Premature Ejaculation? There’s an Israeli App for That

Virility Medical, an unimprovably named Israeli start-up, recently completed a successful clinical trial of its newest offering, an app-based cure to premature ejaculation.

The condition, the company reports, afflicts more than 79 million men in the United States and the European Union, creating a market that is slated to reach the $2 billion mark by 2020. And rather than treat it with drugs that may cause side-effects like nausea, headaches, and erectile dysfunction, Virility invented a smart disposable sticker, designed to be placed on the scrotum, which is controlled by a smart phone application that emits a low-intensity electric current that contracts the muscle responsible for ejaculation, thereby delaying climax. The technology was recently tested on 20 subjects at the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, and delivered considerably positive results.

The company, said its CEO, Tal Golan, is anticipating robust growth. “We bring a pioneering solution, simple and efficient,” he told the Israeli press. Virility has raised nearly $1 million so far from private investors and from the Israel Innovation Authority, a government-run R&D fund.

Golan stumbled on the technology, he said, almost by accident. “I wanted to found my own company,” he said, “and I looked at the esthetics sector. When you read about esthetics, of course, you read about botox, and I encountered an article by a Turkish neurologist, who referred to the inducing of paralysis in muscles in order to treat premature ejaculation. When I read this article, it occurred to me that if the muscle was close to the skin, electrical stimulation was likely to get a better reception than an injection into a man’s intimate area. Furthermore, premature ejaculation is a problem that people want treated when it happens, not necessarily with a solution that is in effect for 24 hours a day.”