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Why Your Wife Won’t Have Sex with You

How Men Can Fix A Sexless Marriage

A sexless marriage can be devastating for both men and women whose desire for intimacy is consistently unmet.

In this article, because the causes and solutions are generally different depending on your gender, I’m going to concentrate on what men might consider doing to fix it.

Notice I said, ‘What Men might consider doing’, as that’s exactly what I’m going to help you with today. 

I’m not going to talk about how to change your wife, or how to convince her to sleep with you if she doesn’t want to.  This is all about what YOU could do, consistently and reliably over the long term, to invite her to WANT you in that way.

If you’re still here… well done, I applaud you!

If you’re a woman and you have lost interest in having sex with your man, then you will still find this list useful.  You could share it with him, or at least use some of the points here to start a conversation that will benefit your relationship.

Men’s high desire for sex has got a bad rap over the years, particularly in the media, and I think that’s unfair.  Over the last 15 years working with men and couples, I have come to believe that men’s desire for sex is a valid emotional need, far more so than a physical one.  And to demean it, minimise it or laugh it off is unkind.  Good men in sexless marriages certainly aren’t laughing.

If sex is important to either one of you, then it’s important for the success of the relationship.

So, why exactly do so many women stop having sex with their husbands?  Is it due to a lack of care for their men, or is it because they have withdrawn over time because THEY don’t feel cared for?

To help you work this out for your specific situation, I’ve put together a list of common reasons wives stop wanting to have sex with their husbands. The more you can eliminate from this list the better, but one or more might apply to you. I encourage you to address them consistently over the coming months and see how your love life changes.

10 Reasons Your Wife Won’t Have Sex with You

  1. She Doesn’t Feel Secure
    Women need to feel safe with you to feel turned on by you, and to feel safe they need to be able to trust you.  This is a serious issue chaps. Women thrive when they feel a sense of overall security in life and this feeling is hugely important to them. It is therefore critical not to underestimate the impact of any behaviour that damages her sense of security. If you lie or hide things from her, or if you can’t control your impulses; if your addicted, or unreliable or volatile, she won’t feel safe, and she’ll distance herself from you over time.  Trust is a fundamental and essential component of intimacy so make sure it’s a priority in your marriage.

  2. She Doesn’t Feel You are Devoted
    Your wife wants to know, without any doubt, that she is the only woman in the world that you are interested in.  If you are watching porn, staring at or interacting inappropriately with other women on social media, at work or anywhere else, she will feel betrayed.  Even if she no longer says so.  It will impact her self-esteem, her feelings of security and her sense of value to you.  Direct all your sexual attention towards her, and her alone.

  3. She Doesn’t Feel Cherished
    If you’ve been frustrated for a while then you might have developed feelings of resentment towards your wife.  Maybe you’re just not that nice to her a lot of the time.  This is a zero-sum game and there can be no winners here. You might not know this, but one spouse can change the entire tone of a marriage quite quickly, and this is a good example of an area in which this can be achieved. Try to keep your side of the street clean and treat her like a human being who deserves to be loved even if the situation isn’t ideal at the moment.  Patience, maturity, and kindness are key here.

  4. She Can’t Talk to You
    I hear this all the time from women in troubled marriages and it’s a serious problem gents.  “He just won’t talk about anything!” or “He is not there for me emotionally” are common complaints and it leaves women feeling incredibly frustrated, lonely and helpless. If you struggle to engage in deep, meaningful conversations with your wife then she is going to feel like you don’t care about her.  Women need this kind of deep connection from you as much as you need sex from them. Seriously consider therapy if you are unable to make this fundamental change by yourself and don’t leave it until it is too late. It is often this emotional connection that women are seeking when they look elsewhere or consider ending relationships.

  5. She Doesn’t Feel Seen
    It’s easy to go about your daily life, year after year and to eventually take your spouse for granted.  All the things that captivated you about her in the early days might just seem sort of mundane to you now. But she will have noticed, at least subconsciously, that you no longer say the nice things you used to.  Women need to be seen, appreciated and admired.  Take a step back and try to observe her with fresh eyes, as if you’d never met.  Tell her how much you appreciate how brilliant she is with the kids or that you think what she’s done with her business is fantastic. She wants you to notice her and all the things she’s brilliant at, so start noticing, be generous and say it out loud as often as you can.

  6. She Doesn’t Feel Sexy
    Maybe you’ve been married for 10 years, had a couple of children, got a dog, worked your arses off, lost jobs, grieved the death of loved ones and aged 20 years in the process.  The sheer burden of responsibility might have made the very thought of ‘being sexy’ laughable to your wife by now.  But if there’s anyone in the world that can turn that around for her, it’s you. Go clothes shopping together, tell her when you notice how beautiful she is, make cheeky innuendos, pat her on the bum and tell her she’s hot when she walks past… whatever it is that makes her feel sexy… do that.

  7. She Doesn’t Feel Seduced
    Remember when you were dating, and all the effort you made to secure your relationship with her?  You probably made it very clear that you wanted her, and you would do pretty much anything to have her.  I don’t know what it was for you specifically but spend some time trying to remember and put some effort into reigniting that fire.  She doesn’t want to think that you need sex, she needs to know that you want HER.  So, flirt with her, date her, be playful with her and SEDUCE her.

  8. She’s Not Excited by You
    What drew your wife to you when you first met?  What was it about you that she loved so much that she committed to spend the rest of her life with you?  You must have been pretty special to her.  Women want to be with men who are comfortable in their own skin, who know what they want and who are enjoying themselves in the process.  Healthy, honest, strong men with a sense of purpose and good humour.  If you have become bitter or lazy, or if you are too often not good company, then she’s going not going to be excited by you and that isn’t exactly fuel for a girl’s fire.  Whatever work you have to do, make a start today, or risk some other guy beating you to it!

  9. She Doesn’t Enjoy Sex with You
    This is a tough one to admit but luckily, it’s a relatively simple fix.  If sex with you has become boring, disappointing or unpleasant, then your wife has probably developed strategies to avoid it altogether.  You’ll know if it’s just not working for her, and burying your head in the sand is not going to change anything.  Whether it’s performance issues, technique or effort, the solution generally starts with open and honest communication.  Having the courage to at least start a discussion, even if it’s awkward and clunky will reassure her that her sexual experience is important to you.

  10. She’s Overwhelmed
    Life’s responsibilities can stack up to the point where it’s barely possible to keep on top of everything, for periods at least.  If your wife is flat out to the point that she collapses into bed, utterly exhausted at the end of the day, then you could forgive her for not being in the mood for sex.  If there’s anything you can take off her hands so that she has some space, then grab them and carry the extra load.  Men, I understand, are pretty much ready for sex anytime, anywhere, no matter what’s going on.  Your wife, on the other hand probably needs time and space to transition from mother, worker, carer or whatever role she’s usually in, to a sexual feminine state. If you are doing little to ease the load and help her out in this way, then again perhaps you have some changes to make.

OK, that was a long list, well done for making to the end!  If one or more of those reasons apply to you, then please devote yourself to several months of change and growth as a husband before you put any undue pressure on your wife.  As I said earlier, one spouse can dramatically change a marriage by themselves.

If none of these reasons apply to you and you have been consistently what I would describe as a ‘good enough’ man, then maybe her lack of interest in sex has something to do with her.

So, what else might be going on?

Other CAUSES OF SEXLESS MARRIAGES

It might be that your wife has some kind of unresolved trauma from her childhood or some other emotional or sexual issue that is preventing her from being sexual with you.  This is beyond the scope of today’s article but if this is the case then I can assure you it is, with your support, patience and empathy, fully possible to heal.  Visit my book recommendations for information on this topic.

Also, If she has certain health problems, takes certain medications, has low testosterone or other hormone levels, struggles with body image, has low self-esteem or finds sex painful then again, she’s not going to feel sexual generally.

But these are all solvable issues that you can support her through. Kind, respectful and supportive conversations are the name of the game here chaps. It is okay for you to want to talk about all this stuff too, so don’t be fobbed off. That is not okay either.

The final reason, assuming none of the issues discussed so far apply to either of you, and assuming you’ve already explained how and why sex is important to you, is that maybe she just doesn’t care enough about your needs.  Sorry to break it to you.

I don’t think it’s reasonable in a marriage to demand monogamy and at the same time withhold sex for no good reason. If the conversation is off limits or draws hostility, then maybe it’s time for professional help. Feel free to get in touch!

Laura How
Laura How

My name is Laura and I have been a counsellor since 2011. I am also a happy wife, mother, exercise enthusiast and personal growth fanatic.

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  1. All of the points in your video I guess are my fault. We have been married for 38 years, I would hasten to add though even though I have failed in every point some of the points are progressive as I withdrew from asking her for sex many years probably decades now I can’t remember and this has made me guilty of a lot of the points as I naturally withdrew BUT, I have offered her and wouldn’t hold back on anything she wants from the little things like cosmetics to nice clothes to spa days with her best friend even make friends to having even if she wanted to have a lover, she says she isn’t interested at all and doesn’t even want to go out. She stays in and does jigsaws the only time she goes out is to her church and the old dears group.
    It’s just got progressive and I guess I have withdrawn from her… I do know that I could try harder and that I do lots of things that she doesn’t like I guess I’m unliveable really and I don’t know why she even wants me ..

    I feel utterly hopeless we were both virgins (well I was, she says she was but I truly believe she has a very selective memory – things she told me years ago that would indicate issues she denies she even told me) and I was set up at a Christmas party (I did feel very flattered though) and a wife of a colleague basically offered me on a plate anything and I did meet her for sex once and I withdrew from guilt after that), this led to me having an affair with another woman for over a year…my wife wanted me back although I felt it would have been better to go solo as I had already moved out (my own choice despute her not wanting me to leave) and I knew I had to end my affair as the other woman was married and didn’t want to leave her husband in fact we only had sex about 5 times in 12 months we enjoyed a mutual interest in walking and going out and we did both really fancy each other and it was romantic (although I guess I must have been to her a bit of a let down too as she would never have wanted to leave her husband and I would never have asked her to sacrifice her marriage)
    My wife wanted me back and I wanted to make a clean start but nothing changed after and despite all this, it was like the genie came out of the bottle and I was going straight when I bumped into the parter of a couple we knew for years and she stared chatting and it lead to a discussion about friends with benefits …and we did it about 6 times and I was again struck by guilt and I guess this woman was dissapointed with me as I’m rubbish at sex, particularly I f8nd it difficult to come … possibly medication, Ed, I do t know,..
    Right from the start sex I a,ways thought with her was like her way of maybe trapping me when we met, she never really showed any interest and very early instigated it … she also was told by some idiot to never wash herself down there as they said soap can cause her irritation but this made her smell down there so that sort of made me a little wary but it wasn’t such a problem back then.
    What really frustrates me more than anything is whenever I ask for help or describe my problems it’s always thrown back at me and everyone always takes the side of the woman and it ALWAYS my fault …Im so fed up with being judged … as I KNOW I have failed in so many way BUT I do try but she NEVER wants to even go anywhere near the topic I always made her know that I WILL not ask her for sex if she doesn’t want it

    Sorry for the detail… I don’t think you have time to read it and I don’t expect you to reply I guess I’m just offloading …

    If you have any helpful links please if you could pass the, on.

    Thank you,

    Regards

    Chris