What is PE?

Premature ejaculation (PE) basically means coming too quickly, surprisingly to many sufferers it is one of the most common sexual problems.

In a recent survey of several thousand British males, approximately 10 per cent of them said that they often or sometimes had this trouble.

We found that it is more common in younger men – which is not surprising, as there's a distinct tendency for it to improve with age. Men generally get better control as they grow older.

That said, back in 2004 a survey in Europe showed that many middle-aged men still have this problem. Alas no longer do men like you and I need to suffer in silence feeling incompetent with our sexual exploits, good treatments are now available.

In 2010/11, a new treatment became available in Britain and several other countries.

How do I know if I have PE?

It’s almost impossible to draw a line in the sand and get an accurate diagnosis of premature ejaculation: what some couples consider a satisfactory length of intercourse would be very inadequate for others.

In 2006 at the Congress of the European Society for Sexual Medicine, an American research paper reported that the average lasting time of men with PE was 1.8 minutes.

Men who didn't suffer with PE or ('normal' men as they catagorised it) lasted an average of 7.3 minutes.

But there were males who claimed to have premature ejaculation, yet who could last up to 25 minutes. This clearly shows people have wildly differing ideas about what is normal!

At the same Congress, Professor Waldinger reported that 2.5 per cent of men couldn't last 90 seconds inside the vagina. Those males undoubtedly have PE.

So how can I last longer?

From our own clinical experience, there are plenty of couples who would regard intercourse that lasts under 20 minutes as less than satisfactory, and would feel that any ejaculation in under 10 minutes or so is decidedly premature.

As a working definition, if either you or your partner feels that orgasm is happening too soon, there probably is some degree of PE.

In most cases the damage caused by premature ejaculation has a snowball effect, because it makes people unhappy, frustrated and in most cases inadequate. In severe cases PE can threaten or even ruin a marriage – simply because it spoils the sex lives of both partners.

Sometimes, the condition is so bad the man can't have sex because he ejaculates before he can get into the vagina. This can be devastating for a man's self-confidence. And it can be hugely frustrating and annoying for his partner – especially if she wants to get pregnant.