By Sarah Mahoney
Youve Said It. Youve Heard It. How To Put That Excuse To
BedAnd Get Back In The Mood
Be honest. How many times have you turned down sex this month? Even the best
marriages have sexual cold fronts and everyday problemslike a crushing work
deadline, a sick parent, or an acting-out teenthat can put the chill on
romance. But when sex evasion turns into a daily habit, marriage can become an
arctic zone. After all, there’s room for only so many nights of “Do we have
to? I’ve got a bad headache” before serious problems set in.
“It helps many couples to think of sex as a bank account,” says Lana
Holstein, M.D., author of Your Long Erotic Weekend . “If you just
got back from a vacation where you had lots of time alone, then saying I’m too
wiped out tonight’ isn’t a problem. But if you haven’t had much sex in the last
six months, then it took your husband some courage to ask. If you say no, that
can be damaging.”
And both partners, not just the avoider, are harmed. “The spouse with
more desire feels rejected, and the spouse with less desire feels coerced,”
says Barry McCarthy, Ph.D., author of Rekindling Desire: A Step-by-Step
Program to Help Low-Sex and No-Sex Marriages .
If you’re the avoider, try putting yourself in your husband’s shoes. Says
Dr. Holstein, who coaches clients at Miraval Resort in Tucson, AZ: “When a
wife turns down sex, what does she want her husband to do instead? Should he go
masturbate? My clients usually say, No, I don’t want him to do that!’ Nor do
they want him to spend an hour on a pornography Web site.”
Another reason to say yes when your husband makes a move: It’s good for your
health. “Sex, and the cuddling that comes with it, releases all kinds of
chemicals women need,” says Dr. Holstein, “including mood-boosting
hormones like dopamine, norepinephrine, and oxytocin.” What’s more, a study
from Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, PA, found that couples who had sex
regularly had higher levels of disease-fighting antibodies than those who
didn’t.
So it’s time to outsmart your excuse-making self (don’t listen to hershe’s
probably just grouchy from wearing sweatpants too often). Here, six common
cop-outs, and what to say insteadto your husband and yourself:
“Didn’t we just do it last week?”
Mismatched desire is one of the most common complaints marriage counselors
hearbut experts say that the excuse is pure baloney. “Two different people
will never have exactly the same desire, drive, and timing,” says Rick
Warren, the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA, and author
of the best-selling book The Purpose Driven Life . “Sometimes you
have to make love for the benefit of the other person, even though you may not
need it yourself at the moment.”
“There’s no such thing as the right level of desire. Normal is usually
whatever the desired frequency is for that couple,” adds Gerald R. Weeks,
Ph.D., chairman of the marriage and family therapy department at the University
of Nevada, Las Vegas. (In case you’re curious about what other couples consider
normal, here are stats from University of Chicago researchers: About 38 percent
of married women have sex a few times a week; 47 percent a few times a month;
and 15 percent a few times a year.)
What to say to yourself:
Remember your wedding day? When you said “I do,” you said “I
do” to sex too. “Even though you may not have promised to love, honor,
and have sex once a week,’ when you made a commitment to your relationship, it
was understood that sex would be part of the bargain,” say Patricia Love
and Steven Stosny, authors of How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking
About It . And, yes, sometimes you have to be the instigator. When it
comes to different levels of desire, “the ball is in the court of the
person who wants it less,” says Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D., author of the
forthcoming Prime: Advice and Adventures from a Sexologist on Life and Love
in the Sensuous Years . (more̷ 