How long sex really lasts - and how porn warps perception

Men believe they should last longer in bed - and porn may be to blame. Photo / 123RF

The corrosive effect of pornography on men’s attitude to sex is warping their perception of how long it should last, a new study claims.

The report from Australian men’s health service Pilot included a survey that asked men how long they last during sex and how long they thought they should - and there was a marked difference,

The survey found that men last five and a half minutes during sex but believed that it should be double that.

With a third of men consuming porn at least once a week, if not more, the report found that men were feeling inadequate that their performance didn’t measure up to what they saw on screen, news.com.au reported.

The survey also found that 59 per cent of men believed porn had no impact, or a positive impact, on their sexual performance.

This belief flies in the face of a growing body of evidence that links porn consumption to erectile dysfunction in men.

Porn can be a problem for men. Photo / 123RF

In contrast to men’s positive take on porn, 33 per cent of women thought it had a negative impact on their partner’s efforts in the bedroom.

Men also believed that copying the acts they saw in pornography would please their partner, a mindset that can leave their lovers disappointed.

Dr Ben Condon told news.com.au that porn and masturbation were typically linked and so it was little surprise that men had a positive association to it, but this misguided faith in pornography was causing harm.

Men's mimicry of acts seen in porn can be harmful to their partners. Photo / 123RF

“Porn, particularly in the absence of sufficient sex education, perpetuates unrealistic and unhealthy expectations of sex and intimate relationships,” Condon said.

“This unnecessarily increases the incidence of shame and anxiety in one’s ‘performance’ while also encouraging unhealthy, and at times disrespectful, relationships.”

He said that porn was normalising extreme behaviour and minimising the need for consent but warned that limiting its consumption would be hard given its ubiquity online.