How are important issues in your romantic relationships brought up?

My best friend and I were just observing that women tend to be the ones to bring up topics of significance in relationships—at what point it becomes “official,” whether to stay together or break up when one person has to move, other big-pink-elephant-in-the-room problems that both parties know about.

Has this been your experience? When you’ve had to go through these conversations, who tends to bring them up, and how?