VICE reached out to people who've been in hybrid poly-mono relationships to find out what the biggest challenges are from both sides and how people cope when their partner loves differently from them.

The current arrangement is me poly and him mono; I can have emotional relationships but nothing physical. This came after many hours of communication and a few arguments. He knew I was poly from day one—it's been quite a process for us to get to where we are. I am still very close to my former partner, and the three of us hang out occasionally—that took him a while to be comfortable with.

The biggest challenge has been the communication and fighting the urge to act on my desires. My love language is primarily physical, so not being able to express my love that way has been tough. I've had to learn to accept showing love in other ways to my emotional partners. His biggest challenge has been to understand the why and how behind polyamory.

I chose to live monogamously with my boyfriend after a fiasco one night where I made a hasty decision that severely affected him. My other partner at that time could not advance his relationship with me further than what it was, and my boyfriend was in a position to. I didn't want to jeopardize a future with my boyfriend nor did I want to lead my former partner on while waiting for my boyfriend to come around to a physical aspect of me practicing polyamory. I decided to end the relationship with my former partner to be fair to him and my boyfriend.