What Is Premature Ejaculation? What Causes Premature Ejaculation?

Editor's Choice
Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Men's health;  Urology / Nephrology
Article Date: 12 May 2010 - 0:00 PDT


Premature ejaculation (PE) is the most common sexual dysfunction for men. PE affects 25% to 40% of men in the United States. 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.

Sometimes the problem is a shortened period before ejaculation because of the need for prolonged stimulation to achieve an erection. Premature ejaculation is more common in younger men and often resolves with increasing experience.

Anxiety often plays a role. Psychological and drug therapy with sertraline can be effective, but reported success rates are conflicting, which suggests that the benefits are not maintained. Retarded or absent ejaculation often is caused by medications, most commonly antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs.

If something's happening too soon in sex, who is setting the pace, and who defines when sex starts and ends. The good thing about premature ejaculation is that it gives you an opportunity not only to fix what may feel like a shameful sexual problem, but to actually make sex life better from the inside out.

According to Medilexicon's medical dictionary:

Premature ejaculation is when during sexual intercourse, too rapid achievement of climax and ejaculation occurs in the male relative to his own or his partner's wishes.

Researchers define premature using a stopwatch. Current evidence supports an average intravaginal ejaculation latency time of six and a half minutes in 18-30 year olds. One may define PE based on what you want, what the partner wants, or what you think you or your partner should want. Before one tries to sign up for a drug trial or let anxiety fester about inability to perform start by making sure you know your own definition and your partner's definition, and consider whether the sex you're having is worth drawing out.

What are the symptoms of Premature Ejaculation?

A symptom is something the patient senses and describes, while a sign is something other people, such as the doctor notice. For example, drowsiness may be a symptom while dilated pupils may be a sign.

Premature ejaculation is ejecting semen from the penis, usually accompanied by orgasm occurring sooner than a man wishes during sexual activity.

Premature ejaculation is characterized by a lack of voluntary control over ejaculation that interferes with optimal sexual or psychological well-being in either partner. Also referred to as rapid ejaculation, premature ejaculation typically occurs before or shortly after penetration during sexual intercourse.

What are the causes of Premature Ejaculation?

Psychological factors commonly contribute to premature ejaculation.

While men sometimes underestimate the relationship between sexual performance and emotional well-being, premature ejaculation can be caused by temporary depression, stress over financial matters, unrealistic expectations about performance, a history of sexual repression, or an overall lack of confidence.

Interpersonal dynamics strongly contribute to sexual function, and premature ejaculation can be caused by a lack of communication between partners, hurt feelings, or unresolved conflicts that interfere with the ability to achieve emotional intimacy.

Premature ejaculation can also be caused by a variety of medical conditions, such as thyroid disorders, a prostate or urethra infection, abnormal ejaculatory system reflex activity, nervous system damage from surgery or trauma or abnormal hormone or brain chemical levels.

Neurological premature ejaculation can also lead to other forms of sexual dysfunction, or intensify the existing problem, by creating performance anxiety. In a less pathological context, premature ejaculation could also be caused simply by extreme arousal.

Diagnosing Premature Ejaculation

It is important to determine the type of premature ejaculation one has before you begin looking for solutions.

If one has had a problem with premature ejaculation ever since they began having sex, the problem is referred to as a primary premature ejaculation.

Secondary premature ejaculation occurs when someone who has had good control previously begins to develop a problem. This information will help a doctor determine the best course of treatment.

What are the treatment options for Premature Ejaculation?

Once a cause has been identified, treatment can begin.

If premature ejaculation is occurring for psychological reasons, a doctor may suggest the squeeze technique. When one feels that they are about to ejaculate, asking your partner to gently squeeze the end of the penis just below the head for a few moments until the urge goes away may help. Wait at least 30 seconds before continuing foreplay. When reaching the point of ejaculation, ask your partner to perform the squeeze technique again. Keep doing this until you feel that you can enter your partner without immediately ejaculating.

Other methods of avoiding premature ejaculation include masturbating a few hours before you expect to have sex and concentrating on other methods of sexual pleasure for a certain period of time to remove any pressure one may feel about having sex.

Anti-depressants and anesthetic cream applied directly to the penis can help some men prolong ejaculation. Psychotherapy, used either alone or in conjunction with other therapies, can help men overcome premature ejaculation.

If the problem has a medical cause, appropriate treatment, such as treating an infection or adjusting thyroid levels, will usually resolve the problem.

Drugs may end up being one form of treatment but they will always suffer from having negative side effects (which behavioral treatments don't) and a lack of positive side effects. Other treatments for premature ejaculation can not only eliminate the problem, they can enrich people's sex lives by asking them to look deeper into their sexual desires and motivations and try to act in a way that is accordance with those desires and wishes.

Preventing Premature Ejaculation

Putting a stop to premature ejaculation is possible, but it can require more than a few exercises or some future pill.

Premature ejaculation happens in relationships and often it needs to be resolved not alone by the individual who is ejaculating too fast for someone's liking, but by the couple.

Techniques to control premature ejaculation are very successful, but talking is also highly recommended.

Written by Sy Kraft (B.A.)
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

• Additional
• References
• Citations