Before going to sleep the last thing 54-year-old Graham* does is reach across the bed and kiss his wife Laura* goodnight. This small gesture of affection has endured over two decades of marriage. But for the past six years, Graham has retreated to his side of the bed afterwards, feeling increasingly rejected, resentful – and lonely.

“We haven’t been any more physical than that since Christmas 2018, and I’ve given up asking,” admits the Manchester, UK-based solicitor. “On my birthday she proudly presented me with an expensive pair of monogrammed pyjamas – despite me only ever sleeping in boxer shorts since we met in our 20s. I felt part of me shrivel up in that moment because it so precisely summed up how she saw me: entirely sexless. I’m like a comforting old teddy bear in her bed, not a husband nor a real man.”

The Telegraph London