How long should sex last to be considered 'good'?
It's a pretty vague question to be honest, but it's probably something every man and teenage boy has agonised over before and after any sexual encounter.
After all you don't want to be that '10-second wonder' guy, quicker out the blocks than Usain Bolt.
But then again you don't want to bore your partner to sleep with some five-hour tantric marathon.
Sexual performance - and certainly how long you can go for - is still something that plays on the minds of men everywhere.
We know that the average sex session does last around five minutes,
according to research from the University of Queensland.
But how long should it be to fall into the 'well that was bloody good' bracket? A group of leading US and Canadian sex therapists, including psychologists, physicians, social workers, marriage therapists and nurses, were asked about the ideal duration of sex in study....
The good news is that answer says great sex can be measured in minutes, rather than hours. The bad news, for some, is the answer wasn't 'one minute'.
Sadly sex lasting one to two minutes was collectively considered 'too short' by the experts who belong to the Society for Sex Therapy and Research.
If you last between three to seven minutes they deemed this just 'adequate' while anything approaching 30 minutes was considered 'too long' by the therapists.
The sweet spot, so to speak, in terms of sexual duration from start to finish was between seven to 13 minutes which was considered 'desirable' by the experts. Not such a tall order?
"A man's or woman's interpretation of his or her sexual functioning as well as the partner's relies on personal beliefs developed in part from society's messages, formal and informal," researchers said,
according to the Star.
"Unfortunately, today's popular culture has reinforced stereotypes about sexual activity."Many men and women seem to believe the fantasy model of large penises, rock-hard erections and all-night-long intercourse."
Past research has found that a large percentage of men and women who responded wanted sex to last 30 minutes or longer.
"This seems a situation ripe for disappointment and dissatisfaction," said lead author Eric Corty, associate professor of psychology.
"With this survey, we hope to dispel such fantasies and encourage men and women with realistic data about acceptable sexual intercourse, thus preventing sexual disappointments and dysfunctions."
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