Breaking up is hard to do and yet it happens to most of us. Statistics show that half of all marriages end in divorce and many people remarry to repeat the pattern again- and again. Add to that the number of couples living together without benefit of marriage along with couples in committed relationships and we're talking about a major portion of the population. Instead of receiving any useful information on how to begin and end a relationship, I was given a romantic love story that promised passionate sex in marriage with a happy life ever after.

Hello Betty,

Hello Dr. Betty,

I'm a 30 year old man, and have been with my girlfriend for 9 months now. From the very beginning, and up until very recently, we have had the most amazing, uninhibited and intense sex together. There has been nothing wrong, no problems, and we both concur that what's between us (in everything, and certainly in bed) is something absolutely amazing. And then we moved in together.

Hello Betty

This is very long but I wanted you to have the full story. I’m sorry. I’m 63 years of age and reasonably fit. I exercise regularly but probably eat and drink a bit too much. My wife began menopause in the mid 1990’s and unfortunately she had a terrible time over the next 4 or 5 years; we still had sex but less often.

Dear Dr. Betty,

I've sent you a question before, regarding my sexual frustrations during sex, thanks to my physical handicap. I have a new problem, unfortunately. It has nothing to do with my sex life, but it does have to do with the emergence of polyamory in our popular culture.

Betty,

You and Carlin are very adventurous and obviously you both have had sex with numerous people and continue to explore our vast population. I learned in sex ed that when a women has sex with a man, her hormones are automatically going to make her somewhat attached to that man. So my question is, is that true? And if so, how do you and Carlin curb those emotions? How are you both able to not feel attached or in love with someone you only had sex with?

Dear A,

Dear Dr. Betty,

My husband & I have been together 20 years. My husband had only been with 5 partners before marriage, and I lost count at about 40. Honesty was always my first priority, and I made that exceedingly clear. I encouraged my husband to let me know if he was attracted to someone and that maybe we could work some fun sex out, I'm bisexual.

Dear Betty,

We are a polyamorous couple in our twenties, and while we are each other's primary partners I do have other lovers. Lately, I've been noticing that it seems easier to 'let go' and orgasm with my other partner than with my husband, and I was wondering if it's because the 'stakes are higher' in a long-term relationship, or for some other reason?

Dear Betty,

I'm coming at the open relationship thing from an opposite angle from the common question. A close friend of mine is open with her boyfriend and is interested in me to an extent. I'd take her up on it but I am confronted by two insecurities: I'm far less experienced than him and I don't want to strain anything because I don't know the exact boundaries in their openness.

You seem knowledgeable on how this works, but the articles on this site tend to confront openness from the partners' side rather than the fling's side.

Hi Betty and Carlin,

I am a twenty-two year old woman from Brooklyn who just got out of a very devoted & intense six-year heterosexual relationship. During those six years (with the exception of a six-month break and two short-lived sexual partners) I had a lot of sex: some of it really great; but now I'm scared that my sexual experience has been irrevocably molded by my ex-partner's particular set of sexual preferences.