How long DOES sex normally last? Study finds it can range from 33 seconds to 44 minutes - but the average is 5 minutes
- Dr Brendan Zietsch is a psychologist from the University of Queensland
- Reviewed available evidence on how long penetration lasts during sex
- Found condom use or whether a man is circumcised makes no difference
- Studies show intercourse is shorter for older men - contrary to their claims
WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH SAY?
The best study we have estimating the average time to ejaculation in the general population involved 500 couples from around the world timing themselves having sex over a four-week period – using a stopwatch.
That is as practically awkward as it sounds: participants pressed 'start' at penile penetration and 'stop' at ejaculation.
You may note this could affect the mood somewhat, and might perhaps not exactly reflect the natural flow of things.
But science is rarely perfect, and this is the best we've got.
So what did the researchers find?
The most striking result is that there was a huge amount of variation.
The average time for each couple (that is, averaged across all the times they had sex) ranged from 33 seconds to 44 minutes.
That's an 80-fold difference.
So it's clear there's no one 'normal' amount of time to have sex.
The average (median, technically) across all couples, though, was 5.4 minutes.
This means that if you line up the 500 couples from shortest sex to longest sex, the middle couple goes for an average of 5.4 minutes each time they do it.
There were some interesting secondary results, too.
For example, condom use didn't seem to affect the time, and neither did men's being circumcised or not.
This challenges some conventional wisdom regarding penile sensitivity and its relationship to staying power in the sack.
It didn't much matter which country the couples came from either – unless they came from Turkey, in which case their sex tended to be significantly shorter (3.7 minutes) than couples from other countries (Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States).
Another surprising finding was that the older the couple, the shorter the sex, contrary to the prevailing wisdom (probably peddled by older men).
As an evolutionary researcher, all this talk of how long sex lasts make me wonder: 'Why does it last any time at all?'
All sex really needs to achieve, it seems, is to put sperm into the vagina.
Why all the thrusting and bumping? Instead of sliding the penis in and out many hundreds of times per sexual session, why not just put it in once, ejaculate, and then go have a lemonade and get on with the rest of the day?
Before you say, 'because it's fun to go in and out', remember evolution doesn't care about fun per se – it generally only 'designs' things to be enjoyable if they helped our ancestors pass on their genes to future generations.
For example, even though we like eating food, we don't chew each mouthful of it for five minutes just to make the enjoyment last longer.
YOU SHOULD JUST READ THE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3522596/How-long-DOES-sex-normally-Study-finds-range-33-seconds-44-minutes-average-5-minutes.html#ixzz44ycBUgXl
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