Use of a stopwatch to measure ejaculatory latency may not be accurate among Indian patients

Although the use of a stopwatch is recommended to record intravaginal ejaculatory latency time (IELT) for premature ejaculation, there is no Indian literature which assesses the reliability of this method among our patients. Hence, we assessed the accuracy of stopwatch-measured IELT and compared it with other methods such as number of thrusts and self-assessed IELT in an Indian context.

Between January 2015 and December 2015, couples with premature ejaculation (PE) confirmed with the Premature Ejaculation Diagnostic Tool were enrolled in this study. They were asked to report self-assessed IELT for the first 2 weeks, number of thrusts before ejaculation following vaginal penetration for the next 2 weeks, and stopwatch-clocked IELT for the last 2 weeks. At each 2-week interval, the couples answered erectile/ejaculatory performance anxiety index questionnaire (EPAI). The data were analyzed at the end of 6 weeks.

A total of 42 couples with an average married life of 5.53 years were included in the study. Average stopwatch-clocked IELT was almost 1 min more than the self-reported IELT, which was statistically significant. The average number of thrusts reported was 6.31. Anxiety on the EPAI scale was maximum while using stopwatch to measure IELT.

Use of stopwatch to clock the IELT does not appear to represent true IELT in Indian patients. Self-assessed IELT correlated more accurately with symptoms of PE.