The advice columnist and podcaster Dan Savage says “the relationship graveyard is full of tombstones that say ‘everything was great… except the sex'”.
Finding a sexually compatible partner is in every way as important, if not more important, than the other aspects of relationship that we concentrate on. People will agonize over finding a partner that shares similar political, religious, and family viewpoints. If you absolutely want children and a potential partner absolutely does not, then that is usually a simple and guilt-free deal breaker for most people. So why is it that if you have a high sex drive and your potential partner has a very low one, so many people are reluctant to consider that a deal breaker as well?
Much of it is cultural. America was founded by Puritans, and many religions still shame and stigmatize sex, both in and out of wedlock. Many parents shame children over sexual interests and masturbation. Pornography usage is often viewed as a character defect, even though the vast majority of adults use pornography from time to time, if not regularly. The current political arguments over something as straightforward as birth control shows that America struggles with being comfortable with our sexual sides. Simply saying “sex” is enough to make some grown adults blush or shift uncomfortably in their seats.
Therefore, it is not surprising that people often minimize their sexual interests and the level of their libido (i.e. how much sex you want). No one wants to appear to be a sex-crazed pervert during the early stages of dating. So sex is considered a secondary or even tertiary concern, despite the fact it is among the very top reasons for marital discord and divorce.
Stigma and shame mean people are not always comfortable disclosing their sexual interests or level of desire. People will often go years, even decades, without disclosing a particular sexual fetish or “kink” to their spouse, and resigning themselves to a state of perpetual dissatisfaction.
Differences in level of libido are by far the most common complaint. But this is not always as simple as it seems. It is a stereotype that men are likely to always want sex, and that women are likely to be disinterested (“frigid” as it used to be called). Again, in my practice that is not accurate at all. It is very much an even split between which sex has the higher sex drive, and often the older the couple, the more likely it is to be the woman who is dissatisfied with the amount of sex the couple is having.