My Fond Farewell to Viagra

Or passionate love in a sexless marriage

Carrie Hayes
Middle-Pause
Published in
6 min readAug 16, 2023

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Thomas Rowlandson artist, Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain

“Out of the tree of life, I picked me a plum. You came along and everything started to hum..” -The Best is Yet to Come composer Cy Coleman /lyrics Carolyn Leigh

You know you’re with the right person when getting along isn’t a struggle.

Such is my good fortune and when I think of my husband, the above lyrics often come to mind. Wherever we go and whatever we do, it’s always an adventure. We’ve weathered many ups and downs and we’ve prevailed.

But, less than a decade ago, he reached for his little blue pill, and said, “if there comes a day when I stop thinking of you as a sex object, I’ll probably want to give up living.” He had a standing prescription and for him, the blue pills always did the trick. It was the perfect solution. But for me, being female, things were not that simple.

My own sexuality had been as robust as anyone’s, but as the years passed, time eventually had its way with my body. What had once been a vibrant enthusiasm for all things conjugal morphed into awkward discomfort, painful grimacing, and mumbled apologies. I was baffled. Our warm, delicious exchanges were now something grating. Then, suddenly, without warning, it was impossible to even endure.

Frantic, I scoured women’s…

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Carrie Hayes
Middle-Pause

writes historical fiction and is the host of the podcast Angry Dead Women. linktr.ee/carriehayeswrites