'I Haven't Had Sex in 15 Years'

Writer Kit Naylor didn't intend for things to work out this way. She likes men. She likes love. And yet somehow, "here I am—55 years old, a spinster long past my sell-by date, no kids—and I haven't had sex in a decade and a half.” She explains in Salon how she meant to merely take a break from the "middle-aged dating roller coaster." And how, 15 years later, she's come to an uneasy peace with her situation.

She admits she's more or less a recluse. And casual sex doesn't cut it for her, especially having known what it means to be intimate in a committed relationship. What to do? "I'm not sure. I know that, eventually, the longing lessens. It never goes away entirely—I still tear up at Hallmark commercials—but it's like quitting smoking. After a while your motor shifts into idle, and you just stop thinking about it." (More dating stories.)