Oct. 28--BEIJING -- Only 0.5 percent of Chinese men are consistently satisfied with their sexual experiences and the amount of sex they are getting is "far less" than people enjoy in Western countries, according to a new survey.
The survey says that almost 70 percent of Chinese men have sex between two and five times a month.
"The frequency for men in Western countries is between two and five times a week," said Zhang Yilan, an official from the Chinese Medical Development Research Council who was among the experts involved in the survey.
The research, which took five months to complete and involved 33,000 men, was conducted jointly by the council and Beijing Dawn Hospital. It included an online questionnaire, Beijing-based street interviews and analysis of hospital records.
The findings were released earlier this week.
Zhang said the survey set 100 as the maximum for satisfaction from sex.
"Seventy percent of men rated their satisfaction under 60. If we take 60 as a pass score, it means that 70 percent of men failed. I was surprised by that," she said.
In addition to discovering that Chinese men who took part in the survey have less frequent and less rewarding sex lives than men in the West, the survey found that only 1 percent of respondents underwent sexual health checkups once a year. And nearly 70 percent of respondents said they would not even talk to doctors about problems with their sex lives.
Wang Xiaofeng, a doctor from Peking University People's Hospital, said that, nationwide, one in three men display some symptoms of erectile dysfunction (ED) and the rate among men who were older than 40 was 40 percent.
"ED will surely decrease the satisfaction from sex for both men and women and it has became a problem among Chinese men," said Wang.
Men aged between 30 and 50 are the largest group with ED in China but, in the US, the problem is most common among men who are older than 75.
According to the survey, about half of respondents said their sexual performance was hampered by pressure from work and by feeling nervous. Nearly 70 percent of them said they did not sleep well and easily became tired.
Men with problems were unlikely to get help because most said they were uncomfortable going to a doctor. Some 47 percent said they would not consult a doctor until their conditions became more severe.
"Men are under heavy pressure and only a few of them are strongly aware of their health condition," said Liu Xiuzhi, a doctor from Beijing Dawn Hospital. The hospital is mainly concerned with treating men's diseases and deals with about 100 patients each day.
She said more people today deal with busy working lives and few take exercise.
"Taking part in sport will benefit people's physical condition and mental health," she said.
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