Premature ejaculation is a rather complex topic. Premature ejaculation is more than simply not being able to last long enough in bed. There are many factors involved with both diagnosing, and treating this condition. Most men are not capable of properly dealing with premature ejaculation alone, and require some kind of help. Let us examine premature ejaculation a little closer.
The Definition Of Premature Ejaculation
The first step in dealing with premature ejaculation is getting a proper definition.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, the criteria for diagnosis as having premature ejaculation is:
A. Persistent or recurrent ejaculation with minimal sexual stimulation before, on, or shortly after penetration and before the person wishes it. The clinician must take into account factors that affect duration of the excitement phase, such as age, novelty of the sexual partner or situation, and recent frequency of sexual activity.
B. The disturbance causes marked distress or interpersonal difficulty.
C. The premature ejaculation is not due exclusively to the direct effects of a substance (e.g., withdrawal from opioids).
Masters and Johnson defined premature ejaculation as reaching climax before your partner in more than 50% of sexual intercourse encounters. Masters and Johnson pioneered research into sexual topics beginning in the 1950’s.
The general definition is when a lack of ejaculatory control interferes with the emotional well-being of one or both partners. In short, if finishing too soon is causing you or a partner any level of unhappiness, you are suffering from premature ejaculation.
What can cause premature ejaculation?
Now that we have a working definition of what premature ejaculation is, the next step in dealing with the problem is finding out what can cause it. As mentioned earlier, premature ejaculation is a rather complex topic. There can be an number of things at the root of the problem. Most of them can be rather easy to remedy with the right knowledge. The basic contributing factors to causing premature ejaculation are stress, age, physical factors, and confidence.
Stress: This is one thing that is at the heart of many problems. In the case of premature ejaculation, there are many factors that can lead to stress. A new relationship and the nervousness around the first encounter is a big contributing factor. There can also be stress around the lack of adequate sexual performance. Stress over premature ejaculation can make ejaculation control even worse. There are outside stresses that lead to control problems as well. Stress at work or over family situations or any number of causes.
Age: Studies have show that younger men tend to ejaculate far sooner than more sexually experienced men. Nervousness (stress) and other factors conspire to male it difficult for younger men to have control over when they ejaculate. The problem is extremely noticeable in very sexually inexperienced younger men.
Physical Factors: Another common cause of premature ejaculation is over sensitivity in the penis. Basically, intercourse feels too good and the man has very little hope of doing anything about it without help.
Confidence: Studies have shown that a large contributing factor in developing ejaculatory control is confidence. A lack of sexual confidence is very common in younger less experienced men. Confidence is also lacking in men of all ages, and even a few bad sexual sessions can lower confidence dramatically. Men who have good control over their ejaculation also have a lot of self confidence around their sexual performance. Psychologists agree that developing confidence plays a critical role in learning to control premature ejaculation.
