CLINICAL BREAKDOWN: How Long Should I Last?

This month we already tackled the average size of male genitalia, so I thought we might as well tackle another biggy (or average-y, depending on your endowment): sex duration. Porn has notoriously conditioned humanity to believe that the average escapade should last at least 15-20 minutes. I read somewhere that the average full-length porn video is 22 minutes long, although I haven't found a confirmation on that one yet. Regardless, the question remains – what's actually normal?

So here's the thing. When you're calculating duration, there are several factors. Foreplay, physical preparations, intercourse itself, afterplay (things don't end when you're done). For our purposes, we are talking solely about intercourse itself. So what's your guess... any idea how long intercourse lasts on average? Do you think you measure up? Are you in the appropriate range?

Let's really boil this down. Let's say in the average porn video, intercourse lasts 15 minutes. That's enough for a few positions, a little interplay in between, etc. It's established that duration is exaggerated, but by how much? I interviewed a porn star one time who said to film a 20 minute video could take as long as 4-8 HOURS. You read that right. It's not so sexy when you realize there is a director behind the camera going, "annndd cut. Let's try that again, this time try to look like you're actually in love with each other." So clearly to hit even 15 minutes requires gastronomical amounts of production, breaks in between, and lotion.

So how long is intercourse on average?

Five and a half minutes. 390 seconds. Roughly the length of time it takes to fry eggs over-medium. I do this even morning, so I would know (the eggs - to be clear). The average span of time is actually anywhere from 2-8 minutes, which is a bit of a wider range. But the point is... porn has probably conditioned you to think you should be lasting about 300% longer than the average! How bonkers is that.

Now as a final conclusion, what is actually the most important metric is expectation/satisfaction. Some couples last a couple of minutes for their entire lives, and both are more than okay with it. Others begin to last longer with time and enjoy that as well. There is no duration that is going to perfectly satisfy your partner. What really matter is that the expectations are appropriate, and the levels of satisfaction are met. If you check both of those boxes, then duration is merely a number.

Cheering you on,
Sathiya