Who says being able to get an erection and keep it until the end is enough to satisfy your partner? Doesn't the quality of the erection matter too?

If we're to believe the latest sex survey released yesterday, then the answer is "yes", there is a strong correlation between erection hardness and satisfaction with one's sex life, love, romance and overall health.

Eight in every 10 Thai women are not "fully satisfied" with their male partners' erection hardness compared to the global average of six in 10, according to the survey carried out a giant pharmaceutical company which sells a popular anti-erectile dysfunction drug.

Thai men surveyed were more satisfied with the quality of their erection hardness than their female partners, said Dr Rosie King, a sexual relationship counsellor from Australia, citing the same survey.

Entitled "Global Better Sex Survey 2006", the survey was carried out in 27 countries, including Thailand, from October 2005 to March 2006. In the survey, about 12,500 men and women were asked a series of questions and to rate their satisfaction on men's erection hardness and how often they had sex.

In Thailand, the survey covered 132 men and 125 women. The ages of the people surveyed were between 25 and 74 years and the only other criteria were they had to have had sex at least once in the last 12 months and were heterosexual.

"Well, if men have a positive attitude about their sexual ability, in this case penis hardness, they tend to do better in making sex pleasurable to not only themselves but also their partner," said Dr Pansak Sugkraroek, a much-quoted obstetrics and gynaecology consultant, who was not involved in the survey.

"On the other hand, if men don't feel confident about their erection quality, they are tempted to get 'it' done as quickly as they can, fearing they'll lose their erection before they are finished," he said.

The survey found that Thais had sex less frequently (about four times in a period of four weeks) than the global average, which was found to be six times over 4 weeks.

However, unlike the association between erection hardness and satisfaction, the survey found no link between sexual frequency and the levels of satisfaction either in men or women.

Thai men and women were almost the same when it came to satisfaction in their sex lives, the percentage being 32 in men and 31 in women, compared to the global average of between 50 and 60 per cent, according to the survey.

Koreans seemed to be in a much worse situation, the survey suggested. Satisfaction in their sex lives was only 9 per cent in men and 7 per cent in women.

Arthit Khwankhom

 The Nation