Personally I think that sexuality is a minor influence in marriages staying together with transitioned partners. I think it mostly has to do with how well the couple communicate and as you said Nadine, how connected they are to start with.

I think there is also an underlying issue in couples staying together through transition and that is the lack of support and encouragement both in society and within our community for those who wish to stay together, in particular a lack of support for the partner of the trans individual. There is plenty of support if that partner does not wish to stay with the trans person and even here on these forums I think there is an unconscious bias towards legitimising partners separating in the face of CD'ing or transition. In no way am I trying to blame partners who struggle with this really, but when a partner consciously decides and says "stuff it, I don't care what society, my family etc. thinks, I love this person and we will face it together and STAY together" then they are met with lots of platitudes of "oh you are very brave" and "that's such a sacrifice you are making" that seem to imply that their life from then on is doomed to being less than what it could be if only they had married someone normal. I'm not saying it is a bed of roses being married to someone who is trans but there is beauty in this that can and should be celebrated. Trans individuals in our community are also not immune to this with individuals swamped with albeit well meaning but nevertheless fairly negative advice of "be prepared to lose everything when you transition".

I think if we could provide encouragement and yes, positive support for partners and for those who are trans to varying degrees then we hopefully can have more couples who stay together. Let's face it, they are going to receive plenty of "negative" support from the general community so do we really need to reinforce this?