What is the normal duration of sexual intercourse?

No need to be scientific to ask the question. Leaning against the head of your bed after a coit too short for your taste, you may have already wondered: what is the "normal" duration of sexual intercourse?

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What is the normal duration of sexual intercourse?

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No need to be scientific to ask the question. Leaning against the head of your bed after a coit too short for your taste, you may have already wondered: what is the "normal" duration of sexual intercourse ?

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Well know that scientists are asking the same question. They simply formulate it differently, in an obscure and almost comical way: what is the average latency duration of intravaginal ejaculation?

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Of course, sex is not just the introduction of a penis into a vagina and an ejaculation. But it can be difficult to determine what is part of it, or not - whether to count, or not, the preliminaries and if so which ones? For the sake of simplicity and precision, we will focus on the period from penetration to ejaculation.

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Measuring its average length is not an easy task. Why not ask people directly how much time they will put, will you say to me? Well, this method would pose two major problems. First, the estimates given might be overvalued. It is socially tempting, indeed, to claim that your antics continued until late at night.

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500 couples have timed

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Then, we are not necessarily able to say how long it lasted. In principle, sex is not an activity during which our eyes are focused on the alarm clock on the bedside table. Providing an estimate without any assistance can be difficult if the act has been particularly inspiring.

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The best study , among those that sought to estimate the average duration of the period leading to ejaculation in the general population, was conducted among 500 couples from various parts of the planet. They had to measure, by means of a chronometer, the duration of their sexual relations during a period of four weeks.

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Yes, you read correctly: as odd as it may seem, participants had to press the start button at the time of penis penetration, then the stop button during ejaculation. You will doubtless object that such an action is likely to influence the mood of the participants, and that it does not really fit in the natural order of things. But science rarely reaches perfection, and this method is the best we have found.

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From 33 seconds to ... 44 minutes!

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But then, for what results? The main lesson is that these vary considerably from couple to couple. The average of each couple (calculated from all their sexual intercourse during the four-week period) ranges from 33 seconds for the shortest duration to 44 minutes (80 times more!) For the longest.

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It is therefore clear that there is no "normal" duration for sexual intercourse. The average duration (median in fact, technically), measured from those of all couples, is 5.4 minutes. This means that if we classify all the participating couples, from the shortest to the longest sexual intercourse, the middle one gets an average of 5.4 minutes over this four-week period.

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The study also identified some secondary lessons. For example, the use of condoms does not seem to have an effect on the duration of the report, any more than the possible circumcision in humans. These results have the merit of challenging some traditional beliefs about the relationship between penis sensitivity and bed efficiency.

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Geographical origin does not have much influence either - except for Turkish couples, whose reports seem to be significantly shorter (3.7 minutes) than those of the other countries concerned (Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom and United States). The age of the participants, on the other hand, is not neutral: the older a couple, the shorter the sex, contrary to popular belief (certainly spread by men of a certain age).

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Why does it last so long?

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As a researcher interested in the subject of evolution, all these debates on the duration of sexual intercourse lead me to a question: why does it take time at all? The only thing that justifies sex is, it seems, the delivery of semen into the vagina. Why, then, all these movements back and forth? Why, rather than dragging his penis and pulling it out several hundred times at each report, do not just introduce it once, ejaculate, then go get a lemonade and move on?

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Before answering "Because it's fun!", Remember that evolution does not care about fun as such. It only "thinks" things in ways that make them pleasant, this criterion being fulfilled if they encouraged our ancestors to pass on their genes to future generations. For example, even though we enjoy food, we do not spend five minutes chewing every bite, just to enjoy it longer. It would be inefficient. So we have evolved in such a way that it seems to us today disgusting.

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If it is impossible to provide a definitive explanation of the duration of our intercourse, the beginning of an answer may be provided by the shape of the penis. In 2003, researchers showed - using artificial vaginas and penises, as well as corn syrup to act as sperm - that the crest that surrounds the head of the penis removed the pre-existing syrup in the vagina.

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This experience shows that the repeated movements of the man could have for objective to move away the sperm left by other men, and thus to make sure, at the time of the ejaculation, that his little swimmers will have the best chances of reach the egg first. This phenomenon could also explain why the man feels pain when he continues these movements after ejaculation: he would then risk evacuating his own sperm.

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What to conclude, finally, from all these results? If I can give you some advice, try not to think too much in the middle of your lovemaking.

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