Man's 30 minute sex warm-up

Tim Utton|Daily Mail13 April 2012

For the British male, there are three steps to heaven ... but it takes him a full 31 minutes to get there.

. Just over half an hour is the perhaps surprisingly lengthy amount of time he needs to woo his wife or girlfriend into bed, researchers have found

They discovered that the 31 minutes can be broken down into three distinct stages - the man's initial inkling of arousal, the decision to make love, and the start of foreplay.

Stage one begins with the moment he first thinks he might like to have sex. This lasts an average of 14 minutes.

Stage two - by which time the couple have decided to make love - lasts an average of seven minutes, while they undress and otherwise prepare.

Stage three is foreplay, lasting an average of ten minutes before the beginning of intercourse.

The study did not look at how long sex lasted once it was under way.

Ian Eardley, a consultant urologist at St James's Hospital, Leeds - with colleagues from Derriford Hospital, Plymouth - quizzed 710 men and 342 women aged 35 and upwards for the survey.

Those questioned were in heterosexual relationships, although no couples were interviewed.

While for men the average time from first thought to intercourse was 31 minutes, women reported the average as 25 minutes - which may reflect a perception that there was not enough foreplay involved.

For female partners of men over 60,

it was quicker still, with just 20 minutes from first thought to intercourse. The researchers - whose findings are published in the British Journal of Urology - also discovered that most males appear to be strictly 'once-a-night' men.

Fewer than one in five said they regularly manage intercourse twice or more in a single session. Only 19 per cent of men and 11 per cent of women thought it was either 'very' or 'extremely' important to have sex more than once in a 24-hour period.

Mr Eardley said: 'There have been no studies that have assessed the timing of sexual events from first thought to commencing intercourse.

'Previous studies have concentrated mostly on the frequency of intercourse in the general population over a period of weeks or months. To date, there have been no reports on the actual and desired frequency of sexual intercourse in a 24-hour period.

He said the study - funded by Pfizer, which makes the anti-impotence pill Viagra - was aimed at better understanding the sexual habits of those over 40. 'It suggested that there were subtle differences in attitudes between men and women.

'The need to have sexual intercourse more than once in a 24-hour period is not of prime importance to most men or their partners.

'There was a general trend for men to report frequent sexual activity to be more important than did women.'

He said a couple's sex life is a key part of a successful marriage - at all stages of life.

'A satisfactory sexual relationship is important in maintaining a couple's general relationship, and the importance of sex in this respect does not appear to decrease with advancing age.'

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