Learn about our expanded patient care options and visitor guidelines. Intimacy is key to having a healthy, functional and overall happy relationship. Intimacy tends to follow a pattern as a relationship evolves. Couples newly in love typically experience feelings of closeness and excitement and have regular sex, says Kraft.

Am I or someone I know in one? But whether it applies to your scenario can vary. Becker-Warner says. There are solutions. No one, except for the individuals in the relationship, should decide if being in a sexless partnership is concerning.

Research suggests that sexual satisfaction plays a pivotal role in healthy relationships according to research, but there are a number of factors that can influence the quality of a couple's sex life as well as individual sexual desire over the course of a relationship. It may a short-term problem related to stress at work or other issues that have driven your partner to distraction. Even more commonly, a sudden, hectic schedule—ranging from end-of-year exams to a do-or-die work deadline—can leave your partner exhausted and uninterested in anything more than sleep or a night in front of the TV. While dry spells like these are common and usually resolve on their own once things stabilize, a prolonged and unexplained disinterest in sex can be harmful to a relationship and the general well-being of both partners.

This can be simply down to the fact that sexual interest tends to ebb and flow over time. It can also be related to specific issues in the relationship or external pressures from outside it. Anxieties surrounding sex can also come from different expectations about how much sex you think you should be having.