Premature Ejaculation: Perceptions of Male and Female Partners.

Premature Ejaculation: Perceptions of Male and Female Partners, E. Sandra Byers, University of New Brunswick; Guy Grenier, private practice, Canada

We investigated the relationship between men's and their female partner's perceptions of men's ejaculatory behavior, as well as the impact of premature (PE) or rapid (RE) ejaculation on couple functioning. Participants were 152 men and their female partners, both of whom provided information about the man's ejaculatory behavior, perceptions of whether the man had a problem with premature ejaculation, their sexual and relationship satisfaction, and their sexual concerns. The men and women's reports on the man's ejaculatory behavior were only moderately correlated. In general, the women saw RE as less of a problem for the men than their male partners reported for themselves. For both the men and the women, having more characteristics of PE was related to lower sexual satisfaction, but was unrelated to relationship satisfaction. PE characteristics were also related to the number of non-PE sexual concerns reported by the men, but not to the number of sexual concerns reported by their female partner. However, men and women who identified the man as having a PE problem rated PE as having only a slightly negative impact on their own or their partners functioning. The results suggest that, for most couples, the timing of ejaculation adversely affects sexual satisfaction, but not overall relationship and personal functioning.