I first met Rachel, or rather the man behind her, whilst I was on holiday with friends. We used to write and phone several times each week, meeting up at weekends. After four years we married; our sex life was pretty good to start with and we had two children. However it seemed familiarity bred complacency and after twenty years of marriage we had settled for once a month.

  That was the case until September last year. I thought my world had crashed when I discovered an email confirming an order for a wig. My husband dismissed the email but I found the wig together with a large plastic bag, the contents of which I dare not examine. I thought he must be having an affair but when I confronted him, again he dismissed it. When I produced the evidence, close to tears, he told me that the wig was his and the bag contained female clothing. I asked all the usual questions. Was he gay? Why did he need to cross-dress? Was he going to be a woman? He explained that this was something that he had had to live with all of his life. He had been discovered aged four or five dressed in his older sister's clothes, but not punished for it. For years after, his sister would dress him as a girl when their parents were at work. Once his sister, four years his senior, started work, he was left alone continuing to dress in secret. He admitted that it was something he had always done even after we were married.

  'She' says that she will never go the 'whole way' and is just a transvestite, which is something that I feel I can live with though it's been a steep learning curve. It was a relief to know that the 'other woman' was someone that I already knew, my husband! Life is different now, we have grown much closer and the sexual side of our relationship has never been better, although his femme side doesn't come to bed often. I now have a new best friend called Rachel.

  Sue RG - Roses Forum.

Copyright 2005 Rose's Repartee Magazine