The Average Sex Time Is Not as Long as You'd Think

yes, it does seem as if everyone at the all-boys high school and the methadone clinic is complaining of little else. I know what you're thinking: If only we had the perceptions of 34 Canadian and American sex therapists on this. Well, good thing we do

      "Canadian and American Sex Therapists' Perceptions of Normal and Abnormal Ejaculatory Latencies: How Long Should Intercourse Last?" coitus considered "adequate" lasted anywhere from three to seven minutes, not including the Pledge of Allegiance. For the more ambitious, seven to 13 minutes was considered a "desirable" length for intercourse. This data, from all the people who see therapists for sexual problems, corresponds closely to earlier studies, which put the average at five to seven minutes. (We can safely blame the two-minute discrepancy on the Canadians.)"Very few people have intercourse per se [Latin] that goes longer than 12 minutes," says sex therapist Barry W. McCarthy. Essentially, ejaculatory inhibition, which is also called "delayed orgasm" or "junkie orgasm," has less to do with actual time than an inability to ejaculate when you'd like. And premature ejaculation, which is also called "rapid ejaculation," refers to intercourse that lasts less than a minute or two.