Left alone, it depends on the kind. Occasional early finishes come and go by themselves, and the acquired kind can fade once its cause is dealt with. If it has always been there, waiting rarely changes it.
A lot of men hope it will go away by itself: with age, with experience, with a steady partner. Mine has always been there, and time alone didn’t change it. But that’s my case, and it isn’t everybody’s.
When it does come and go
Researchers describe a “natural variable” pattern: men who come early from time to time and normally the rest of the time. They’re clear that this shouldn’t be seen as a disorder, just a natural variation. If that’s you, a bad night now and then isn’t a sign of anything.
The same goes for the obvious situations: a new partner, a long break, a lot of excitement, too much on your mind. Those early finishes usually sort themselves out as things settle.
When it appeared later
If it started after years without trouble, it’s called acquired, and it often has a cause: anxiety, a rough patch in the relationship, an erection problem, a medication, sometimes the thyroid or the prostate. When the cause goes, the problem often fades with it. In one example from the research, the share of men with premature ejaculation among those with an overactive thyroid dropped from about 50% to 15% once their thyroid was treated. So here, the useful move is finding the cause, with a doctor, rather than waiting.
When it has always been there
Lifelong premature ejaculation is defined as being there since the first times, on most occasions. I’ve had it from the start, and the years alone didn’t change it. What did was working on it, and that took time too.
Does age help?
Not really in the way people hope. In the big five-country stopwatch study, the median time was actually lower in older men (4.3 minutes after 51, against 6.5 minutes between 18 and 30). Experience can bring calm, which helps, but age on its own isn’t a fix.
Sources
- The pathophysiology of acquired premature ejaculation, McMahon et al., Translational Andrology and Urology, 2016
- SSRIs and SNRIs for Premature Ejaculation in Adult Men, American Family Physician (Cochrane for Clinicians), 2022
- A multinational population survey of intravaginal ejaculation latency time, Waldinger et al., Journal of Sexual Medicine, 2005