Sex File: Christmas stress is ruining our sex life - what should I do?

"Between office parties, Nativity plays, Christmas shopping and cramming a fortnight's worth of work into five days so that you can take a stress-free week off over Christmas, this is just not the time of year for languid lovemaking"

Suzi Godson: "Although you are desperate to fill the sex-shaped hole in your Christmas calendar, bad sex is worse than no sex." Picture: iStock.

We are both going through incredibly stressful pre-Christmas periods at work, which have completely tanked our sex drives. Missing out on our usual intimacy is making things worse. How can we keep our connection going without adding to our anxiety?

I worked till 10pm last night (Friday) having got up at 5am yesterday morning to do Christmas shopping before the online delivery window closed. Standing in the kitchen with a quadruple espresso, I watched my husband prepare to leave for work and I felt an overwhelming need to be hugged. Still in my pyjamas, we stood in the hall and he put his arms around me and rubbed my back. I felt flooded with relief and melted into his arms.