Adultery The Aarogya Wellness and Intimacy Clinic

[prasannas2001]

 

 
If there was something every other husband knew instinctively, and he was fumbling in the dark while his wife waited for him to figure it out.
 
The door opened.
 
Seema came out first.
 
She walked slowly, eyes down, hands clasped in front of her.
 
She wore a deep blue salwar kameez, plain, modest, and she looked very small in it.
 
There was a flush on her cheeks that might have been embarrassment or might have been shame.
 
She didn't look at him.
 
Behind her, Dr. Priya Menon stood in the doorway.
 
She was in her forties, sharp-featured, reading glasses pushed up into her hair.
 
She held a file in one hand.
 
"Mr. Naveen," she said.
 
"Would you come in, please?"
 
 
The consultation room was small and brightly lit. Dr. Menon sat across from them, the file open on the desk.
 
"I've completed the examination," she said.
 
"And I've spoken with your wife at length."
 
"I want to be direct with both of you."
 
Naveen's stomach tightened.
 
"Medically speaking, there is nothing physically wrong with Seema."
 
"Her reproductive system is healthy."
 
"Her hormone levels are normal."
 
"There is no infection, no structural abnormality, no underlying condition that would explain what she's experiencing."
 
Naveen let out a breath.
 
Relief, brief, bright, immediately swallowed by confusion.
 
"Then what, "
 
"What your wife is experiencing is psychological," Dr. Menon said.
 
"The clinical term, and I want to be honest, it's an outdated term, but it's the one still in use, is frigidity."
 
The word landed in the room like a stone.
 
Naveen felt it hit him somewhere in the chest.
 
He looked at Seema.
 
She had gone very still, staring at a fixed point on the desk, her face closed like a door.
 
"It's not a moral judgment," Dr. Menon continued.
 
"It's a description of a symptom."
 
"In Seema's case, it appears to be a conditioned response, an involuntary physical reaction to the expectation of intimacy."
 
"The body learns to protect itself, even when the threat isn't real."
 
Even when the threat isn't real.