Sunday, February 22, 2009

Hard truth behind S'pore men's performance in bed

Hard truth behind S'pore men's performance in bed
Sun, Feb 22, 2009
The New Paper

By Ng Wan Ching

HEARD the joke that a good man is hard to find but a hard man is good to find?

Well, six in 10 Singapore women in a recent sex survey share the latter problem with the latter. They were not satisfied with their partners' erections.

In the findings of the Asia Pacific Sexual Health and Overall Wellness survey, men generally rated themselves as more satisfied with their erections than women were.

Of the 117 men polled in Singapore, slightly more than half (52 per cent) said they do have optimal erection hardness. But 62 per cent of the 107 more Singapore women polled were unsatisfied with their men's hardness.

This difference between men and women was also reflected in the findings of the other 12 countries involved in the survey.

Said Professor Peter Lim, senior consultant urologist and president of the Society for Men's Health Singapore: 'An example is the wife who brings her husband to be checked out.

'She tells me her husband is not functioning properly. But the husband will, in front of her, tell me there's nothing wrong with him. That's the level of the male ego.'

The findings also show that men with less-than-hard erections are less satisfied with their sexual experience. They are less positive about life than their counterparts with optimal erection hardness.

Of the one in two men here with sub-optimal erections, some are due to erectile dysfunction (ED), but increasingly younger men are also afflicted due to stress and depression.

Said Prof Lim: 'Every man with ED can be helped. The ways to help range from a pill like Viagra to penile implants and injections.'

Men and women satisfied with the erection hardness also experienced greater satisfaction in all aspects of the sexual experience.

These include orgasm intensity, physical foreplay, intercourse itself and feelings of attraction to the sexual partner.

The survey found that men and women who are satisfied with sex enjoy greater levels of satisfaction in other aspects of life - love and romance, overall health and family life.

Prof Lim said: 'If a couple are not satisfied with their sex life, they may break up.

'It is important to remember that sub-optimal erection hardness affects both men and their partners, and effective treatments to improve erection hardness can enhance other aspects of a relationship.'

He feels that women here, in particular, should be encouraged to speak to their doctors about sexual health issues, including sub-optimal erections.

Australian sexual health physician Dr Rosie King, who was here to present the survey results, said: 'The penis is like an early warning sign of something that is not quite right. It could be diabetes, metabolic syndrome which includes being obese, having high blood pressure or even cardiac disease.

'So if you are having problems with your erections, you should go and see a doctor and get yourself checked out.'

Survey

More than 2,000 men and 1,900 women, aged 25 to 74, from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and New Zealand were polled.

The most satisfied men came from India, at 73 per cent, followed by 54 per cent of Filipinos. Those from South Korea (19 per cent) and Japan (10 per cent) rank lowest.

Indian women (65 per cent) and women from the Philippines and New Zealand (46 per cent each) are more satisfied with sex than women from South Korea (11 per cent) and Japan (4 per cent).

Singapore men were the eighth most satisfied with sex. There was no similar ranking for women.

The survey, conducted over three months last year, was sponsored by a grant from Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals, which makes Viagra.

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