Have you ever wondered how long sex should last between yourself and your partner? Or whether or not you are doing “it” long enough?

Well, now you may have an answer. A survey taken over at Saucy Dates asked an international sample of 3,836 men and women how long they would like pleasure between the sheets to last. 

They found that on average women wanted to enjoy sex for 25 minutes and 51 seconds, whilst for men it was 25 minutes and 43 seconds.

It seems USA men had the best staying power, followed not too far behind by Canadians. Men in the United Kingdom improve with age, reaching their peak in their early thirties. 

The study also suggests that when it comes to intercourse, men from all over globe can’t realistically reach their ideal duration of some good ol’ loving.

Past research into the average amount of time couples have sex to reach orgasm came to a much different number. The study, which included 500 heterosexual couples from around the world timing themselves having sex over a period of four weeks, revealed a variety of results, with a range of duration from 33 seconds to 44 minutes. And yes, this research did include a stopwatch.

The average, however, was 5.4 minutes in most countries studied, which included the US, UK, Netherlands, and Spain. Turkey, on the other hand, average 3.72 minutes.

What’s more, the use of condoms or circumcision had no direct effect on the performance or outcome of sexual intimacy amongst couples.  

Based on these two studies, it seems 25 minutes may not be realistic. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing, as previous studies have shown that there are other ways to enjoy intimacy that doesn’t include penetration.