It’s no secret that most people find it embarrassing to talk about sex, and although many of us will experience sexual issues in our lifetime, the data indicates that only around 25% of people who suffer from such issues actually seek treatment.
Sex therapist Dr. Zuckerman is here to answer your questions. Today, we address a question from a man who is not sure if he suffers from premature ejaculation.
Do I Ejaculate Prematurely?
Question: When my girlfriend and I are having sex, she never reaches an orgasm by penetration, although she claims that she did with previous partners. I always reach orgasm before her, but I don’t know exactly how long can I hold. Is this considered premature ejaculation? If so, can I overcome it?
Dr. Zvi Zuckerman: The tendency today is to diagnose premature ejaculation by timing from the moment of penetration and sexual movement to the moment of ejaculation. A study conducted in the Netherlands found that about 80% of the men who defined themselves as experiencing premature ejaculation climaxed within one minute from the moment of penetration. That is indeed fast. Ejaculation that takes more than two minutes from the moment of penetration is considered normal (although the average is five minutes). You should take an accurate measurement, since men tend to answer inaccurately when asked how long it takes them to reach ejaculation. Of course, if a man says that that he ejaculates immediately following penetration, we know that is abnormally fast, but otherwise we need to measure the average time.
A study that examined the causes of premature ejaculation revealed a genetic component and found that 91% of cases are hereditary; that is to say, both father and son suffer from the condition.
As for treatment, there are a few options. Behavioral treatment has been available for several dozen years and helps up to 90% of patients to gain better control over their ejaculation reflex. It is recommended that the treatment take place with the partner, but you can also achieve results by yourself. The conditioning is based on masturbation or full penetration exercises performed in a gradual, systematic manner, which you must do exactly according to the instructions. The treatment can be performed in up to 10 clinical sessions with a sex therapist or, alternatively, at home with the program that we have developed—the PE Program.
Another treatment is to use a spray or an ointment to reduce the sensation in certain areas of your penis, which enables you to have greater control for a few minutes.
Antidepressant medications (SSRIs) are another option, as one of their side effects is delayed ejaculation. You would take the medicine every day or five hours before sex. Be aware, however, that these medications have side effects, such as weariness, headache, nausea, dry mouth, drowsiness, and reduced libido.
An additional option is injecting erection-inducing medication into your penis, which will cause a 30-minute erection and enable you to continue sexual intercourse even after ejaculation so that your partner will have greater enjoyment.
In any case, you will need to consult a sex therapist in order to decide on the best method for your age, number of years of marriage, intimacy of your relationship, and other factors.
Ask Dr Zuckerman a Question: Send your questions to info (@) betweenusclinic.com.
Dr. Zuckerman is a medical doctor and sex therapist whose exemplary career has spanned 40 years. He began his career in 1966 when he was certified as a medical doctor (M.D.) at the Basel Medical School, Switzerland. Since then, Dr. Zuckerman has been certified as a sex therapist and as a supervisor of sex therapy by the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT), and as a marital and sex therapist by the University of Pennsylvania and the Marriage Council of Philadelphia.
Among the positions he has held, Dr. Zuckerman has served as the Director of the Andrology and Sex Counseling Unit at the Rabin Medical center. He is the author of 48 original articles, 3 reviews, 2 case reports, 11 book chapters and 172 papers presented at scientific meetings (Some of them can be found on PubFacts). In his decades of work in sex therapy, Dr. Zuckerman has successfully treated thousands of men and women for a variety of sexual disorders.
