| I am sorry to hear
of your situation however I will be straightforward with you
as I feel that is what you are asking for. There are a number
of reasons why a man is not interested in being sexual with
his wife. (And in large part you need only change he to she
in the answers if the situation is reversed.) Know I am not
a trained therapist so I am merely giving you my observations
and what people have shared with me. At the end I speak about
therapists should you choose that route.
Resentment/hurt feelings such as;
i) She has hurt him with comments, and she may not even
know she has done so. She has told him he was a poor lover
he feels his sexual performance has been criticized, or
she compared him to another partner, the latter is a particularly
bad move.
ii) He feels he isn't a priority
for her, or she isn’t doing what he wants her to do,
this often ends up being something in a more traditional
realm, things that make him feel he is important to her,
such as cooking dinner for him.
iii) She made a decision on her own
that would affect both of them and didn't tell him. iv)
She has trapped him with sex, got pregnant without his being
aware. And sometimes in the last case this will lead to
men having sex and not being able to ejaculate.
She is no longer sexually attractive to him. This may be
because of physical factors - because she has gained a lot
of weight and doesn't look good to him anymore, she doesn't
smell good to him, isn't clean about herself or because
of social behaviors, she drinks too much, says or does inappropriate
things and embarrasses him. In both cases she has become
a woman he isn't proud to be seen with.
She has had an affair and he found out about it. For most
men the thought of another man’s penis inside of their
wife is one of the most crazy making and upsetting images
they can imagine and believe me they do imagine it. It is
as if they have a built in personal video in their heads
and that image will be on an endless replay loop.
He claims to have a low sex drive or he has no libido that
sex simply doesn’t interest him. This is rare but
possible. The no interest behavior is invariable as the
result of something else.
He is impotent and doesn’t know why or how to address
it and buries his anxiety about it by becoming asexual and
rejecting any overtures from his partner. Impotence has
made many a man a workaholic as he channels all his energy
into producing.
Has he experienced bouts of impotence? If so he may not
want to talk about it, or he hasn't told you and the more
you pressure him for sex the more stressed he gets and that
feeds on itself. Is he diabetic?
Has he had heart or blood pressure
problems and is on medication? If he is on any medication
it may be causing impotence? All three of the above can
create forms of impotency.
Ask a pharmacist to check for possible
side effects of any medications whether prescription or
not. They will be listed in the PDR, (Physician’s
Desk Reference). Smoking and diet can also impact potency
as well.
He has other interests – fetishes that he doesn’t
feel he can share or that she won’t entertain and
he needs those to be sexually stimulated.
Boredom factor. The sex is always the same and he would
rather do himself than have to do the same thing again.
There is someone else.
They have realized they are gay.
In conclusion there is a lack of information for me for
to be really accurate for you. So what I have spelled out
are the reasons men have shared with me why they are not
sexual with their wives. Your options are to have a non-judgmental
conversation about this with him. Often more difficult than
people know. You might consider printing off the reasons
and asking him to read it privately, not while you watch
him, and ask if any of these ring true for the two of you.
Or you might seek out a good counselor. AASECT (American
Association of Sex Educators Conselors and Therapists) has
a listing of AASECT certified sex therapists in your area.
http://www.aasect.org
Good luck.
Warmly,

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