I Need WLW Marriage Help and Advice - Apologies for the long post

Questions / Advice Wanted

Hi, all! I apologize for the length of this post. I feel like I don't have anyone else to turn to other than someone actually in the WLW community. Please let me know if you have any questions I can help to clarify for you.

I, (36F) have been with my wife (33F) for almost 10 years and married for 6. I was her first 'out' girlfriend, and her family did not respond to this positively. It was not a secret that they weren't happy about her being gay, as it didn't fit their 'still in my clique from high school popularity circle'. This was extremely difficult for my wife as they were openly anti our relationship, reacted poorly to our engagement, and even tried to get us to not get married a few months before our wedding. However, our wedding happened, and it seemed all was well & it didn't hurt that we lived about 1,200 miles away, so we had the distance on our side.

However, during the pandemic, we decided to move closer to home as our city was extremely expensive, to be closer to family, and to have some additional support as she had some chronic illnesses pop up during this time, and I could use some extra hands. In the almost 5ish years that we have lived here, she has dealt with fibro and all that comes with it, long-haul COVID, some mental health medications, which can be exhausting, etc. But, I think the biggest hurdle has been these last 2ish years. During this time, she has dealt with multiple surgeries, which resulted in a total hysterectomy and going into menopause extremely early.

Her recovery was less than ideal as she dealt with some complications, mainly at the hands of her doctor/surgeon. During her recovery, I also dealt with extreme family illness, loss of 2 jobs, and a Bipolar 2 diagnosis on top of starting very intense EMDR therapy. All the while, due to her recovery, she was, of course, unable to help with things around the house, grocery shopping, working to pay the bills, etc. She feels that I abandoned her during her 11-month or so recovery. While I know I wasn't 100%, I did really try my best to do what I could with what I had, if that makes sense.

After spending long amounts of time with her parents and sister, she is now asking for a divorce/separation. I am, of course, adamantly against this and feel that they are not acting or giving advice in her best interest, but in their own personal interest. I feel I can confidently say this as even when giving 'advice' they bring up things that happened 8+ years ago like not asking for permission to marry her (she was very firm she didn't want me asking them that), as well as some other things I am more than happy to add if you have questions, but I don't want to go into too much detail for obvious reasons.

We did try couples therapy; however, it was a total fail. The therapist's office we were working with was a married couple that happened to be going through their own divorce. During our 2nd ever meeting, the therapist advised us it was time to divorce, split assets, etc., which, of course is 100% unethical.

For the last 2.5 weeks, she has been at her parents' house with our dog, and we have had some limited contact while I remain at the house. During this time apart, I have had some time to not only do some self-reflection, but also talk at length to our shared group of friends. While I know that can be a slippery slope, they also had reached out for concern for her and how much she has changed post-surgery and during menopause to the point where she really doesn't have any friends currently due to how she sees things, acts, etc.

I guess I am just looking for advice, thoughts, etc.? While I love and appreciate the support and help I've gotten from family and friends, I do also feel there is a certain caveat to a WLW relationship and how different and unique those 'rules' and dynamics are compared to a heterosexual relationship.

If you've read this far, THANK YOU. And, in the words of Billy Eichner, Come on, Lesbians, Let's go Lesbians!

Posted Dec 29, 2025, 7:50 PM UTC

11
Loading comments…