Penn State Study: Sexual Pleasure Measured, Myth Busted

A Penn State study due out this May in the issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine measured the sexual “pleasure” factor, the end result, a major sex myth, busted.

Researchers Eric Corty and Jenay Guardiana at Penn State Erie did a study on the amount of time it took couples to reach sexual pleasure through intercourse. Their findings dispel one particular myth about the length of time it took couples to reach sexual nirvana.

We devised this simple Sex Pop Quiz to see if you already knew what the Penn State Researchers discovered about sex and the length of time, from penetration to ejaculation, needed to reach “satisfactory” intercourse.

Sex Pop Quiz

1. Sexual satisfaction is based on the size of the man’s penis.

True

False

2. The longer the intercourse lasts, the better the sexual pleasure.

True

False

3. Sexual satisfaction is based on the man’s erection.

True

False

4. Couples who report sexual satisfaction have sex that lasts from 2 – 4 hours.

True

False

5. Ten to 30 minutes of intercourse is too long.

True

False

6. One to two minutes of intercourse is too short.

True

False

7. Seven to thirteen minutes is just right.

True

False

8. Three to seven minutes of intercourse is considered adequate.

True

False

9. The average sex therapist believes sexual intercourse that lasts three to 13 minutes is abnormal and routinely counsels couples to go for at least an hour and half.

True

False

10. Couples who believe sex should last for hours may be setting themselves up for bitter disappointment.

True

False

11. Sex Researchers have one the best jobs on the market.

True

False

12. Sexual Behavioral Studies can be misleading.

True

False

13. Men seek out sexually enhancing performance drugs because of pressure from “aggressive sexually ardent women”.

True

False

14. Drug companies who manufacture Viagra, ect., have a vested interested in maintaining the myth that “longer” is better.

True

False

According to the two researchers, satisfactory sexual intercourse is not based on the size of the man’s penis nor his erection but on the amount of time spent from “penetration to ejaculation”.

The study found that intercourse that lasted from one to two minutes was too short. (Of course just about everyone on the planet already knew this) While intercourse that lasted from three to seven minutes is considered “normal”. But then again, just what is “normal”?

The researchers found the optimum amount of time spent to achieve “sexual satisfaction” for “typical” couples was 7 to 13 minutes while intercourse that lasted from 10 to 30 minutes was “too long”.

Sexual therapists tend to believe that normal intercourse should last from 3 to 13 minutes.

The study dispels the myth that couples should be spending more time on actual intercourse, such as “going for hours” or “all night long”. That couples who compare themselves to unrealistic sexual goals or expectations are setting themselves up for disappointment.

While the Penn State Researchers have come up with numbers in the sexual satisfaction game a Mayo Clinic psychologist believes that statistics on sexual behavior can be misleading.

David Osborne, Ph.d., believes it’s common for couples to wonder whether their sexual activity, such as frequency and variety, are “similar” to other couples. Osborne writes that couples who read sex studies such as an “average married couple has sex three times a week” may not realize that “average” includes a wide range of numbers that the “frequency for some might range from zero to 15 to 20 times a week for others”.

Osborne writes that the most important consideration for a “fulfilling sexual relationship” isn’t whether a couple’s sexual activity matches some average but whether “each partner is satisfied and comfortable with the sexual relationship”.

While the Penn State Researchers have come up with numbers for the “typical” couple and intercourse the major pharmaceutical companies and erectile dysfunction drugs have a vested interested in perpetuating the myth that for in order for sex to be “pleasurable” it must last “longer”.

While ED drugs are for the most part prescribed for men who suffer from erection dysfunction there’s another class of men who get the prescriptions in order to umph up their sex life.

A ED study done by the drug makers claims there 30 million men in the United States who suffer from erectile dysfunction but that number includes men who felt they weren’t able to keep an erection “good enough for sexual intercourse”. This could translate into the length of the time a man believes he should be able to maintain an erection for “sexual satisfaction” which parlays into the findings of the Penn State Researchers. The myth that sexually satisfying sex depends on the amount of time, that “longer” is indeed better, plays into the hands of the drug companies who manufacture ED drugs.

More men, without erectile dysfunction, are seeking the ED drugs in order to “enhance” sexual performance. A Boston urologist who teaches medical students at Harvard blames this seeking of sexual enhancing drugs not on the drug manufacturers but on women. Dr. David Morgentaler believes the men are responding to the pressure placed on them by “sexually ardent women”.

“They feel as entitled to sexual satisfaction as men, and they’re as knowledgeable about it and aggressive about it,” he said.

“I think guys feel pressure to perform that they never felt before. It’s not unusual to have a guy in his 20s or 30s come in, who’s by all accounts functionally normal, and say, ‘It’s crazy out there, Doc. I need help.’”

Of course this argument, that women are to blame, falls flat when it’s not only straight but also gay men who are the newest consumers of ED drugs.

In the end, it’s always interesting to read the latest “study” and find out what researchers have come up with, especially in the world of sex. We wondered, how did people manage survive, sexually, way back when, before the advent of science, research, and studies? Perhaps we can find another study which may tell us the answer.

By LBG

Image - Sex Positions
Source – Post Gazette – Penn State Researcher’s study challenges common sex claim
Source – Mayo Clinic – Sexual Health: How to Achieve a fulfilling relationship
Image - Cialis
Source – Sexual Revolution? Hardly

Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page

Tags: Cialis, Mayo Clinic, Penn State Sex Research, Sex Study, Sexual Satisfaction Study