Experts Finally Define Premature Ejaculation

We all know what premature ejaculation is, but it turns out that until now, an agreed-upon definition of the health condition hasn't exactly existed. A committee of sexual medicine experts has changed that, formulating a new definition that for the first time speaks both to men who have experienced the condition all their lives and those who acquired it with age. In the case of the former, it's defined as men whose sexual experiences have always lasted no more than about a minute after penetration; in the case of the latter, it refers to men who almost always reach climax in fewer than three minutes of penetration. (LiveScience last year noted that men in general ejaculate in an average of four minutes.)

Further, the definition notes two other components of the sexual dysfunction: an inability to delay ejaculation, and resulting "negative personal consequences." Their paper, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, notes that it's the "first evidence-based definition for these conditions," one born from a review of scientific evidence and suggested treatments. This unified definition "will reduce errors of diagnosis and classification," a researcher tells LiveScience, which notes that, because of the nature of the studies the researchers relied on, the definition extends only to men who have heterosexual sex. (A new book argues that short sex is pretty normal.)