Sex With Emily - AITA for Wanting Less Sex?
Episode Date: January 12, 2024Sometimes, in our sex lives and relationships, it can be easy to wonder: Am I the Asshole? Don’t worry, because in today’s episode, Producer Erica and I are letting you know if you’re approachin...g asshole territory in your sexual situations, like: AITA for wanting oral sex every time, not just on special occasions? AITA for rejecting my partner’s advances in the middle of the night? Or how about: AITA for getting upset when my partner turns me down? It’s a juicy one. In today’s episode, you’ll learn: Creative solutions for mismatched libidos What to do if you’re in a sexless relationship Tips for healthy sex conversations See the full show notes at sexwithemily.com. Show Notes: How to Initiate Sex Bathmate (code EMILY10 for 10% off sitewide) Tips for Better Communication & Other Guides SHOP WITH EMILY! (free shipping on orders over $69) The only sex book you’ll ever need: Smart Sex: How to Boost Your Sex IQ and Own Your Pleasure Want more? Sex With Emily: Home Let’s get social: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | TikTok Let’s text: Sign Up Here Want me to slide into your inbox? Sign Up Here for sex tips on the regular.
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You remember some of the things that we say to our partners, we sometimes especially when
it comes to sex, we just accept it like, okay, that's your belief around it, but we're
also allowed to get curious.
And that's questions like, tell me more about, you know, your early messaging around sex.
Tell me more about why it's important for you to wait or tell me more about what about
our sex life do you like and what is interesting to you.
And if he says to you, I just don't think sex is important.
I don't care if I have sex or not.
Let's find out more about it. He says that, and I think that that is ground to you? I mean, if he says to you, I just don't think sex is important. I don't care if I have sex or not. Let's find out more.
But if he says that,
then I think that that is grounds to end a relationship.
You're listening to Sex with Emily.
I'm Dr. Emily,
and I'm here to help you prioritize your pleasure
and liberate the conversation around sex.
Sometimes in our sex lives and relationships,
it can be easy to wonder, am I the asshole?
Well, don't worry. Because in today's episode producer Eric Caniah
are letting you know if you're approaching asshole territory
in your sexual situations.
Like, am I the asshole for wanting oral sex every time,
not just on special occasions?
Or, am I the asshole for rejecting my partner's advances
in the middle of the night?
This is a juicy one.
And as a reminder, if you have a scenario
where you're wondering, am I the asshole?
Submit your questions to sexwithemily.com slash AITA.
We've been loving these, so please keep them coming.
Please rate and review Sex with Emily wherever you listen to the show.
Just do it right now, whatever app you're listening to.
It really helps us get this sex-positive message out to more people when you review it.
Also, my new article, How to initiate sex Sex, is Up On Sex with Emily.com.
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[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- [♪ OUTRO MUSIC- This is from Sarah and she's 52 years old. Am I the asshole for rejecting my partner's advances
in the middle of the night? I'm so excited for this one. I'm so excited. Hey Dr. Amalie,
we're a very couple, both early 50s together for 16 years. But am I the asshole because I don't
spontaneously wake up in the middle of the night filled with desire for sex and ravaged my husband?
My husband's disappointed because I never wake up
hoarding the middle of the night.
He wakes up hoarding the middle of the night regularly.
At times in the past, he's tried to touch me
while I'm sleeping and I'm difficult to rouse
and apparently in my sleep, I pushed him away.
He feels rejected and refuses to initiate sex with me.
I apologize for my behavior when I was asleep
and unaware of what was happening. I asked him to make sure that I'm awake and to start with a make out session first before
movie to general touching. He feels that once he touches me, I should wake up and be filled
with sexual excitement and gratitude that I have a partner that is so turned on by me.
He is filled with resentment about this issue and feels rejected. We have sex at least
five times a week, mostly in the afternoon or home alone.
He'd be far more sex and more during the night.
I'm afraid that I can't meet his expectation, and this makes me feel like a failure, and
he feels undesired.
Shy said in the alarm so I can initiate sex the middle of the night.
When to be honest, I'd rather be sleeping.
I have difficult getting back to sleep after sex and I'm willing but not
excited about making some sleep sacrifices if that's what it takes for him to be a love.
If that's what it takes for him to feel loved and desired. Thanks for your help and I believe
my husband will be happy to hear your opinions on this issue. Wow. That was a long one but that
is a good one. Okay, so. wow, lot to a pack here.
First off, let me remind you that men can wake up easier
in the middle of the night,
or they wake up more regularly in the middle of the night
with erections because they get these nocturnal erections.
That's why a lot of men wake up with erections
in the morning because it's all about blood flow
and getting erections.
So he gets this notion and go out
to wake up and have sex with you.
And listen, I don't feel that you need to disrupt your sleep patterns and send a alarm in the middle
of the night so you can allow your husband to feel wanted and desired. And that's just seems like
this is going to be, you know, a long haul and sleep is so
important, especially what we're fighting now about sleep and hydration and all these
things.
I think like sleep hydration exercise, but sleep is one of the main three things in our
lives that we can control.
Sleep hygiene is so important.
And by you waking up in the middle of the night, that's going to disrupt everything.
But what this is telling me is that your partner,
your husband wants to feel desired. He wants to feel needed by you. He wants to feel you
ravish him. And so I'm wondering if there's other things you could do to make him feel that way.
I love them. Could you initiate sex other times the day that's not the middle
of the night? You said you're having sex five times a week, which side note, 16 years
married in your 50s, you're having sex in the middle of day five times a week and he
wants to wake up in the middle of the night. I just think that that's a lot. You guys are
in a great place. You seem like you're a really healthy couple.
But there's just one thing that he wants. So again, you could let him know that I'm not willing to sacrifice my sleep, but I would like to know what you're getting from that and how I can make
you feel desired love and that know that I'm attracted to you in other ways. Yeah.
Do you think because they're already having sex, she said at least five times a week, and
he would prefer more sex and more during the night, do you think that sex for him is tied
to his feelings of being seen?
I mean, I think we can fill in the blank here.
We know this, but I do feel like, again, not everything's gendered, but we hear this
more from being the sonners, right?
Yeah, we hear more from Peter Sona's that they, well, would they wake up in the middle of
night?
They have erections.
They're ready to go.
Definitely that part of it, where Lava owners, you know, were like slow cookers many
of us.
So we need time to get around and turn on.
It doesn't just strike us as much.
This spontaneous desire as it does.
We think about it.
Your penis is on the outside of your body.
Maybe he brushed up against her in the middle of the night. He went to the bathroom and came back and he
touched her. He saw her. It's just easier for guys to get going. That's where I will
say that gender definitely plays a role. Your body works differently. You probably require
more touch, maybe more oral sex, maybe more verbal arousal. You already said you require
more making out in the middle of the night and maybe that would get you there like I love how much you're willing to
Sort of try to be there for him in ways that just you know are more difficult
Because I think like losing sleep is a non-negotiable. I did that too
I think that it's hard to get back to sleep. You got to get up and work
But again understanding more about this strong desire he has for sex
Could he pleasure himself in the middle of the night?
How would he feel about just masturbating next to you?
Would you be okay if he did that?
I just came up with a good idea.
Oh, tell me.
What if you sent him like a video
or something that he could watch in the middle of the night,
like something where you're like,
I am never gonna be awake enough to want this,
but I know that you crave this
and I want to be involved in that in a certain way.
I love it.
And you could even like film multiple things so each time he has something new to see from you.
Yeah.
And it doesn't disrupt your sleep, but he feels seen and appreciated.
That's a girl in like personal like porn, you can send him.
Like a little video of maybe you touching yourself or you getting dressed or you doing things that you think is hot talking dirty to him.
He can put his headphones in the middle of the night and watch that.
It's like you're there, but you're not there. Yeah. I think there's just some creativity for
couples. This active and this still really into each other. Let's find some workarounds.
And that's a great idea. But I think also the notion that she feels like a failure and he feels
undesired. Yeah. I'm also wondering if this is a theme or if this comes up in other parts of
your relationship where you feel like you're not able to meet his needs or you feel like you're
letting people down or maybe not even just in him, are there other places in your
life where you feel like you can't do enough and does he feel like you don't want
to be able to desire him? Because a lot of times our sex challenges also show up
in other areas. So I think that might be a really fun tip and pack,
especially since you said your girls
are gonna be listening to this together.
And I wanna make an offer that you guys could call
in together and we could talk about it.
So if you want us to really unpack this with you,
I am certain Erica that if we get them on a call,
we do a little session with them
that we could help them find a lot more ways to play
that don't happen in the middle of the night.
Every couple gets to determine how often
they want to have sex.
And if five times a week for you is great for both of you,
amazing.
The one little red flag I'm seeing is that
he's feeling resentment towards you
for something you did while you weren't even conscious.
Like that seems very easily triggered to me. So I wonder if that need for so much.
So I wonder, do you want sex five times a week? If so, amazing. But if not, I feel like you can't
always be trying to just please your partner and serve their needs if you're already serving them.
A lot. Exactly. Yeah, no, that's a really good note. He thinks that she should just wake up in the middle of the night and be grateful and be grateful and ready to go is also
Points to me that he doesn't really have a clear understanding of
female rousal and that he actually
Believes that she did this with other partners, but isn't doing it with him.
He's like looking for ways to feel rejected when that just feels like I'm already telling you that men are more likely to wake up in the middle of the night,
desiring sex and I explain the reasons why.
And so yeah, he's shutting her and making you know,
shutting all over and she should wake up.
She should feel bill with excitement and gratitude.
And it sounds like you could let him know
that you're super grateful for the connection you have.
You loved these turned on by you five times a week.
So I do think there's something else going on here.
They's kind of pushing the envelope and saying like,
and this is an area that you're not doing enough.
And so that's why I'm just feeling like
there's some other things going on in the relationship,
some unspoken things.
And perhaps the frequent sex could be
filling a void where there's other places
of disconnect in the relationship.
And so I'm wondering if this focus on the sex
and the dynamic of him feeling like she should
be grateful and her feeling like she's not doing enough is part of a larger relationship
challenge that maybe they could get into.
And that would help heal the sex as well.
He's got to somehow figure out that you still love him, you desire him, you want to be with
him, but it's just down in this one area.
So let's find other ways to play. Love that one. Thank you Sarah. Thank you.
Not an asshole. Appreciate you Sarah. This is from Hannah 37 in Kentucky.
I'm out of the asshole for feeling done with a sexless marriage.
Hey Dr. Emily my husband I've been married for seven years now and we were dating long
distance for a year. In the beginning we relied mostly on phone sex, Skype,
sex, and he was totally into it.
When we got closer distance-wise,
I noticed he had some issues being able to have sex.
He wanted us to wait to move in together
until after marriage, which I should have argued
harder against.
It wasn't until our honeymoon where I did everything
possible to turn him on and we didn't
have sex a single time that week.
Then I got really worried.
Now we have hardly had much sex at all in our marriage and my sex life is insane.
It always has been.
I've talked to him about it over and over and about a year and a half ago I told him
one last time out was hurting me.
Nothing changed.
And over the last two years I've been focusing on myself.
I shamefully have had an affair
and I'm falling in love with someone else.
My husband's a good man
and he's trying to fix things now that he found out,
but I just don't even want that kind of connection
with him anymore.
I spent the last two years numbing myself from it.
Am I the asshole for feeling done?
I know I'm an asshole for cheating.
All right, a lot to impact here.
This is so interesting, Hannah.
What I'm seeing is that you've been married for seven years
and even in the beginning on your honeymoon,
he was withholding sex.
He wasn't into sex and it never really got better
from there.
So for seven years, you've been craving sex.
You've been wanting him to want you. It wasn't
happening even on the honeymoon. So you know I always say when there's
challenges with your sex life, you gotta look at how was it in the beginning?
Can you go back to how it was? There've been resentments, there've been
ruptures in the relationship that you can't quite repair. Well it sounds like
there's something going on with your husband sexually. Again we don't know if it
was earlier sexual experiences. Maybe he just got a low sex drive in sex as in his thing, but there
has to be some communicating here around it and it might be too little too late
right now. You let him know. You wanted sex. You tried to turn him on. And I'm
just wondering, what kind of things does as he told you about your sex life? How
much do you know about it? And when you do have sex,
was it satisfying it at all?
So it sounds like what I'm hearing
is the frequency of sex and the kinds of sex
and the satisfaction you were feeling
and the connection you were feeling to them
just hasn't been there all this time.
And you've now met somebody else
and now he's trying to come around,
which is kind of classic. And so, you know, you're not the asshole, but if you actually think this is a relationship,
if he makes an effort and now he understands it, unfortunately, sometimes we don't really
get the message until it's dire.
He feels like he's going to lose the relationship.
So if you want to give it one more chance and stop seeing this other person and say, okay, now I've got my husband's attention. And I love him.
And he's really going to try. If you think you could go there and muster up the strength,
I'd like to say give it another chance for a few months. But there's also, you know,
what I'm here for you is that Chippews sailed.
Seven years is a long time to be trying.
So really this is where you have to decide.
But sometimes we are done and we've moved far that have passed it and it's hard to get back.
I'm curious.
Does she say anything about their relationship in general?
Nothing.
Except for the fact that he wanted to wait until moving in together,
she disagreed with that, or she should have argued harder against it.
You know, like, why, but here's the other thing,
when we're saying, why, just let this be a note to everybody before you get married.
Before you go in your honeymoon, before you walk down the aisle with someone,
find out if you have complimentary sex drives.
If you want the same things, if you both have a growth mindset around sex,
let's not find this out when it's too late. So I mean gosh, I'm having sex on the honeymoon and
then him waiting till you move into what else is your life? What else did you guys do on your honeymoon?
You know, and I'm wondering also like,
was there something, you know,
I'm wondering if he grew up in an environment where sex
wasn't celebrated, where he got some messaging around sex
that it wasn't healthier okay.
I'm just wondering what else we know about your husband
and his relationship to sex.
Because it sounds like this had nothing to do with you,
he came into your relationship with these ideas around sex. When he wants to wait for sex,
what was he waiting for and why? You know, by the way, sometimes for our partners say things,
we sometimes especially when it comes to sex, we just accept it like, okay, that's your belief
around it, but we're also allowed to get curious. And that's questions like, tell me more about,
you know, your early messaging around sex.
Tell me more about why it's important for you to wait or tell me more about what about
our sex life do you like and what is interesting to you.
I mean, if he says to you, I just don't think sex is important.
I don't care if I have sex or not, you know, like let's find out more.
But if he says that, and I think that that is ground to end a relationship, especially
sex support too.
Just change the dynamics of your relationship.
Maybe you could just be open.
Yeah.
But if he's serving you well as a partner, then there's
no need to lose that, especially if he already doesn't really
want sex.
Exactly.
Yeah, you can outsource the sex.
Listen, there's a lot of people we're seeing showing up
in different kinds of relationship these days.
And what I love about this conversation is that, yeah, most
people are going to choose monogamy, but some people might want it to look a little bit
different. And you might be a candidate for looking a little bit different if you guys are in a
really, you know, if he's your best friend, you got a great relationship, but other things are
fabulous. Like Lick Erica said, maybe you want to try another arrangement. But if you're done and
done, it's too much time has passed. Only you will know. But let us know how it goes. I don't think
you're an asshole, but I do think that it's time for you
to get some answers on this
and to get clear rather than cheating,
just give you the do a clean break
or figure out ways to reimagine your partnership.
As it exists today.
Thanks, Hannah.
We appreciate you.
No need to be an asshole.
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This is from Taylor, she's 30.
Am I the asshole for being upset when my partner doesn't want sex?
Hey Dr. Emily, I'm a lesbian and my girlfriend and I have mismatched sex drives.
She rarely wants or thinks about sex, but I think about it and want to pretty much all the
time.
Sometimes when she doesn't want sex and I do, I act upset and hurt, and then she has sex
with me even though she previously said she didn't want to.
Then it makes me feel like a sleazy guy who begs his girlfriend
to have sex with him.
I feel gross.
But I also feel like if I act like I don't care,
then we would never have sex again.
I'm so upset by the whole situation
and I don't know what to do.
This has got to be such a common situation, right?
This is the most common situation.
No matter what your gender or who you're dating,
there's mismatch, sex drives it every single relationship.
And one of the scenarios we often see is that
we get frustrated because if we're the partner
that is a high desire, we're asking for sex,
we're asking for sex, and then our partner might reject us.
So we feel bad or they do it.
And then we think, okay, they don't really want to do it.
And then we're in our heads and it sort of becomes this loose, loose situation.
But mismatch sex graves are common.
The next thing is finding out when is sex good for her.
What kind of sex does she want when you do have it?
When you start having sex, is she into it?
When you start having sex, does she have pleasure
or is she just look like she's going through the motions?
Maybe there's just still some work here she has to do
by understanding how she wants to show
up sexually and what she requires.
I also understand the notion that you want her to initiate.
You want her to act like she wants it.
At least you want her to be into it.
So it really is important to find out again, what is she into?
What do you like?
What kind of sex feels good to her?
And maybe she has more to learn about sex. Maybe she hasn't had as many partners
or she hasn't done a lot of exploring.
So maybe there's some mutual masturbation
that could go on here where you're both masturbating
and you're figuring out what feels good to her.
Has she been with many women?
I don't know if this is a new relationship
or if she's had this kind of relationship before,
rather than getting upset and hurt, I would do some talking.
Yeah.
Getting clear.
I'm curious about this because I feel like this is a dynamic
that happens a lot, where you're almost
gilting your partner into it.
And it's kind of this negative feedback loop
where if I act upset, then my partner has sex with me.
How can she disrupt that cycle
and what are some new ways that she can encourage
her partner to desire sex more often?
Yeah, you know, the best way to do that would be a conversation outside the bedroom using my
three teas of communication, timing tone and turf, where the time is on your next date night.
Just decide that you're going to say, you know what? Let's talk about sex and your tone is open
and not judgmental. It's like, let's just get curious about our sex life. I love our relationship.
I love what we do with sex,
but I don't want it to be like I'm begging you.
And then I feel like if we don't have sex
or I don't bring it up, then it's not gonna happen,
but let's just talk more about like,
when is the best time of day?
What kind of sex do you like?
What feels good to you?
How do you like to be approached for sex?
What could get you in the mood?
If you're not sure,
you guys can also check out my book Smart Sex,
which I write all about understanding your mindset,
what kind of place you need to be in to be in the mood for sex,
and how can you guys work together?
So, again, I don't know how long you've been in this relationship,
but it sounds like there's more information you need,
because also there's the notion that maybe she's in sex,
maybe she's just have a lot of experience with sex.
Like, you just need to find out,
and so I don't think there's a different approach here, because what she's already trying is being a loof and waiting for her to approach what she's not doing and then getting
Angry and neither one of those are ideal
So just getting into the psychology of your partner and maybe there's a reason why she doesn't want a lot
Maybe she's on a certain medication that could be impacting our libido
I cannot emphasize that enough that we have to understand that if our partners on the birth control panel
have thrown a certain SSRI or any depressant,
maybe that's the culprit.
So she could talk to her doctor about what can she do
to make sure that she still has the sex drive.
Maybe she has some pain, we don't know.
But I'm gonna make an assumption here
that maybe you haven't had these kind of
clarifying conversations with your partner,
we can get more data and figure out what does it take?
Because also, if she says to you, nope, I just don't care.
I don't wanna talk about it.
I don't like sex.
It's never been my thing.
Then you have more information.
And you could say, well,
do I wanna be with somebody that I have to convince them
to have sex that's actually willing to have a life
that isn't as sexual as I require it?
But we won't know anything unless we talk about it.
If you haven't read Smart Sex, yeah.
One of the five pillars of sexual intelligence is collaboration.
And I would say if you have this conversation and your partner doesn't seem down for it,
she's just like, this is the way I am, I never want sex.
Then you're not fulfilling that pillar of sex IQ.
That just makes everything more difficult.
Yeah, it really does.
We have to all have healthy conversations about sex, which is also another skill set.
It's almost like the skill set of learning
how to communicate about sex is just as important
as the skill sets of learning how to actually perform
in the bedroom, although we don't want you to perform,
we want you to be present and do the things that make you feel good
and move your body in certain ways,
but again, we've got to talk about it too.
So try that on for size this year.
Start talking about it and see what kind of information you get.
And remember, it's out of one time conversation.
Alright, thanks for your question, Taylor.
You're not an asshole.
I just look forward to you getting some clarity with your girlfriend and seeing what kind
of sex life you both want to have and then you can create it together.
This is from Sid, he's 42 years old.
Hey Dr. Emily, I'm 42 years old and my libido is not what it used to be when I was in my
20s.
Obviously. It's extremely hard put intended to get it up and have the desire for sex more often than once a week.
I just don't feel like I have the stamina needed for sex more often than once a week without the help of a prescription pill.
When I don't have the stamina, I feel inadequate and insecure.
And also the pills have some annoying side effects from time to time that I don't always like dealing with, but my wife is an angel and deserves the best of the best.
Because I'm apparently such a decent person to her compared to her ex, her libido is actually
skyrocketed to unbelievable levels.
Part of me feels like I owe a turn of sex at least once a week, even if I need to use
my pills to help me do that.
Please help, she's the best thing that I've ever happened to be and I need to use my pills to help me do that. Please help. She's the best thing that has ever happened to me,
and I want to make sure she stays happy
and knows that she is valued and treasured.
Aw, I love that.
We love saying that.
You're not an asshole.
Say, do you want to feel valued and treasured
and show up for your wife at the frequency
in which she desires you to show up?
And so the first thing I want to say
is that whenever I hear people say things like,
part of me feels like I owe it to her of sex
at least twice a week.
And so first, let's have a conversation with her
and find out how often does she need sex?
And when she wants it, what kind of sex does she want?
She might be okay with oral sex.
If she has a higher sex
life, she might just want to get off and feel connected. And so it might not be about penetration.
It might be about connection, oral sex, using a toy. And so rather than, you know, feeling like
you have to jump through all of these hoops and take a pill that really isn't working for you,
and take a pill that really isn't working for you. Let's have a conversation and find out, you know,
with this skyrocketing libido,
you want to be a great lover tour,
how many times we could be right,
and then what kind of sex feels good?
Again, let me remind you that for many Volvo owners,
it's not all about penetration.
Now, you are married to her,
and you might know more than I know, obviously,
but again, a conversation to clear on what she actually requires with this higher libido than you
have would help you get some clarity.
What are some side effects that might be stopping someone from taking pills?
Well, you know, he might be getting headaches.
He might be having an erection last longer than he likes, might make him nauseous, indigestion,
you might be dizzy, back pain,
none of those things are fun, blurred vision.
And if that is the case, you could also talk to your doctor about finding some other solutions.
There are other pills out there.
There's other things that you could take if this one doesn't work for you, just because
it works for other people.
It doesn't mean it might work for you, but I got it.
You could take half the pill.
Maybe you could take it certain time today or make sure that you've eaten something. So there's ways to mitigate that. This goes for any medication
we take. Red thing going off of something cold turkey, although this isn't as needed
kind of pill. Always talk to your doctor about what else you can do for this.
If you heard our sex in the news episode, how often should you be having sex? The average
number of times couples had sex per week was one and a half. And so maybe that half time could be you going down on her, you pleasing her, you don't
have to worry about taking fat, or worry about your performance at all.
But if she is a high libido, you can still make her feel a lot of pleasure and satisfy
that.
Absolutely.
Get out of your head, start talking to her about it and get some information so you
can both show up for each other the way you want to.
And I don't think you're an asshole.
Not an asshole. Not an asshole.
Not an asshole said, this is from Lucy.
She's 38 years old and she wants to know,
am I the asshole for wanting oral sex every time,
not just on special occasions?
Hey ladies, I love the show and I'll think sex.
I recently started seeing a new guy.
We haven't had penetrative sex yet. He's all things sex. I recently started seeing a new guy. We haven't had
penetrative sex yet. He's all things I want in a relationship except we were talking about
Oral sex the other night. I'd given him a BJ where she wasn't expecting or anticipating.
I do it just as much for me as for him. He then said that Oral sex is only as a treat,
otherwise it gets taken for granted. For me, oral, both giving and receiving
is a huge part of sex, intimacy, and connection.
Am I the asshole to think this is really narrow-minded?
And how can I say it without seeming demanding?
That's one big thing that I really enjoy.
Am I the asshole in being selfish about this?
No, you're not the asshole at all.
In fact, what I love is that you're already having
conversations about sex before you even had penetrative sex. And listen, you're so not alone,
you're, in fact, not only you're not the asshole, but you are the norm. It's a many people prefer
oral sex as a warm-up to penetration. And yeah, you might want it every single time.
Now, it doesn't have to meet until completion every time.
We don't all have so much time,
every single time to give a blowjob,
and then they down on our and then have penetrative sex.
But for many people, it gets us going.
It's the first stop.
So I just think it's interesting
that he's looking at oral sex as a treat.
And I'm wondering where that comes from.
Why only treat and is he talking about receiving and giving? It's kind of what it sounds like,
which is surprising to me. It's always surprising to us when there's, well, first, what we've been told
and what we've learned is that men want blow jobs all the time. They would take it breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
They would do that in lieu of food.
And so I think whenever we hear a guy doesn't want it all the time
or he only wants in special occasions,
we pause, which by the way, all of these gender norm things
are truly outdated.
And I think that there are, just as we see here,
there's just as many vulvas who want oral sex,
even sometimes more than men.
So I think that this just comes down
to having another conversation with him and getting a little bit clearer. I'm like, so tell
me more about oral sex as a treat. Would you be down that it's something that I would require
a lot more often? And, you know, again, just because he said this doesn't mean that with
the right partner, he'd be willing to examine his views.
Mm-hmm.
I know I wonder where this message came from because yeah receiving it I feel
like that's something that women are kind of taught to do and men are kind of taught to expect.
So for him to say it's only a tree I don't want to even receive it. That's the anomaly right there
that he's saying I don't really want it needed every time and just to treat. I'm wondering if maybe he doesn't love receiving oral sex as much as he enjoys penetration.
Yeah. That's part of it. And that is true. We have heard this from men who say, you know what? I just,
I don't love it. I know it's supposed to be everything, but for me, it's not. And this is why we have
to be so careful and remember that we all get to decide what kind of sex feels good to us. And
just because we've heard that we should love it and we don't love it, maybe that's just things. So I would find out more
about his oral sex preferences. Just because he's not into it doesn't mean that you have to change
your views on oral sex. If you want it every time, you can let him know that it's a big part of
your arousal, it gets you going. Maybe you just see it for a few minutes. Maybe there's other things
you would want to. If this is your guy and again, it sounds like it's early on, you haven't penetrated sex yet, but sounds like you
require literal stimulation before you want penetration, which is very common. And so if he's not
willing to provide oral sex every time, is there something else you might need? You maybe use a toy,
use fingers, but you can just let him know that you're going to need some revenue up every time is there something else you might need? You maybe use a toy, use fingers, but you can just let them know that you're gonna need
some revenue every time and let's figure out what that looks like for both of us.
If he doesn't, that's just more time for him to go down on you.
I'm so fascinated by his idea that they'll take it for granted.
To me that almost sounds like he is worried about the sex going stale.
If they start doing oral sex every time,
then what more is there to do?
But if you listen to the show,
you know, there's literally endless things to try
and add to your sex repertoire.
But yeah, that's interesting to me.
That is a great point,
say it's taken for granted.
That reminds me of people who think
you can only give compliments every once in a while
because then your partner's gonna take it for granted
or if you always give to them, they're gonna expect it. And I would say that this is more about
his belief system and his personality to be thinking that things are going to run out or people
are going to take it for granted or have expectations. And what this makes me think is that in his
previous relationships, something happened in it where he felt that there was expectations that he couldn't
meet. And so he's got this philosophy around not doing too much or you take it for granted,
although we expectations he can't meet. So I think there's more here to unpack. And how we do one
thing is how we do everything. How we believe certain things is how we look at other areas of our life. So there's something here about, let's make this scars. I don't want you
to have expectations from me. And I think this is indicative of other things that other ways
that he feels, this is not good or bad. This is just something to look out for that he's thinking
about sex in this way. Do you think that part of the reason he's scared of oral sex getting taken
for granted is because he thinks he's only so good at oral sex?
Like, he has a cap of how good he is
and so the thing that keeps it hot and interesting
is how scary so this.
That could be a point as well.
A lot of us are concerned that we are not good
at oral sex, that we're not good at sex
and we just wanna do everything we can to avoid it,
especially oral sex.
We hear this from everyone, all genders
who are like, what if I'm not great at it? And so he thinks the less he does it, he won't have to a
face something that he's worried about, nervous about, and b, if he doesn't do that often, then
it will be a treat or he'll seem better than he is. So there's something that's happened in his
past around oral sex. And some beliefs he has that we can only find out by having another conversation with him about it.
And she could do it in a light way, you could say to him like, let's talk more about
that Oral Sex point.
I found that interesting.
For me, Oral Sex is a big part of my arousal telling about your experience with Oral
Sex.
Or what kind of Oral Sex are you into?
Or what feels good to you?
Because what we find out would our partner like, so what feels good to them, Orally, or
every other way.
We can add that to our repertoire.
Maybe he wants more suction.
He wants to use a hand.
He doesn't want a hand.
We are all different and then you get to tell him what you like orally.
I think you guys are still on a journey here to figuring out how you can both be great
lovers to each other.
You're going to find out soon enough, although note here, if you're with somebody who has
a scarcity mindset around oral sex, that could if you're with somebody who has a scarcity mindset around
oral sex, that could become a problem for somebody who loves oral sex and requires it.
So, you're finding things out early.
True.
Gathering data, you know, the first few months year we're dating somebody, we're just gathering
information.
We don't know yet.
We're listening.
We're paying attention.
And we're figuring out, is this somebody I can be compatible with? And rather than just making assumptions too,
you also get to have conversations about it. So what I'm here, you say, is oral sex might not be that important to you.
It is important to me. What else can we do to learn together and do not an asshole?
You're actually somebody who's who's thoughtful and contemplative. And you know, you want to get your needs met.
No problem there.
That's it for today's episode, see you on Tuesday. Thanks for listening to Sex with Emily.
Be sure to like, subscribe and give us a review wherever you listen to the podcast and
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