Hundreds of men have confided in me over the years that they would like to last longer during sexual intercourse and delay ejaculation.  As high as 70% of men suffer from premature ejaculation or P.E.. 

P.E. can be a serious issue in a man's relationship with his sexual partner.  The fear of not meeting your sexual partner's needs can lead to feelings of shame and embarrassment which can lead to relationship problems.

In order to delay ejaculation during sexual intercourse, it's important to understand what's happening in a man's body when he is aroused.

Ejaculation is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system as opposed to the parasympathetic nervous system.

What does this mean?

It means that you have NO control over ejaculation, it's a simple reflex.

Remember when you were a kid and the doctor used to tap you on the knee with his instrument, and your leg would kick? The doctor was testing your "reflexes."

This is an example of the sympathetic nervous system. You can't control it. The moment that instrument hit your knee, chemicals were released in the spinal cord that instantaneously caused you to kick your leg up. No matter how hard you tried not to move your leg, you couldn't "will" it into not moving.

The same holds true for ejaculation. It's a reflex. Once those chemicals have been released in your spinal cord, your body is told to ejaculate. No matter how hard you try to control it, you simply can't. It's just the way a reflex is.

According to Dr. William Ganong, M.D., a noted physician, physiologist, and medical educator whose textbook entitled "Review of Medical Physiology" has taught reproductive physiology to tens of thousands of physicians over several decades, "Ejaculation is a 2 part spinal reflex that involves emission, the movement of the semen into the urethra; and the ejaculation proper, the propulsion of the semen out of the urethra at the time of orgasm."

Again, this simply means that ejaculation is a spinal reflex AND can NOT be controlled, the same way as you can't control your knee jerking when the doctor taps it!  When your body is ready to ejaculate, you can NOT stop it or "will" it to stop.  It's a reflex.

So for you to think you can help yourself and "think" your way into curing your P.E. is not realistic.

This is where medicine has a place.

Brain chemicals can have an inhibitory effect on spinal messages. The important chemical that can inhibit spinal cord messages is called serotonin.

For years physicians have been using medication known as SSRI's. This stands for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. These medications have been used most widely to treat depression and anxiety.

Interestingly, physicians have found that SSRI's effectively treat about 70% of men with P.E.

SSRI's increase the level of serotonin. This increase is crucial if one wants to help P.E.

In the brain, information is passed between nerve cells via a small gap between the cells called a synapse. The neuron, or nerve cell, that sends the information releases neurotransmitters, serotonin being one of them, into the synaptic gap.

The serotonin is then recognized by the recipient nerve cell. When the recipient nerve cell recognizes the serotonin, it is stimulated and relays the signal. Almost 90% of the serotonin is taken up again by the cells, hence reuptake. SSRI's delay the reuptake of the serotonin.

By delaying the reuptake of serotonin, you are effectively increasing the quantity of sertonin that the receptor cells are exposed to. This increase in serotonin can effectively treat P.E. because a message is sent from the brain to the spinal cord to "inhibit" the reflex of ejaculation.