GREAT SEXPECTATIONS: My husband wants far more sex than I do - I’m starting to dread bedtime

In our fortnightly column ‘Great Sexpectations’ the Woman Alive panel answer your questions on sex, faith and intimacy. Drop us a confidential email on womanalive@premier.org.uk and ask us anything. Here, we answer a questions about sex in marriage - what do you do when your husband wants it more than you?

Dear Woman Alive,

It’s basically a tale as old as time, but my husband has a higher sex drive than me. I would be happy to just have sex once every two weeks or so but in his dream world it would be every night. I know I’m his wife, so I’m supposed to satisfy him sexually, but I just don’t enjoy it that much. It’s starting to cause problems in our marriage because he constantly feels rejected and I constantly feel pressured. What should I do?

Dear Reader

As you say, this is indeed ‘a tale as old as time’, however what we often fail to dig deeper on is why? I remember hearing that women in the Victorian age – and possibly way back beyond that – were told to ‘lie back and think of England’ when they found themselves having to engage in sexual relations with their husbands. The thinking being that it would be an awful experience to endure but that potential offspring would result and therefore become England’s future.