Although nearly one in three Taiwanese men experience premature ejaculation, fewer than 10 percent seek medical treatment, while the rest turn to unorthodox and potentially dangerous methods to address the issue, physicians say.
Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital Department of Urology director Tsai Te-fu (蔡德甫) said that about 30 percent of Taiwanese men suffer from the condition — a rate that is higher than the international average of 20 to 25 percent.
“Another survey found that between 13.3 and 16.3 percent of its female respondents in Taiwan acknowledge that their partners have the problem, which is prevalent in almost every age group,” Tsai said.
Hospital urologist Chen Hung-en (陳宏恩) said that even though premature ejaculation is relatively common in the nation, nearly 90 percent of people who experience it are more inclined to try unorthodox treatments — such as taking Chinese herbal medicines, applying toothpaste to their penis, constricting their genitals with a rubber band, or firmly squeezing the glans.
“Not only do such ‘folk therapies’ fail to assuage premature ejaculation, but they also increase the practitioners’ risk of diminishing blood flow to the genitals, which could eventually lead to a penectomy,” Chen said.
Chen said a 34-year-old man had been trying to address the problem by eating foods rumored to be able to increase male sexual prowess, such as pig kidneys, rooster testicles and purported tiger genitals, but the effort was ineffective and only exacerbated the man’s fear of intimacy.
“Another case is a 40-year-old man who attributed his premature ejaculation problem to psychological factors and believed that the predicament could be addressed via ‘pressure relief sessions’ and folk therapies. In the end, the problem is still there, and he has been divorced three times,” Chen said.
Chen said premature ejaculation is generally defined as reaching orgasm after less than one minute of intercourse, adding that there are drugs that can effectively delay ejaculation by three to four minutes.
Chen said that no treatment is needed “as long as no complaints are heard from your partners.”
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