MS and Your Sex Life By R. Morgan Griffin

Keep your sex life exciting, playful, and fun. The key is to take the time to find out what’s important to you and your partner.

Explore. Your body may feel different than it used to. Get in touch with that, says Rosalind Kalb, PhD, of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Lock the bedroom door, relax, and take 15 minutes to feel every part of your body.

“Figure out what feels good, what doesn’t, and what hurts,” Kalb says. This isn’t about masturbation, although that’s good, too. It’s about taking stock of what your body feels now.

Share what you’ve learned. Once you have a sense of what feels good, tell your partner, who may have been nervous or worried about accidentally hurting you.

Reset your relationship. “When you have MS, you and your partner talk a lot about your health,” says Cindy Richman of the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America. “You may start to feel more like a patient than a person.”

Don’t let all the health talk make you less sexual and desirable. To reconnect, set aside times where you agree not to talk about MS.