Premature ejaculation (PE) is considered to be the most common sexual problem men experience. Not surprisingly, there is an all out race by pharmaceutical manufacturers to come up with a “cure” for premature ejaculation, one that would easily outlast Viagra’s billion dollar success story. Last year Johnson & Johnson appeared to have the first pill for PE, but they got a non-approval letter from the FDA, and it looked like it was back to the drawing board.

One of the oldest type of commercially available non-prescription product that men use to deal with PE on are the “delay” creams and sprays that are widely available at sex shops and most drug stores. With names like “Maintain” “Stud 100” and “Like a Rock” (okay, I made that last one up) these products all offer a small amount of topical anesthetic that will numb the skin, reduce sensation, and as a result, allow a man to maintain an erection longer, because he doesn’t get as excited.

Think about that last bit for a second: it works by reducing your sexual sensation. We’ll get back to that.

A new study published in February in BJU International reports on Phase 2 trials of what would presumably be a prescription version of these delay sprays, with the not surprising results that using the spray allowed men to maintain erections longer than men who didn’t use the spray.

While PE is not defined by a specific time range, researchers will use time as a way to measure change. The evocative research term for the time between the first moment of penile-vaginal penetration and ejaculation is “intravaginal ejaculatory latency time” or IELT. The current study found that the spray was 2.4 times more effective than a placebo at extending IELT.

Not so enticing was the finding that there was no significant difference in the sexual satisfaction of participants who used the spray.

Which raises an interesting question; If you’re having lousy sex, do you care if it only lasts a minute or two? Should we prolonging intercourse at any cost?

The bigger question of course is why men should be asked to sacrifice sexual sensation, and arguably sexual satisfaction, in order to maintain an arbitrary and normative behavior; in this case the idea that “real sex” is penile-vaginal intercourse. Doesn’t it seem ridiculous to everyone that someone would purchase a product that actually reduces how good sex feels?

On a technical note you have to wonder whether or not we should be concerned by the fact that every one of the twelve authors of this study had a stated conflict of interest by way of some financial relationship with the company that manufacturers the tested product. They are variously identified as employees of, paid consultants to, and stockholders of shares in the company. Oh, and the company funded the study.

More about premature ejaculation:

• Premature Ejaculation: Myths and Facts
• Drugs for Treatment of Premature Ejaculation
• How To Control Premature Ejaculation