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Female Ejaculation: What's Really Coming Out, and From Where
The Science of You
8 min read
Real, variable, and far more interesting than the arguments about it.
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Female ejaculation sits in a strange cultural place: simultaneously over-romanticised in certain corners of popular culture and dismissed as myth or embarrassment in others. The peer-reviewed research is considerably more grounded than either extreme. It confirms the phenomenon is real, maps the anatomy responsible, and - in a particularly careful 2015 study - describes exactly what the expelled fluid contains. The chemistry is more complicated than a simple yes-or-no answer allows, but understanding it removes the stigma attached to the experience and replaces it with something more useful: an accurate description of what the body is doing.
One of the most important clarifications in the recent literature is that "female ejaculation" and "squirting" are not the same thing, even though they are routinely conflated. Researchers now distinguish between two distinct events that can occur separately or together.
The first is true female ejaculation: the release of a small volume of whitish, viscous fluid from the Skene's glands (also called the female prostate) during sexual arousal or orgasm. This fluid is biochemically similar to male prostatic secretion - it contains prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prostate-specific acid phosphatase (PSAP). The volume is typically small, sometimes only a few millilitres, and may not be noticed or may be mistaken for other lubrication.
The second is what is commonly called squirting or gushing: the release of a considerably larger volume of fluid, sometimes tens of millilitres. This is the phenomenon that attracts the most cultural attention and the most confusion about its source. The 2015 study by Salama and colleagues provided the clearest answer yet about where this fluid comes from - and the answer turned out to involve the bladder.
Understanding that these are two separate processes - different sources, different biochemistry, different volumes - clarifies a great deal of the confusion that has built up around the topic.
The Skene's glands (paraurethral glands) are small glandular structures that open on either side of the urethral meatus. They are present in most people with female anatomy, though their size varies considerably between individuals. Some researchers, particularly Zaviacic and colleagues in the 1990s and 2000s, have argued that the Skene's glands constitute a true homologue of the male prostate gland, and proposed the term "female prostate" as a more accurate designation. This terminology was adopted by the Federative International Committee on Anatomical Terminology in 2001.
The evidence supporting this homology is substantial: the glands express PSA and PSAP - the same markers used in prostate cancer screening in men - and their embryological origin is the same urogenital sinus tissue from which the prostate develops. Rubio-Casillas and Jannini, reviewing the comparative anatomy in 2011, concluded that the Skene's glands satisfy the criteria for being considered a true female prostate.
The fluid produced by these glands during arousal is genuine glandular secretion. It is not urine. This part of female ejaculation is biochemically well-characterised and has a clear anatomical source. The confusion arises when this true ejaculate is conflated with the larger-volume squirting phenomenon, which has a different origin entirely.
The most methodologically rigorous study of squirting to date was published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine in 2015 by Salama and colleagues (PubMed 25545022). The researchers recruited seven women who reported experiencing squirting regularly and used pelvic ultrasound to observe what happened to the bladder across the arousal and squirting cycle.
The protocol was careful. Before any sexual activity, participants underwent ultrasound to confirm the bladder was empty. They then engaged in solo or partnered sexual stimulation while researchers performed ultrasound imaging at intervals - first at a baseline arousal state, then at the point just before squirting, and immediately after the squirting event. The bladder was also imaged after squirting.
The results were unambiguous. In all seven participants, the bladder appeared empty at the start. During arousal, the bladder filled progressively despite participants having urinated beforehand. At the point of squirting, the bladder was full. Immediately after squirting, the bladder was empty again. The expelled fluid had come from the bladder. Chemical analysis of the fluid confirmed it was primarily dilute urine - lower concentration than normal urine, but with urea, creatinine, and uric acid present. It also contained PSA, consistent with a Skene's gland contribution to the mix.
This finding explains the volume. The bladder can hold far more fluid than any glandular structure, which is why squirting produces much more fluid than true Skene's gland ejaculation. It also explains why squirting occurs even when people have urinated recently - the bladder refills during arousal through a mechanism that is not yet fully understood, possibly involving transudation from surrounding tissue or altered renal filtration during high arousal states.
The most common question after the above findings is: why does squirting happen for some people regularly, for others occasionally, and for others apparently never? The honest answer is that the research does not yet give a complete explanation, but several contributing factors are plausible.
Skene's gland size and activity vary substantially between individuals. People with larger, more active glands produce more true ejaculate. Whether this influences the squirting response through the bladder mechanism is less clear, but the presence of PSA in squirting fluid suggests Skene's secretion contributes to or accompanies the event.
Pelvic floor muscle function likely plays a role. The pelvic floor muscles are involved in bladder control and in the muscular contractions of orgasm. The pattern of relaxation and contraction during intense sexual response may influence whether the bladder empties as part of the response.
Stimulation type and location matter. The anterior vaginal wall - in close proximity to the urethra and bladder - appears to be the stimulation site most consistently associated with squirting. This is consistent with the anatomy: pressure and stimulation in that region directly affect the urethral and bladder structures. Anterior wall stimulation during high arousal, especially with simultaneous clitoral stimulation, appears to be the most common route to the response for people who experience it.
Pastor reviewed the physiological mechanisms of female ejaculation in a 2013 paper (PubMed 23634659) and noted the significant individual variation while supporting the distinction between glandular ejaculation and the squirting phenomenon. The take-home point is that the variation is biological, not a matter of skill or effort.
The chemistry finding - that squirting fluid is dilute urine plus PSA - tends to produce one of two reactions. Some people find it unsettling; others find it entirely irrelevant to the experience. The second response is probably healthier, and here is why.
The body does many things during sexual response that would seem strange in any other context. Vasocongestion in the genitals, significant fluid transudation through vaginal walls, the release of various neurochemicals, involuntary muscular contractions - sexual arousal is a whole-body physiological event. The fact that the bladder participates in squirting is consistent with this picture: it is a physiological response, not a failure of bodily control.
The stigma attached to squirting - historically treated as either embarrassing or as a performance to be achieved - is not supported by the physiology. It is a response that occurs in some people under some circumstances. It does not make the experience more or less valid, more or less pleasurable, or more or less worthy of attention. Some people find it intensely pleasurable; others find it unexpected and neutral; others never experience it and have no reason to pursue it.
What the research does offer is clarity: the phenomenon is real, it has documented anatomical and physiological explanations, and it varies between individuals for biological reasons that are not fully understood. That is a much better foundation for approaching the experience than either the mystification or the dismissal it has historically received.