I’m 40. Not too many years ago, I used to be able to come and then get a second erection in an hour or two. Now it takes more time, like three or four hours, sometimes longer. Is this normal? What’s happening to me?

Responses

  • Michael Castleman says:

    You’re normal. What’s happening is that you’re getting older. After orgasm men (and women) enter what pioneering sex researchers William Masters and Virginia Johnson dubbed the Refractory Phase of the sexual response cycle. During this phase, erection subsides, breathing and heart rate return to normal, and most men can’t raise another erection for a while even if they would like to. In the vast majority of men, the Refractory Phase lengthens with age. You may well have been able to raise a second erection soon after orgasm when you were in your teens or twenties. But you’re a little older now, so it takes longer to raise subsequent erections. The bad news is that as the years pass, you can expect your Refractory Phase to grow even longer–8 to 12 hours, possibly longer. But the good news is that there is nothing wrong with your penis or your sexual function. I suggest accepting your longer Refractory Phase. And if you’d like to learn more about the penis in middle age and beyond, read the articles Erection Myths and Older Men Become Sexually More Like Women.

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