1 in 3 men suffers from premature ejaculation

As many as one in three men in Malaysia and and nine other countries in Asia Pacific could be suffering from premature ejaculation (PE), according to a study.

PE, a devastating condition for a man, is defined as a lack of control on a man’s part during intercourse, resulting in ejaculation prior to or within one minute of penetration, said Associate Professor George Lee Eng Geap from the University of Malaya and Monash University.

Singapore’s MyPaper quoted Prof Lee, who is part of the study’s steering committee, as saying that PE is a problem that cuts across ethnicity and age groups.”

The Asia-Pacific Premature Ejaculation Prevalence And Attitude Study surveyed nearly 5,000 men, aged 18 to 65, from 10 Asia-Pacific countries, including Australia, China, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

The causes of the problem are complex, ranging from the psychological to the physiological, said Prof Lee.

A person who secretly had intercourse at home, and was anxious of being found out by his parents, for instance, could develop PE later in life, he said.

The problem could also be genetic in nature, he added.

There may be a solution: Dapoxetine.

According to MyPaper, American company Janssen-Cilag had recently submitted the pill  to the health authorities in Singapore for review.

The pill is the only known medication that can treat the condition and is currently available in seven European Union countries, including Sweden, Austria and Italy.

Outside of Europe, the medicine is available only in New Zealand and South Korea.

Dapoxetine is supposed to boost the ejaculation-delaying hormone serotonin, by preventing or delaying the breakdown of serotonin in the body.

In effect, this would help maintain higher levels of the hormone in the body, which would in turn help to delay ejaculation.

Other treatments for PE include behavioural therapy like counselling, or topical treatments like sprays, numbing gels or condoms. However, there are drawbacks to some of these treatments.

For example, numbing gel or sprays can desensitise the penis, causing a loss of sexual enjoyment, said Prof Lee.

The condition can seriously injure a man’s relationship with his partner. “PE can have a devastating impact on the relationship between men and their partners,” said Prof Lee.

” The impact extends not just to a man’s self-esteem, but also to a woman’s fulfillment and, ultimately, to the entire relationship.”

Five schoolboys held over gang-rape

A 14-year-old Ipoh schoolgirl was gang-raped by five schoolmates who also took photographs of the acts and other nude pictures of her after spiking her drink in a karaoke room.

The suspects being brought to court for the seven-day remand order

She was too ashamed to tell anyone about the incident which took place on Oct 5 2009 and thought that no one else would know if she kept it a secret.

But her nightmare was far from over. As soon as she returned to school the next day, she overheard the boys bragging about what they did to their friend.

The suspects, accompanied by two of their mothers (at left, bending downwards and right), sitting on the floor before their remand

The girl complained to teachers but instead of helping her, they asked her to seek a transfer to another school.

The school’s stance was that the incident happened outside the school as such it was outside of its control or jurisdiction.

Frightened and helpless, the girl finally told her parents about the gang-rape.

Her mother lodged a police report on Oct 26, but there was no action until the matter was reported in the Chinese media recently.

Police arrested the suspects – five secondary school students, aged between 14 and 17 – on Friday. They were brought to the Ipoh Magistrate Court and have been remanded for seven days for further investigations.

The case was classified  as rape and outrage of modesty.

According to the police,the girl had apparently gone to a karaoke with four schoolmates – two boys and two girls. Three other boys were waiting for them in the karaoke room.

Two of the boys and two girls later left the room to buy a present, leaving the victim alone with the three other boys.

One of them handed her a drink to which he added some “orange flavor candy” and she took a sip. She soon started feeling dizzy.

According to her report, she soon felt that her clothes had been removed and the boys, including the two who had gone out earlier, returned to the room.

She said she felt them were kissing and fondling her body before she passed out.

When she regained consciousness, she found herself naked in the room with some sticky liquid on her chest.

The girl wore her clothes which were strewn in the room and ran out. She bumped into the two female schoolmates outside but did not tell them about what happened to her.