ED is a very common sexual dysfunction in men, and is very disturbing. ED is associated with a variety of medical conditions including diabetes, heart disease, peripheral vascular, depression and hypogonadism (low testosterone). There has been a virtual revolution in the societal conversation around ED since the advent of Viagra, the first in the class of treatment known as PDE5 inhibitors. It wasn’t too long ago that ED was rarely discussed. Now that many different effective treatments are available it is an easily addressed condition. 

Early Ejaculation

This condition is also known as premature ejaculation, though the sexual medicine community is migrating to the terms early ejaculators (EE) or rapid ejaculators. Early ejaculation is considered the most frequent self-reported male sexual dysfunction, though there is a lack of universally accepted criteria. Masters and Johnson, for instance, defined EE as “the inability to delay ejaculation long enough for the woman to achieve orgasm 50% of the time.” The American Psychiatric Association classified EE as “the persistent or recurrent ejaculation with minimal stimulation before, on or shortly after penetration and before the person wished it.” Researchers tend to use time criteria. A common definition used in research is intravaginal ejaculation latency time of < 2 minutes in 80% of the intercourse episodes.

There are treatments for this condition, including SSRIs, PDE5 inhibitors, Tramadol, topical anesthetics and behavioral techniques.