“Good Sex in a Matter of Minutes”

Most ads for sex aids promise prolonged pleasure, for “hours” or even “all night long”. But that isn’t often realistic, and probably isn’t important, according to an article in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. Penn State researchers conducted a survey of 50 US and Canadian sex therapists to see how long good sexual intercourse (from penetration of the vagina to ejaculation) should last.

Thirty-four (68%) of the therapists gave the range of times that they considered “too short” (1 to 2 minutes), “adequate” (3 to 7 minutes), “desirable” (7 to 13 minutes), and “too long” (10 to 30 minutes).

Past surveys have shown that most men and women responders want sex to last 30 minutes or longer. As one of the authors of the study says; “This seems a situation ripe for disappointment and dissatisfaction”. They hope that the results from this polling of sex therapists will help to dispel such fantasies by normalizing expectations.