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All sex facts / The research

Somebody measured it with a stopwatch

500 couples, five countries, and a number far below the guess.

Somebody measured it with a stopwatch — Photo: R. Henrik Nilsson · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Rather than ask, the researchers handed 500 couples in five countries a stopwatch and asked them to start it at penetration and stop it at ejaculation, at home, over four weeks. The median came to 5.4 minutes. The full range ran from 33 seconds to 44 minutes.

The distribution is heavily skewed, which is why the median is the honest figure and the average is not. The study also found no relationship with circumcision status and only a weak one with age — and, notably, that the Turkish couples in the sample were markedly quicker than the other four countries.

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The sex-toy guide

A shop has two hundred of them. One of them is right for you.

Seven questions: who it is for, what sounds appealing, how quiet it has to be, what it may cost. Out comes one type — with what to look for, what it costs, and what nobody prints on the box.

Sixteen types, from a bullet vibrator to a blindfold
No brands, no shop, nothing for sale here
Two minutes, and nothing is saved

Start the seven questions For the two of you

Find out what you both want — without either of you saying it first.

You each answer twenty questions on your own, and neither of you ever sees the other’s answers. Only what you both said yes or maybe to comes back. A no and a maybe look identical from outside, so saying no costs nothing — which is what makes the answers honest.

Six sets of twenty questions — three by depth, three by subject
An evening you can actually plan, built from what you agreed on
No account, no names, and it deletes itself after a few days

Open Let’s talk about sex

General information, not medical advice. Anything persistent or painful belongs with a doctor, who has heard it before.