When one person in a relationship, be it the woman or the man, suffers from a low sex drive the effects are actually most difficult on the recipient partner. Frequently he or she is resigned to a feeling of frustration or even rejection and starts to rely more and more on masturbation and self pleasure - or even finding another partner in extreme cases.

It's a serious problem as often the resentment felt from this situation will spill into other area's of the marriage and if the problem develops into something acute it can even be the central cause for the marriage to end. Sometimes we don't realize just how important sexual fulfillment is in our relationship until it disappears.

It's completely normal for couples to have different levels of sex drive and a compromise in this area of a relationship is normal however if the levels vary by a great deal then it's a problem which must be looked at and addressed. Exactly how you go about treating the problem will depend to a large extent on identifying its cause in the first place.

One common cause of a low sex drive is depression. Real depression will almost certainly have an effect on your sex drive and in the case of women it can be caused by a number of different factors such as a hysterectomy for example. In instances of depression it's best to address that particular problem first and by default a persons sex drive will often return to normal as a consequence.

Childbirth can also hide the surprising side effect of producing a low sex drive. Sometimes it's easy to become totally enamored with a new born baby, along with the exhaustion that goes with looking after it, and experience a massive loss in sex drive. You will need to acknowledge this with your partner and work together to bring things back to normal, it's very important as your husband could soon find himself feeling unappreciated and having his needs ignored.

Lastly we must look at Menopause which can cause all kinds of side effects due to the massive hormonal activity which occurs at this time. In all cases remember that sex in a marriage is never just 'your problem' or 'my problem' you must at all times view it as 'our problem' and solve it as a team.