Sexual Potency

 Early ejaculation, or by the Latin term ejaculatio praecox, is the most common sexual problem in men, affecting 25%-40% of men. It is characterized by a lack of voluntary control over ejaculation. Masters and Johnson stated that a man suffers from premature ejaculation if he ejaculates before his partner achieves orgasm in more than fifty percent of his sexual encounters.

Other sex researchers have defined premature ejaculation as occurring if the man ejaculates within two minutes or less of penetration; however, a survey by Alfred Kinsey in the 1950s demonstrated that three quarters of men ejaculated within two minutes of penetration in over half of their sexual encounters. Today, most sex therapists understand premature ejaculation as occurring when a lack of ejaculatory control interferes with sexual or emotional well-being in one or both partners.

Most men experience premature ejaculation at least once in their lives. Often adolescents and young men experience “premature” ejaculation during their first sexual encounters, but eventually learn ejaculatory control. Because there is great variability in both how long it takes men to ejaculate and how long both partners want sex to last, researchers have begun to form a quantitative definition of premature ejaculation. Current evidence supports an average intravaginal ejaculation latency time of six and a half minutes in 18-30 year olds. If the disorder is defined as an intravaginal ejaculation latency time percentile below 2.5, then premature ejaculation could be suggested by an intravaginal ejaculation latency time of less than about one and a half minutes. Nevertheless, it is well accepted that men with intravaginal ejaculation latency times below 1.5 minutes could be “happy” with their performance and do not report a lack of control and therefore do not suffer from Premature ejaculation. On the other hand, a man with 2 minutes intravaginal ejaculation latency time could present with perception of poor control over his ejaculation, distressed about his condition, has interpersonal difficulties and therefore be diagnosed with Premature ejaculation.