LAUSR

Background The study aimed to explore the relationship between premature ejaculation (PE) and the serotonin transporter gene-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) with respect to the biallelic and triallelic classifications. Methods A total of 115 outpatients who complained of ejaculating prematurely and were diagnosed as lifelong premature ejaculation (LPE) and 101 controls without PE complaint were recruited. All subjects completed a detailed questionnaire and were genotyped for 5-HTTLPR polymorphism using PCR-based technology. Associations between 5-HTTLPR allelic and genotypic frequencies and their association with LPE, and the intravaginal ejaculation latency time (IELT) of different 5-HTTLPR genotypes among LPE patients were evaluated. Results The patients and controls didn’t differ significantly in terms of any characteristic except age. The results showed no significant difference regarding the biallelic 5-HTTLPR. According to the triallelic classification, no significant difference was found comparing the genotypic distribution (P=0.091). However, the distribution of the S, LG and LA alleles in the cases was significantly different from the controls (P=0.018). We found a significantly lower frequency of LA allele and higher frequency of LG allele in patients. Based on another classification by expression, we found a significantly lower frequency of the L/L genotype (OR =0.37; 95% CI: 0.15–0.91, P=0.025) in patients with LPE. No significant association was detected between IELT of LPE and different genotypes. Conclusions Contrary to the general classification based on S/L alleles, triallelic 5-HTTLPR was associated with LPE. Triallelic 5-HTTLPR may be a promising field for genetic research of PE to avoid false negative results in future studies.