Shebang was involved in a discussion on this issue on the web, or is here quoting from genuine items in magazines or from TV show mailbags.

 

Woman 1

Hi. I'm not married but am in a long- term relationship. I am 23 and have been with the most wonderful man ever for 2 and a half years.  He's very  sexy and I have   been around  the block you know.  And he is the first guy to ever "satisfy" me shall I say. BUT. The guy I was with before cheated all the time and I thought  in order to stop him from being unfaithful was to satisfy him whenever he wanted it. Which was every night. I used to cry and cry. To cut   a long story short, I believe this is affecting my relationship now. Sex is the last thing I feel like doing. Once a week goes by I think to myself well I better do my duty. My boyfriend is very patient and tries very hard to cover up his frustration. I don't know what to do and am looking forward to any advice

Woman 2

I can't believe all the people who suffer from the same problem that I have. I thought I was abnormal and alone. I thought I was losing my mind, or  there was something wrong with my way of thinking. I too have the same problem with my husband. I shudder at the thought of being intimate with  him. I cringe at his kiss or touch or anything remotely intimate. But unlike everyone else, I have had an affair. During this time I felt like I was born again. I couldn't get enough, I wanted it all the time. I have wondered if maybe it is just all the things that our husbands or significant others have put   us through and the stress we endure daily. Because, my husband and I have reconciled and since that time I again have lost all interest in being  intimate with him. We have tried everything, counseling, talking, discussing, everything, and still nothing works for me. I feel so sorry for him, and so guilty because I have trouble fulfilling my wifely duties. I'm beginning to wonder if our marriage is over, because unlike some others my husband doesn't understand, even though he says he does. I know deep down he doesn't

Woman 3

has anyone's sex drive returned? someone tell me it does return

Woman 4

I am 31 years old, I have 3 children ages 11, 8 and 3. I work full time and have the responsibility of the children at night. I am having such a hard time with my desire to have sex. I feel like he wants me to be everything and I can't do it all!!! Then he wants to have sex!!! I get so angry because I can't believe that he actually wants me to stay up longer just to do that!!! I have to wake up at 5:30am to get the kids off to school and daycare and myself to work!!! He says he understands but he still gets hurt and angry. I am to the point that I try to race to get to sleep before he touches me and he will keep pushing sometimes until I give in. Then I feel very violated, almost raped because I have already said no and he continues until I give in. I feel like vomiting sometimes while we are having sex because I am so angry.  I am desperate!!

Woman 5

I am beginning to wonder as well if this isn't all a problem that men are making for us. Who says a woman has to have sex three times a week for the rest of her life? When you don't feel like sex but do it because it's expected of you or because your partner has taken you out to dinner or done something nice for you, isn't that just like being a prostitute? Exchanging sexual favours for dinner and a movie? I would NEVER have felt obligated to have sex with a guy I was dating just because he took me out to dinner, so I deeply resent that the one man who is supposed to accept me totally makes my feel guilty for not wanting to make love after an evening out. He doesn't say anything, it's the silence I can't  stand

Woman 6

I am so sick of my husband's advances, that sometimes I could just reach out and whack him

Woman 7

Hi I am 28 years old and I have been married almost 4 years I have a 1 yr. old son. I remember before my son our sex was magnificent. Since our son was born I can count on one hand how many times I have achieved an orgasm. My desire for sex is there, not as much as before, but orgasms are hard to reach.

The strains on a modern marriage are intense enough. For some it is ' the one fly in the ointment of our marriage'. Inevitably medical practitioners range from the useless to the eminently helpful to the bored.  All too often women are told, simply, that nothing can be done and to accept their lot.  Many of these problems aren't new. Freud made a career out of them. It is one of the revelations of this newly-revived interest in these issues that the vibrator was developed as a way to speed up visits by frustrated women to their doctors, who used to do 'pelvic stimulation' to help their patients on their way.

The problem is that sexual dysfunction casts a pall over a woman's entire life; some may overstate it by comparing it to a severe disease. Nevertheless it is a genuine and serious problem, and contributes to a very great deal of human misery. Freud made a career out that, too.

It is only recently that women have insisted on being better informed about their bodies. For instance, it is another rather well-kept secret that a hysterectomy can deprive a woman of the ability to be aroused at all.  Surgeons spare their patients from nerve damage when they remove men's prostate glands. Why don't they take the same care when they hack out a woman's womb? It is only now that medical experts are beginning to map the network of nerves that thread their wispy way through the pelvic region.