How to Avoid Premature Ejaculation (Causes and Treatment)

Premature ejaculation (PE) is the persistent or recurrent pattern of climaxing quicker than you or your partner would like. PE happens before or immediately after penetration and is a problem that affects 20-30% of all adult men.

How long does it take to ejaculate when you have PE? You’re considered to have PE if you ejaculate within 1 minute after penetration and find it impossible to delay ejaculation all the time.

People dealing with premature ejaculation tend to experience embarrassment, anxiety, and frustration. Others avoid sex altogether because they don’t last enough for them and their partner to enjoy it. In the long run, premature ejaculation causes problems with intimacy, and this might ruin your relationship.

While it’s frustrating, PE is treatable. If you’re wondering how to avoid premature ejaculation, read on to learn more about the causes of PE and how not to cum so quick.

What this article covers:

Why Does Premature Ejaculation Happen?
How to Control Premature Ejaculation
How to Treat Premature Ejaculation

Why Does Premature Ejaculation Happen?

There are various psychological and biological causes of premature ejaculation. Here’s a breakdown of each one of them.

Psychological Causes

Some of the psychological causes of PE include:

Early Sexual Experiences

It’s common for men to ejaculate quickly the first time they have sex. However, most men learn how to slow down and last longer as they grow older and have more sexual experiences.

Likewise, as some men get older, they may have trouble maintaining an erection and may not last long before ejaculating.

Performance Anxiety

Performance anxiety is the fear that one might not perform well during sex. It leads to one being self-critical, self-conscious, and anxious.

What leads to performance anxiety? You might experience this anxiety when you’re about to have sex with a new partner for the first time, you’re dissatisfied with your current relationship, feel guilty, or are over-excited.

Performance anxiety often results in the same problem you were worried about, that is, premature ejaculation, erectile dysfunction, or even difficulty having an orgasm.

Stress And Depression

Stress, depression, and negative cognitive processing can lead to sexual dysfunction and PE. How do these conditions cause PE?

Stress and emotional strain can limit your ability to focus or relax during sex, and you might experience a shorter feeling that you’re about to ejaculate, which prevents you from delaying ejaculation. Additionally, prolonged stress might alter brain chemistry, triggering the production of hormones such as cortisol and serotonin that put the body in a state of anxiety and weaken the ejaculation reflex arc.

Biological Causes

Abnormal Hormone Levels

When certain hormonal levels are abnormally high or low, you could experience premature ejaculation. These hormones include:

Prolactin: Low levels of prolactin are associated with free-floating anxiety symptoms and low ejaculatory time.
Thyroid hormone: High or low thyroid hormone levels are associated with premature ejaculation. Luckily, thyroid-associated PE is treatable through normalizing thyroid function.
Testosterone: Different abnormal testosterone levels contribute to different sexual dysfunctions, including PE. Younger men with high testosterone are more likely to experience PE than those with normal levels. On the other hand, older men are more likely to experience delayed ejaculation due to low testosterone levels, leaving them wondering how to ejaculate quickly.

Irregular Levels Of Brain Chemicals

Chemical imbalance in the brain centers is one of the leading causes of lifelong premature ejaculation in men. For instance, serotonin is a brain chemical and neurotransmitter that plays a massive role in the ejaculatory response. Low serotonin levels may cause premature response, while abnormally high levels may cause delayed ejaculation.

How to Control Premature Ejaculation

If you’ve been experiencing premature ejaculation recently, you might wonder how to stay hard after ejaculation to satisfy your partner. There are several self-help ways to control PE, including:

Masturbating a few hours before having sex: Busting a quick nut 1-2 hours before having penetrative sex can help you achieve sexual release and reduces the need to cum quickly.
Using a thick condom: Condoms made of thicker latex decrease sensation, helping delay ejaculation. Alternatively, you can get climax control condoms. While they might still be thick, they also have numbing agents such as lidocaine, a great addition to help you last longer.
Pelvic floor exercises: These exercises strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, allowing you to have better ejaculatory control. One of the easiest pelvic floor exercises you can try is stopping midstream while peeing or tightening muscles to prevent you from passing gas.
Edging: If you’re looking for “how to stop an ejaculation,” try edging. This refers to completely stopping sexual activity when you feel you’re about to climax and starting again once you’re less aroused. Edging is very pleasurable and will help you’ve been asking yourself how to ejaculate longer than usual.
Partner on top: Have sex with your partner on top and tell them to pull away when you’re about to climax.

How to Treat Premature Ejaculation

Treating various underlying conditions will help cure premature ejaculation. Depending on what’s causing your PE, your GP might suggest various treatment methods which we will explore into two categories.

Natural Methods

If you looking for how to naturally increase ejaculation time, here are the best natural methods to treat premature ejaculation:

Dietary Changes

Zinc and magnesium play a huge role in men’s sexual health. Research shows that these minerals might also play a part in treating premature ejaculation. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that your daily diet includes foods rich in these minerals.

Some of the zinc and magnesium-rich foods you should consider adding to your diet include:

Spinach
Pumpkin seeds
Beef and lamb
Dark chocolate
Oysters
Soybeans
Kidney beans
Peas
Almonds
Garlic
Yogurt

Other minerals that have been proven to improve overall male sexual health include copper, selenium, manganese, and calcium. Consider adding these to your diet too.

Avoiding Intercourse

Avoiding sexual intercourse for a while might help in dealing with the pressure you may feel right before penetrative sex.

It’s important to communicate what you’re going through to your partner so you can both look for other methods of pleasure that don’t involve penetrative sex. This is especially useful in new relationships as it gives you time to get comfortable with your partner before having penetrative sex.

Behavioral Techniques

Your doctor might suggest various behavioral techniques to help you last longer in bed. These include:

Self-distraction: When you’re about to climax, take a deep breath and think about something else, ideally something very boring. Doing so reduces arousal while helping you maintain an erection.
The pause squeeze technique: This technique involves you or your partner squeezing the tip of your penis firmly for about 10-20 seconds when you’re about to ejaculate. This method helps reduce stimulation and you can repeat it as many times as you need. You can combine the pause squeeze technique with the start-stop technique for better ejaculatory control.

Medical Methods

There are various medical methods that your doctor might suggest to treat PE including:

Supplements

Supplements for premature ejaculation contain minerals that are readily absorbed by the body. Thus, they’re effective in treating PE. When looking for supplements to treat PE, go for clinically proven ones as they’re already true and tested in treating PE.

ProSolution+ is a clinically proven and doctor-approved male supplement that may help treat PE, improve the quality of your erections, and help you last longer in bed. This supplement combines seven clinically proven herbs, minerals, and vitamins that have been used for centuries to improve male sexual health. It improves your system gradually, and you’ll begin noticing improvements within 3-4 weeks.

When using zinc supplements to treat PE, you might experience several side effects including nausea, a metallic taste in your mouth, and diarrhea.

Serotonin Inhibitors

If self-help methods fail, your doctor might suggest using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). While these are mainly used to treat depression, there are specially designed ones such as dapoxetine that are specifically used to treat PE and delay ejaculation. That said, dapoxetine is not currently available in the US but is used in other countries to treat PE.

SSRIs regulate the amount of serotonin produced by the brain and begin working within 5-10 days. However, you might experience several side effects of SSRIs such as nausea, reduced sex drive, and drowsiness.

Topical Numbing Agents

Wipes, gels, creams, and sprays that contain numbing agents such as lidocaine and benzocaine are another way to treat PE. These numbing agents are available over the counter.

Apply topical numbing agents 10-15 minutes before sex. Make sure you read the manufacturer’s instructions as each kind of numbing agent might come with a special set of instructions for use.

Although most men tolerate numbing agents well, some report serious side effects or decreased feelings. Be sure to consult your doctor before using any topical numbing agent.

Beautiful young happy couple relaxing in bed and smiling, embracing

Conclusion

Premature ejaculation is a common condition that you shouldn’t be embarrassed by or fault yourself for. PE can cause a strain in your relationship and reduce the closeness you once shared with your partner. It can also affect your mental health.

As soon as you notice that you have PE, see your GP. They’ll help you identify the best methods to treat it, and if need be, advise you to see a therapist. Make sure that you also talk about this problem with your partner so they don’t think you’ve lost interest in them. Most importantly, maintain a positive outlook during treatment to realize the best results.

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