Dr Laura Berman, renowned author, columnist, sex educator and relationship counsellor, tells the Chicago Sun-Times in an exclusive interview that medical treatments, advanced as they are, cannot fully resolve the problem of early ejaculation, advising men to communicate with their partners for a better performance in bed.

Proper and frequent interpersonal communication can help men get over tension and anxiety – two of the most common risk factors for premature ejaculation, Dr Berman affirms, saying that any niggling relationship issues the couples might be having can severely affect the quality of their sexual intimacy.

She tells the American tabloid that tension alone is a sure sex drive killer for men and can “complicate (…) sexual response”, leading to an unsatisfactory bedroom experience for both partners.

Admitting that it is not easy to talk about an embarrassing health condition like early ejaculation, the author of The Book of Love: Every Couple’s Guide to Emotional and Sexual Intimacy and It’s Not Him: It’s You reminds those suffering from ejaculation problems that “almost all men experience this issue at some time or another.”

A good trick to delay ejaculation is “taking things slow and staying in the moment”, the tabloid newspaper quotes Dr Berman as saying. It is also important that men spend more time on foreplay than the actual act of intercourse, she reckons, indicating that prolonged foreplay might just make it easier for men to bust stress and dodge PE.