I don’t think a relationship can survive in a healthy way without intimacy. When you use the word “intimacy,” most people today see it as a euphemism for sex, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
There are plenty of relationships — especially unhappy marriages — that are missing both intimacy and sex, but if you can have only one of them, genuine intimacy is the one you need.
I’m thinking about this unusual subject tonight because it’s randomly come up in two conversations in the past two days — both times involving sex for women who have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). When random chance brings such a strange subject into my life twice within 24 hours, I tend to pay attention.
Thursday evening, I was talking with a young woman who I’ve known for only a few weeks. She’s a very attractive 18-year-old who I met randomly and see fairly frequently. (For privacy reasons, I’m going to disguise the identities of both women I discuss.)