Not in the direction people hope. In a large stopwatch study, older men actually lasted a little less than younger ones. And when premature ejaculation appears later in life, it often has a cause worth checking.
On average, men last a little less as they get older, not more. Hoping it will settle with age and experience is a comforting idea, but the numbers don’t really back it up.
What the stopwatch says
The best-known measurement is a 2005 study of nearly 500 couples in five countries, who timed intercourse at home with a stopwatch. The median time from penetration to ejaculation was 5.4 minutes overall. But it wasn’t the same at every age: about 6.5 minutes for men aged 18 to 30, and about 4.3 minutes for men over 51.
So on average, men don’t last longer as they get older. If anything, a bit less.
Lifelong: there from the start
Premature ejaculation that has been there since the first times is called lifelong. It’s mine: I’ve always had it. By definition it doesn’t come with age, and in my case the years alone didn’t make it go away either. What changed things was working on it.
Acquired: when it shows up later
Premature ejaculation can also appear later in life, in a man who used to be fine. That’s called acquired, and it’s more often linked to something else: performance anxiety, relationship trouble, an erection problem, taking or stopping some medication, and more rarely the thyroid or an inflamed prostate.
That’s the case where age matters most, because erection problems are among the usual causes. A man who struggles to stay hard may need more stimulation and finish sooner. If it started recently after years without trouble, see a doctor first. Dealing with the cause often changes a lot.
What experience can bring
Experience does bring something: knowing your body better, being less nervous, being able to talk about it with your partner. Calm helps. But calm on its own isn’t a fix, and waiting for the years to do the work is a long wait.
If you’re curious about the other half of this question, I wrote about whether premature ejaculation goes away on its own.
Sources
- A multinational population survey of intravaginal ejaculation latency time, Waldinger et al., Journal of Sexual Medicine, 2005 (summary by the SMSNA)
- SSRIs and SNRIs for Premature Ejaculation in Adult Men, American Family Physician (Cochrane for Clinicians), 2022
- Disorders of Ejaculation: AUA/SMSNA Guideline, American Urological Association, 2020
- A Cross-Sectional Observational Study on the Coexistence of Erectile Dysfunction and Premature Ejaculation, Chin et al., Sexual Medicine, 2021