Andy Warhol Buttons

They married in their 20s, and for years the New York couple had a rich, full sex life. But beginning in his late 30s, the husband no longer eyed his wife with desire. When she hesitantly tried to talk about their sex life, he changed the subject. Sex became almost a nonevent, and their once-strong relationship soured. As a California couple the difference between the two couples? "Knowledge and understanding," says clinical psychologist Sallie Schumacher of Winston-Salem, N.C., former president of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research. "As couples approach the middle years, their bodies, styheaded into their 40s, their sex life changed too -- but for the better. True, they no longer frolicked in the bedroom like newlyweds. But both agreed that the sensual side of their marriage had never burned so brightly. What explains les and sexual responses change."