Sex File: My wife and I haven't had sex in over a decade

"Although you hold your wife responsible for the absence of sex in your marriage, you are not necessarily blameless"

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My wife and I are in our mid-fifties and we haven't had sex for more than ten years. She says her libido has all but disappeared. I want us to stay together - I love her, value our relationship and we have two children. I just don't know what to do. Do I just have to accept that things will never change?

You are not the only ones not having sex. Research using Natsal-3 data (which collected data between 2010 and 2012) suggests that more than 33 per cent of people aged 55-64 who are in a relationship are sexually inactive. By the age of 70, 48.6 per cent of men and 65.7 per cent of women are not having any sex. Unlike you, however, only 33 per cent of men and 25 per cent of women who are not having sex say they are dissatisfied with their sex life.