A sexless marriage can also be caused by both emotional and physical health issues. Depression or stress, as well as many medications, can decrease libido. You may also find your libidos were mismatched to begin with, or that you're never “in the mood” at the same time.
Marriages become sexless for a variety of reasons. Common reasons are a lack of desire, postpartum depression, frequent marital conflict, or a recent marital crisis or personal crisis that has impacted the client.
So, for couples who mutually agree to focus on bonding through means other than sex. Their marriage will undoubtedly last for as long as the agreement remains. If, however, one partner decides otherwise, a compromise has to be made for divorce not to become the imminent outcome of such marriage.
But even if there's no perfect definition for a “sexless” marriage, everyone seems to agree that they're common. Newsweek estimates that about 15 to 20 percent of couples are in one, and sexless marriage is the topic of myriad new books—like Yager-Berkowitz's—and plenty of articles and columns.
Common causes for a loss of sexual desire and drive in women include: Interpersonal relationship issues. Partner performance problems, lack of emotional satisfaction with the relationship, the birth of a child, and becoming a caregiver for a loved one can decrease sexual desire.
Self-Esteem Issues
Where physical intimacy is lacking, this can cause self-esteem problems. If your partner shows no interest in you physically, you might feel like they're not attracted to you anymore, and this can cause you to question yourself.
Anxiety, stress, and depression are also common sexless marriage effects on the husband. When a husband is denied sex at home for a long time, his mental health is likely to deteriorate from stress, overthinking, and inability to release the feel-good hormone from sex.
According to one study, approximately 15 percent of married couples are sexless: Spouses haven't had sex with each other in the past six months to one year.
Lack of sex can lead to mental health issues, especially when the man feels that he cannot perform well in bed and satisfy his wife's sexual needs. This can lead to the psychological effects of sexless marriage. Depression and anxiety can become common consequences of a sexless marriage.
But the best way to break your sexless cycle is to be open and honest with each other. Let your partner know you are willing to leave behind expectations in order to have an intimate experience with them. In every relationship, there is a higher and lower desire partner.
Sometimes, sexless marriages can run their course faster than they would have otherwise. Feelings of isolation owing to self-esteem issues can start creeping up. Overall affection, emotional intimacy can take a hit and can also up to the extent of ending up in separation or divorce.
Depression, anxiety, stress, and other mental health issues are all linked to lower libido, as are some antidepressants. If your wife is struggling with any mental health issues, she may be less interested in sex at the moment.
Sometimes your partner may be giving you less affection than you'd like. In these cases, your partner may just require and prefer to give different levels of affection than you. In some cases, your partner could be trying to deal with effects that come with anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
After all, almost 50% of first marriages, 60% of second marriages, and 73% of third marriages end in divorce. While there are countless divorce studies with conflicting statistics, the data points to two periods during a marriage when divorces are most common: years 1 – 2 and years 5 – 8.
What is the average length of marriage? On average, the length of a marriage in the U.S. is seven to eight years. Some states have a higher rate than others, but the divorce rate for the country is around 50%.
There are a number of reasons why someone may not want to have sex or has lost interest in sex, including: A low sex drive. Sexual trauma in their past. Experiencing stress in other areas of their life.
When it comes to relationships, a lack of physical intimacy is merely a symptom of other issues in the relationship, not THE problem. A lack of sex in a relationship doesn't automatically lead to infidelity either.
A sexless marriage doesn't always equal a loveless marriage, but when it does, divorce may be the “best worst” option. When you and your partner are particularly busy or stressed, sexual intimacy can become something of a luxury – but affection and touch are basic human needs.
Besides no longer getting excited to spend time together, you may find yourself flat-out avoiding your partner. You may stay late at work, see movies or eat dinner by yourself, or even take the long way home to avoid being with your partner for a moment longer than you have to.