They can. A small 2014 study found most men with lifelong premature ejaculation lasted clearly longer after 12 weeks of pelvic floor training. But strength is only half of it: learning to relax those muscles counts too.
Kegels were one of the first things I tried. I did them, it helped a little, and then nothing lasted. Years later I understood why, and it had less to do with the exercise than with what I expected from it.
Why the pelvic floor matters
I’ll admit I used to think only women had a pelvic floor. Men have one too: a set of muscles under the pelvis that supports the bladder and bowel, helps you hold urine, and plays a part in sex. It helps keep blood in the penis during an erection, and it’s involved in ejaculation.
Ejaculation happens in two steps. First the semen is moved into the urethra, then it’s pushed out by rhythmic contractions of the pelvic floor muscles. It’s a reflex, but those muscles are part of it, which is why training them makes sense.
What the research found
The study everyone cites is a small Italian one from 2014. Forty men with lifelong premature ejaculation followed 12 weeks of pelvic floor rehabilitation. At the end, 82.5% had better control, and their average time went from about 32 seconds to about 146 seconds.
It’s encouraging, but keep its limits in mind: a small pilot study, no control group, and a six-month follow-up on only 13 men. The American urologists' guideline doesn’t make a recommendation for behavioural methods used alone. So: promising, not proven.
Why squeezing harder is only half of it
Kegels only train one thing: the squeeze. What I worked out over the years is that control isn’t just strength. A pelvic floor that stays tense all the time doesn’t help you hold back, so the way I train today gives as much room to letting those muscles go as to making them stronger. That’s a view built on my own experience, not on a study, and I don’t know of research that has tested it head to head.
One warning
You’ll often read that you should practise by stopping your urine flow. Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic say that’s fine once, to find the muscles, but not as a routine: repeatedly stopping the flow can encourage urinary infections. Do the exercises with an empty bladder.
Sources
- Lifelong premature ejaculation can be treated by pelvic floor exercises, European Association of Urology, on Pastore et al., 2014
- Pelvic floor rehabilitation for patients with lifelong premature ejaculation, Pastore et al., Therapeutic Advances in Urology, 2014
- Pelvic Floor Muscles, Cleveland Clinic
- Kegel Exercises, Cleveland Clinic
- Kegel exercises for men, Mayo Clinic
- Premature Ejaculation: From Physiology to Treatment, 2019, via PubMed Central
- Disorders of Ejaculation: AUA/SMSNA Guideline, American Urological Association, 2020
The whole theme in one read: Premature ejaculation treatments: what works and what doesn’t