How Often Do Men Need to Have Sex?
Shaunti Feldhahn is an author and social researcher who specialises in marital relationships. In this article she responds to a question from a female reader about how often men need sex: “Even though I can go weeks or months and not miss it, he says he wants me to want it like he does.”
| Edited extract, read the full article here
How would you feel if you told your husband, “I need to hear you say ‘I love you’,” and he heaved a big sigh and said, “Okay, I’ll try to say it. But how often do you need to hear it? Is once a week okay? Whatever it is, tell me, and I’ll plan on that.”
My guess is, you’d be really hurt. You’d be thinking, He supposedly loves me, but he has to force himself to dredge up the willpower to show me love? Maybe he doesn’t really love me like he says he does.
You wouldn’t be hurt because he didn’t say “I love you” enough times. You’d be hurt because of what it implied. Maybe it means he doesn’t care about you. Maybe, you might think, it means you really aren’t even all that lovable.
Sex works the exact same way for most men. In the research, there seems to be no one standard amount of sex that men “need” to have; it is what sex signals to them that is important. Your sexual actions signal: I desire you; You are desirable; I want to be with you in that way; You make me feel amazing; I want to show you how much I care about you; and on and on.
We women think of sex as being primarily a physical need for a man: but it isn’t. One of a man’s deepest emotional needs is to feel that his wife desires him. And if he sees that his wife desires him, it gives him a sense of well-being in all the other areas of his life. But if she shows <big sigh> “Okay, fine, let’s get this over with,” then it is clear to him that she doesn’t desire him, he’s no good at trying to make her feel amazing, he must be completely undesirable… and that she doesn’t really care about him the way she says she does.
The I Love You Parallel
But let’s look at that “I love you” parallel for a moment. The research was just as clear that men love their wives but simply don’t think about saying words of love as often as a woman might want, either. Yet we rightly expect that men be purposeful about developing new habits of showing love. We rightly expect them to learn how to do that, and do it enthusiastically (rather than under compulsion), because it is so emotionally important to us as women.
The same thing can be said of sex. Now, yes, there are sometimes physical or emotional things that get in the way, and if that is true of you, please seek out professional help to address those issues. But for many women, we just don’t realize how important it is to be purposeful about developing new habits of showing our husbands love in this way; of learning how to do it, and doing it enthusiastically because it is so emotionally important to our men.
Although the average appears to be a few times a week, there is no one “right amount” of sex that men need. Instead, the one constant is his emotional need to feel that you desire him. Find ways to show that, and you’ll probably see more love coming from him to you, too!
This is an edited extract. Read the full article here
Watch video Desire Discrepancy from SmartLoving’s Marriage Kit – An Online course for marriage enrichment. This video is part of lesson 4 – Let’s talk – about sex!
To enrol in the course and see all lessons click here
