THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG EJACULATORY CONTROL, EJACULATORY LATENCY, ANDATTEMPTS TO PROLONG HETEROSEXUAL INTERCOURSE

Although premature ejaculation (RE) is considered the most common male sexual dysfunction, progress in understanding it has been hampered by the lack of a commonly accepted definition. Several different criteri a have been used to assess RE with no attempt to validate the extent t o which they are related The current study assessed in a sample of uni versity men, the occurrence and relationships among four commonly appl ied RE criteria: perceived control over the occurrence of ejaculation, latency from vaginal penetration to ejaculation, satisfaction with pe rceived degree of ejaculatory control and concern otter the occurrence of rapid ejaculation. Other aspects of ejaculatory behavior were also assessed such as the thoughts and techniques men used to prolong inte rcourse and delay ejaculation. Results indicated that although the fou r RE criteria were significantly correlated, the magnitudes of these c orrelations were small. This suggests that these commonly used RE crit eria are largely independent and are not interchangeable and that rese arch in this area needs to adopt a multivariate approach to assessment . Men's erotophilia/erotophobia was not related to RE. While use of se veral ejaculatory delaying techniques were individually and jointly pr edictive of ejaculatory control and/or ejaculatory evidence, there was no strong support for any specific pattern of behavior that is relate d to better control and longer latencies. Further, experts were not ab le to distinguish the ejaculatory delaying techniques of the men with the poorest control and shortest latencies from those of the men with the best control rand longest latencies.