Sexual Course of Rapidity

It is generally believed that aging delays ejaculation. This assumption, might be true for men with a normal or average ejaculation time but has never been investigated in men with premature ejaculation. In a stopwatch study of 110 consecutively enrolled men (aged 18–65 years) with lifelong premature ejaculation, 76% reported that throughout their lives, their speed of ejaculation had remained as rapid as at the first sexual contacts in puberty and adolescence, 23% reported that it had become even gradually faster with aging, and only 1% reported that it had become slower. From these data, it is questioned whether the fixed rapidity and even paradoxical shortening of the ejaculation latency time while getting older should be recognized as a part of the pathogenetic process of premature ejaculation. According to Waldinger, early ejaculation is thought of as a part of a normal biological variation of the IELT in men, but its paradoxical or fixed course through life is considered as being pathological. Chronic premature ejaculation appears to be the clinical syndrome of primary (lifelong) premature ejaculation. As yet, there is no real cure for lifelong premature ejaculation, though drugs may alleviate the symptoms, but only as long as they are being taken.

Premature Ejaculation and Genetics

In 1943, Schapiro noted that men with premature ejaculation seemed to have family members with similar complaints. Remarkably, this interesting observation has never been cited. To investigate the potential familial occurrence of premature ejaculation, I routinely asked 237 consecutively enrolled men with premature ejaculation about the family occurrence of similar complaints. Because of embarrassment only 14 men consented to ask male relatives about ejaculation latency. These 14 men reported a total of 11 first degree male relatives with information available for direct personal interview. In fact, 10 relatives fulfilled our strictly defined criterion of an ejaculation time of 1 min or less. In this small selected group of men, the calculated risk of having a first relative 230 Waldinger with premature ejaculation was 91%. Therefore, the odds of family occurrence are much higher than the suggested population prevalence rate of 4–39%. Moreover, the high odds ratio indicates a familiar occurrence of the syndrome, far higher than by chance alone. On the basis of this preliminary observation, the influence of genetics gains substantial credibility.