agreed that although more men than women complain of not having enough sex, the differences between genders aren't as great as we've been led to believe. Only when we realize how commonplace low desire in men really is will women stop feeling unattractive and come out of hiding to seek the help they need to have richer and more satisfying sexual relationships. That's why I'm so passionate about getting the word out that men have "headaches" too.

Soon after the publication of The Sex-Starved Marriage, I was flooded with letters, e-mails and phone calls from people from all walks of life. There were expressions of gratitude from more highly sexed spouses for my having taken a strong stand about the importance of sexuality in marriage and for gently but firmly nudging spouses with a lower sex drive to take a more active role in bridging the desire gap, along with countless requests for more information and marital help. Most striking, however, was the overwhelming reaction from women like you whose husbands have lost desire.

Michele,
I just recently found your book The Sex-Starved Marriage in a local bookstore, opened the book, and began to read. My heart began to thump and beat quickly while tears fell from my face. By the time I struck up the nerve to purchase the book, I had already read 60% of it. You see, it is very rare (as you know) for women to talk about the lack of sex in their marriages. It would be wonderful to have more focus on this "role reversal" so that men with low sexual desire are not ashamed. Plus, I need more help! My husband and I are "stuck." We seem unable to find that perfect time to talk. We have been married for fifteen years this August, with two children ages eleven & almost nine. We are high school sweethearts, and I believe we are meant to be together forever; however, I can't go on this way. Can you help?
Sincerely,
"I miss sex with my husband"

Michele,
Oh, my God! I watched you on the 20/20 show, and I cried all the way through it. I wish that my husband could have watched it with me so that he would know how I am feeling. I feel like we never have sex. It has been almost four months, but he doesn't have a clue that it has been that long. We have been married for fifteen years and have three children. We both work full-time jobs, and he is able to find time for everything and everyone but me. I told him the other day that I feel as if he doesn't love me. We hardly ever touch or kiss. I am just overwhelmed after seeing the show that I am not the only wife crying herself to sleep at night because of rejection from my husband.

Michele,
I should like to thank you for addressing such a sensitive subject on prime-time television. My husband and I have been together for nearly thirty years and we have five beautiful children. He is thirteen years older than I am. He used to be very sexually active, but in the last ten years it just abruptly stopped. I cannot tell you how lonely it can be. I just wanted to personally thank you so much for opening the door and making me realize that I am not alone.

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