Every man desires to have a healthy sexual relationship with their partner just so they can feel closer to each other and strengthen emotional intimacy. But some couples experience unsatisfactory intercourse when they ejaculate too quickly during sexual activity or feel that they have little control over how quickly they ejaculate. In that case, they might be having premature ejaculation.
What is Premature Ejaculation?
When you experience an orgasm less than a minute or even before intercourse starts, it is commonly known as premature ejaculation (PE). It is a sexual dysfunction when a man experiences orgasm ejaculating with minimal penile stimulation, within a short interval of intercourse. Make no mistake, there is no defined period of time during sex when a man should ejaculate. But if you ejaculate and then lose your erection way too soon, you and your partner may feel that there’s not enough time to enjoy the sex, hence, causing distress for one or both partners.
Such sexual dysfunction is termed ejaculatio praecox, reported in the historical literature more than a hundred years ago. PE is also coined as early ejaculation, rapid climax, or premature climax. Although PE has been documented in medical literature for more than a century, there is no uniform agreement on what constitutes “premature”. The ejaculatory latency of the “average” man is approximately between four to eight minutes.
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) initially applied a cut-off of 15 seconds from the point of sexual penetration. However, the International Classification Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM) endorsed a definition of around one minute of intercourse for PE sufferers. Therefore, with no clear-cut diagnosis of PE, many men are confused by their “short cumming”.
Premature Ejaculation Causes
Though many theories have been put out, the exact causes of PE remain unknown. Some psychologists suggested that PE resulted from teenagers masturbating hastily to avoid being caught. Others highlighted the connection of PE with performance anxiety or passive aggression of having too little sex. However, there is very little evidence to back up any of these theories, and PE sufferers continue to feel frustrated with a tremendous degree of guilt and self-doubt.
In the past, PE was solely regarded to be psychological. But it is now believed that some men — especially those who have had lifelong premature ejaculation — have a chemical imbalance in the brain regions that control this function. As a result, this leads to issues like performance anxiety.
Research has identified specific parts of the brain as having physiological control of ejaculation, including serotonin neurotransmitter involvement. There is also scientific evidence supporting genetic predisposition, elevated penile sensitivity, and nerve conduction defectiveness in men suffering from PE. Hence, various medical developments evolve around such understandings.
Some emotional factors that cause PE are depression, stress, guilt, relationship problems, lack of confidence, and anxiety. While physical factors may include, irregular hormone levels, unusual neurotransmitter levels, prostate or urethra inflammation, or genetic traits.
Effects of Premature Ejaculation
There are a number of common complications of PE that may arise in your personal life. That includes relationship distress, fertility problems, diminishing confidence, communication issues, infidelity, and even breaking up.
In recent years, psychological analysis reported emotional and relationship distress for men suffering from PE. Compared to men, women actually consider PE less of a problem in a relationship. PE-related embarrassment commonly results in sexual avoidance and distancing of relationships, creating unnecessary tensions in the relationship.
Thus, men who suffer from PE are advised to take the necessary actions to curb the problem before relationship issues become more serious.
Treatments For Premature Ejaculation
PE has undesirable influences on men and their partners which may inhibit single men from initiating new partner relationships. Men are usually hesitant to seek medical care from physicians, although, they may be inspired to do so by their partner’s support and the availability of effective treatments.
Many drugs have been proven to delay orgasm. Medications such as anti-depressants and painkillers have been used in the PE intervention with reasonable success. But in most cases, PE sufferers are still reluctant to accept taking medications to enhance their sexual experience and many would rather opt for non-pharmaceutical treatment or no intervention at all until their relationship has reached the point of no return.
PE treatments aim to address the underlying cause of the condition. The following are some of the most popular PE treatments.
Adjusting sexual behaviour
People who experience PE may benefit from minor adjustments to their sexual behaviour. One of the approaches you can opt for is “Stop and Start” to delay ejaculation. When you start to have an orgasm after you or your partner stimulate your penis, stop the orgasm for around 30 seconds or until the sensation goes away. Then, start the stimulation again and repeat it three or four times before you ejaculate. The goal here is to repeatedly approach ejaculation, halt, and then relax. You will get adept at identifying your “point of no return” if you do this frequently enough.
Another approach is “The Squeeze.” This involves controlling the urge to ejaculate by squeezing the head of the penis just before it releases until you lose the erection. Repeat this a few times before ejaculating. You can perform these exercises by yourself or with your partner.
You can also “get busy” before starting the intercourse. Masturbating a few hours prior to sex can help some men to maintain control during sexual activity.
Strengthen your muscles
Perform pelvic floor exercises if your weakened pelvic floor muscles are contributing to PE because this kegel exercise is designed to strengthen them. You can identify the strength of your pelvic floor muscles by stopping yourself from urinating in midstream. Firmly contract the muscles and hold for 10 seconds, then release. Repeat this 10 times at least three times a day and make sure your bladder is empty when you want to practice this.
Medication
If none of these at-home practices is enough, talk to your doctor to get suggestions for medication. They may suggest you use local anaesthetic sprays and creams to alleviate the penile sensation. This needs to be applied to the head of the penis before sexual activity to reduce its sensitivity. After leaving it for 30 minutes, wash your penis off in order to maintain your erection and prevent your partner from experiencing any loss of sensation.
Your doctor will also suggest antidepressants and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to slow ejaculation. But the effects of SSRI include decreased sex desire, nausea, sweating, bowel disruption, drowsiness, and fatigue. That is why premature ejaculation is usually treated with only one SSRI namely dapoxetine, which is taken as needed prior to sexual activity. And it is best to take this medication in conjunction with counselling.
However, if your PE is associated with erectile dysfunction (ED), taking ED medication such as Viagra, Cialis, or Levitra may help men retain an erection and restore the control of ejaculation.
Seek counselling
Seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist will get the support you need to deal with issues like stress, anxiety, or depression that are causing your PE. Any underlying sex-related worries can be explored and eased with the help of a qualified sex therapist.
The Bottom Line
At Doctor Ivy Batin Treatment, we provide strict patient-consultant confidentiality from regular checkups and screenings to treatment processes.
Each erectile dysfunction treatment price may vary from one patient to another depending on the brands and also the patient’s history. Call us today to enquire more about these various erectile dysfunction treatments’ prices, procedures, and benefits.