You can run away from PE

Too soon? Physical exercise can improve stamina as effectively as drugs, according to one study.

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We could use this International Women’s Day Back Page to celebrate … is that the word we’re after? … the record-low gender pay gap of 13.3%.

Or second the RACGP’s call to address the financial penalties of longer consultations that fall on female GPs, who will very soon make up more than half of the speciality.

But let’s not be a downer.

Instead let’s enjoy the results of this study, which concluded that exercise is as good as drugs for solving the problem of premature ejaculation – meaning that at least our straight sisters don’t have to accept shortcomings in that department if they’re prepared to crack the whip.

The team reviewed 54 papers investigating non-pharmacological interventions for PE, which affects between 30% and 85% of the male population – the wild range of estimates is due to there being no standardised definition of PE, the authors write. Suffice it to say that the greater the expectations about duration, the greater the prevalence.

This is bad news all round, as PE is “associated with detrimental health outcomes, including … psychological distress, poor self-esteem, anxiety, erectile dysfunction, decreased libido and poor interpersonal relationships”.

The few available drug treatments have unwanted side effects: dapoxetine can cause nausea, headache, diarrhoea, somnolence and dizziness, and tricyclic antidepressants can cause nausea, dry mouth, erectile dysfunction, hot flushes and cardiotoxicity, while local analgesics have their own obvious drawbacks.

The interventions covered in the 54 studies reviewed included psychotherapy, with and without virtual reality aids; “the pause-squeeze technique” (The Back Page looked this up in incognito mode to preserve what remains of her browsing history’s dignity and it sounds at best inconvenient); acupuncture; masturbation using the Tenga Flip masturbation aid (not even incognito are we Googling that); desensitisation of the dorsal nerves with pulsed radiofrequency modulation; computed tomography-guided pudendal nerve block at the level of the sacrospinous ligament and the Alcock’s canal (yikes), and “cutting the bulbospongiosus muscle bilaterally and frenular delta excision” (at this point it seems politer to look away).

Less radically, one study compared physical activity – moderate running for 30 minutes five times a week for a month – with dapoxetine, and found the same improvement in the two groups. Two studies also saw a benefit with yoga. Presumably there was a side effect: fitness!

This power of exercise to bring back a gentleman’s stamina is the only one of this phantasmagoria of interventions to rate a specific mention in the paper’s conclusion: “Specifically, the potential of physical activity promotion for the management of PE should be investigated further.”

Along with our discovery last week that physical activity at work is associated with better sperm quality, there’s a clear message for the fellas: Move.

Another successful intervention was app-guided pelvic floor exercises, showing that girls don’t have to have all the fun.

So ladies, if you’re sick of running to stand still and working twice as hard to get half as far, this is one disappointment you don’t need to accept: grab a whistle and put your chap through his paces.

Sending story tips to penny@medicalrepublic.com.au is proven to enhance sexual desirability and performance.