Here’s How Long Sex Lasts on Average, According to Science
This will come as a relief to some of your, uh, friends.
Let’s make on thing clear up front: good sex lasts as long as it needs to, depending on your preferences. But according to scientific research, sex doesn’t have to last for hours — on average, all we need for satisfaction is about 5 minutes.
That’s according to psychologist Brendan Zietsch at the University of Queensland, who examined years of research related to how long sex “normally” lasts. In an article for The Conversation, Zietsch pointed to a comprehensive study of 500 couples from five countries who consistently timed their intercourse for four weeks. The study, our best indicator of how long our naught times really last, found that the length of sexual intercourse for these couples ranged from 33 seconds to 44 minutes, with a median time of 5.4 minutes.
Of course, Zietsch notes that the definition of “sex” matters when asking people about their sex lives; after all, there’s not doubt that some consider foreplay (you know, all that kissing and rubbing) could add extra times to the “total” duration of sexual intercourse. But the researchers focused on “intravaginal ejaculation latency time,” which simply means the clock starts running at penile penetration and stops at ejaculation. And for that, we get just a few minutes in heaven on average
Zietsch noted that a few other factors affect the length of sexual intercourse. Secondary research found that neither condoms nor circumcisions seem to affect ejaculation time. This means you may want to disregard myths about condoms affecting penile sensitivity.
Last but not least, as Dr. Brendan Zietsch found that age and experience doesn’t actually make for a better law: “The older the couple, the shorter the sex, contrary to the prevailing wisdom (probably peddled by older men).”
There are always be new studies that point to a biological average among men, but that doesn’t mean you have to follow natures rules. Think you can you last longer than 5.4 minutes? Go for it.
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