Sex File: My husband of 20 years is happy for me to take a lover

Picture: iStock 

We've been married for 20 years, have three teens and a happy life, but sex has dwindled. Recently, I've felt attraction towards other women, as well as men. I don't want to leave my husband, but it feels like there is a side of my identity that I can't explore. He's told me that he'd be open to me experimenting outside our marriage. Is that a bad idea?

The phenomenon of women who have previously been in a long-term heterosexual partnership pursuing a lesbian relationship relatively later in life is increasingly common. Traditionally, women who left their marriages for female partners were accused of having hidden their true sexuality, but female sexuality seems to be much more fluid than male and this appears to be particularly true in midlife.