esearchers from the UK and Netherlands studied 54 men with premature ejaculation, randomly assigning them to a treatment and control group. Both groups reported that without any therapy they normally ejaculated an average of one minute after vaginal penetration.

"The men who were prescribed the TEMPE spray, which delivers a combination of lidocaine and prilocaine, managed to delay ejaculation by just under an extra four minutes after using the product" reports Professor Wallace Dinsmore from the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.

My favorite line in the press release: "Participants were also issued with a stopwatch so that they, or their partner, could measure the time lapse between penetration and ejaculation."

The spray sounds like a potentially useful treatment, giving couples an average of five minutes of mutual mambo instead of one.

But I wonder if the numbing effect might spread from the guy to his partner's parts. (Only one of the female partners reported a problem, however.)

The press release doesn't deal with matters of taste: What does this mean for oral sex? Nor does it give any indication of how far along the research is or whether the product might hit the market soon.

What do you think, Regina? Do you think women and men would stay mum about potentially being numb and let their male partners try this out? And have you heard of any tech-oriented treatments for premature ejaculation?