A Simple Reason Many Couples Deal With Desire Discrepancy, From A Sex Coach

Most people who've been in a long-term relationship are familiar with the concept of desire discrepancy, which is when two partners aren't aligned about when and how often to have sex. One study found four in five couples dealt with desire discrepancy1 in the last month.

There are two models of sexual desire: spontaneous desire and responsive desire. Spontaneous desire means you'll just spontaneously feel like having sex at random or in response to a stimulus (aka seeing a sexy person walk by), whereas responsive desire means you only feel like having sex once you're starting to get into some sexy acts.

"Culturally we tend to think there's just one model, and that's I get sexual stimulus, and I'm totally ready for sex. That model is called spontaneous desire," Joy explains. "It just means I'm like, oh! The visuals or somebody asked me to have sex and, yup, I'm ready. You kind of go from zero to 100 right away."

When two people in a relationship have different types of desire, Joy says, that can produce desire discrepancy. It may feel like the issue is that one person wants sex more often than the other, when in reality it's simply that one person has responsive desire while the other person has spontaneous desire. They both have sexual desire, but it just comes up in different ways.

The problem arises when the couple makes comparisons between each other and judges the person with responsive desire for not having spontaneous desire. 

Step one is to stop trying to make the person with the responsive desire be more like the person with the spontaneous desire. Responsive desire doesn't mean you have a lower libido. It's just another healthy, normal way to experience desire that requires a different approach to sex than what spontaneous desire folks are used to.

For the person with the responsive desire, Joy says the main thing to do is to figure out how to access your turn-on (with or without your partner). You don't get turned on spontaneously like your partner does, so what does turn you on?

"Maybe I feel good about my body when I exercise. Maybe it is not having stupid underwear but having cute underwear. Maybe I need 30 minutes of cuddling before I even start to think about being sexual," Joy says. "Maybe I need my husband to do bedtime with the kids, and I need to take a bubble bath." She also suggests listening to erotic audio stories for women (there are apps for that!) or even watching steamy shows like Outlander before heading to bed. Whatever works for you!