Missy Elliott once declared that she didn’t want a one-minute man. And, no offense to the (straight) men of the world, since biological responses are not inherently your fault, but most women would agree. Although apparently we’ll settle for five minutes.

According to a new study, women think that sex that lasts between three and seven minutes is “satisfactory” — although let’s remember that “satisfactory” doesn’t equal “mind-blowing.” Penn State’s Eric Corty and Jenay Guardiani lead a survey of 50 sexperts — doctors, psychologists, sex researchers — who concluded that “too short” sex lasts for one to two minutes, “adequate” sex is three to seven minutes, “desirable” sex is seven to thirteen minutes and sex that takes “too long” lasts anywhere from thirteen to thirty minutes. If this feels off to you, it’s important to note that Corty and Guardiani are solely referring to penetrative sex without including foreplay.

When asked about the study, a group of ten women, all of whom asked to be quoted anonymously, were pretty perplexed. Three said that they liked having sex for about ten minutes, three said fifteen to thirty minutes and the remaining six responded that they had absolutely no idea (which is this author’s perspective). “It differs between men,” said a 22-year-old college senior. “It literally depends on them and their d**k.”

“I don’t exactly look at my watch if it’s going well,” said a 24-year-old medical researcher. Others echoed the sentiment. One friend said, “LOL, I don’t know. I’ve mostly been drunk recently so…”

“I feel like I’m supposed to say longer,” said a 25-year-old artist. “But I really feel like you can get it done in a quarter of an hour.” Two writers said that they could go for more than an hour, perhaps because they can spend that time whipping things up in their heads or they just know of a particularly awesome lubricant the rest of us haven’t heard of.

In conclusion, this study doesn’t exactly seem foolproof. Women want different things in different situations and seem to rarely use a stopwatch while banging. But one thing we can all agree on? Let’s go for better than “adequate.”

(H/T xonecole)