Is drug therapy appropriate for premature ejaculation?

More and more clinical studies are being published on premature ejaculation (PE), its causes, and potential therapies.

Because of this research, there’s also been a fair amount of backlash about the idea of “medicalizing” PE by creating pharmaceuticals to treat it. Critics believe that drug companies are manufacturing a market for their new products by leading men to believe they have PE when they may not. According to a 2009 article about PE in the New York Times, “While there is no doubt that some men are distressed about their inability to control their orgasms, there is little concrete evidence to suggest that there is an epidemic of premature ejaculation.” The reporter also quoted a psychologist who said that PE “is going to become problem once enough publicity is given to it.”

On the other hand, to suggest that PE is a false issue that is being manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry in order to sell drugs is not only insulting to the legions of men (and their partners) who suffer from this very real problem, but also impairs the development of a sorely needed solution. A pill for PE (dapoxetine) has already been rejected once for approval by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel. While some legitimate issues surround its ultimate efficacy, part of the reason for the rejection was the overall “anti-pharma” backlash against medicalizing sexual issues. Along with PE, there have been efforts to develop drugs to manage other types of sexual problems (such as low female desire), and many people were also extremely dismayed at the way erectile stimulants were marketed to men who may not have really needed them. All of this helped to create an atmosphere of caution and suspicion around medicalizing sexual problems.

There is undoubtedly a biological basis for chronic PE, just as there is for erectile dysfunction, and a drug treatment might be a substantial part of an overall solution. Medical treatment for PE can be very helpful, especially since the condition is proving to certainly be biopsychological, and possibly genetic, in nature. In combination therapy,  the medical side is only one part. Hopefully lessons have been learned in the decade that has passed since the arrival of the little blue pill, and only those men with chronic premature ejaculation will find themselves seeking medical treatment.