SQUIRTING OR FEMALE EJACULATION

Everything you need to know about female orgasm with squirting!

​What science says about squirting

A small warning! This article will refer to spraying, gushing and the G-spot...
Let us begin an honest discussion about squirting, or female ejaculation. While pornography featuring female ejaculation has been banned in the UK, it is the third most searched category among women worldwide and the third in Australia, and has remained a source of curiosity throughout history. 

Squirting statistics

Many of you may be surprised to learn that potentially all women are capable of ejaculating during orgasm, but that is the case! Accounts of "fountain women" date back to 4th-century China, where fluids expelled during orgasm were believed to possess mystical and health-giving properties. But not only in China.
As recently discovered, some women (10–40%) experience an involuntary release of fluid during orgasm, ranging from 30 to 150 ml. 

Ancient Greece and squirting

Orgasm with female ejaculation, known colloquially—and on Google—as squirting, usually refers to the varying amount of fluid expelled shortly before, during or after the peak of pleasure. In the Western world, in Ancient Greece, great thinkers such as Aristotle and Hippocrates pondered the origins of 'female semen' and 'female discharge'. Early attempts at scientific investigation consisted of rudimentary physiological descriptions in the Indian spiritual text everyone knows by name, although very few have read it: the Kama Sutra. In the centuries that followed, female ejaculation continued to fascinate and intrigue, but it was not until the early 1900s that real progress was made in identifying the source of this mysterious orgasmic discharge.

Squirting, psychology and sexology
 

In 1904, psychologist Havelock Ellis proposed that female ejaculate was analogous to semen and originated in the Bartholin glands, two pea-sized glands responsible for secreting mucus that lubricates the vagina. Almost 50 years later, Ernest Gräfenberg challenged this idea, arguing that female ejaculation had little to do with lubrication. He reached this conclusion by observing women masturbating and noting that ejaculation occurred more often when an erogenous area on the front vaginal wall was stimulated. This area later became known as the G-spot, from the initial of his surname.

Interestingly, ancient descriptions of this erogenous zone closely match Gräfenberg's later work. Gräfenberg's theory was that female ejaculation was a secretion from the intraurethral glands beneath the G-spot. He was adamant that it was not urine, the leading alternative explanation at the time.

Chemical analysis of squirting fluid

One man's opinion is far from conclusive, and in 1982 researchers undertook a chemical analysis of female ejaculate, beginning to establish a clearer picture. This landmark study demonstrated a clear difference between fluid expelled during orgasm and urine, a finding later confirmed by several independent scientific studies. These results led to the hypothesis that female ejaculate originates in the Skene's glands: the equivalent of a female prostate.

The difference between female ejaculate and squirt
 

Yet the scientific community remains divided. Some question the very existence of the G-spot, while others question the large differences in the amount of fluid women release. Some women report very little fluid (2-4 ml), resembling watered-down milk and technically called female ejaculate, while others release a much larger volume, technically called squirt. This has led some researchers to argue that squirting is actually an involuntary release of urine or excessive lubrication. A recent study from Le Chesnay, France, conducted by Samuel Salama and his colleagues, sought to settle these questions by combining ultrasound imaging with chemical analysis of higher-volume female ejaculate.

Squirt or pee?

The researchers recruited seven women who reported squirting the equivalent of a glass of water during orgasm, enough to soak the sheets noticeably. The women provided a urine sample and then underwent an ultrasound scan confirming that their bladders were indeed empty. The women then began sexual stimulation, alone or with their partners, and had a second ultrasound once sufficiently aroused. They then returned to the task until they reached orgasm and ejaculated. A sample of the fluid was collected and final ultrasound scans were performed.

Unsurprisingly, the first ultrasound showed that the participants' bladders were empty. However, the second ultrasound, taken when the women were close to orgasm, showed significant bladder filling. The final ultrasound once again showed empty bladders. This suggested that female ejaculation, at least for these women, passed through the urinary tract.

Biochemical analysis of the fluid showed that this was certainly the case for two of the women in the study. For the other five, analysis showed that the fluid was largely similar to urine but also contained prostate-specific androgen (PSA) originating in the Skene's glands. Although produced by the kidneys, stored in the bladder and expelled through the urethra, it is not urine. In many women it contains a very high concentration of PSA, an enzyme secreted by the prostate in men. For this reason it is more similar to semen than urine. The few toxins present are so diluted that the fluid is more like water.

If I do not squirt, am I not truly experiencing pleasure?
 

Another myth to dispel is the idea that a woman squirts with every orgasm. A study conducted in 2002 at the University of L'Aquila found considerable variation in the micro-anatomy of the female genital system.

In particular, the size of the openings of the periurethral glands has been found to vary enormously from woman to woman, almost disappearing in some people. If Skene's glands are indeed responsible for female ejaculation, the ability to squirt would depend on their structure and size. A woman can therefore reach orgasm without squirting. Squirting can coincide with orgasm or occur before or after it.

Is squirting urine? NO!
 

So is squirting "wetting yourself"? NOOOO!
It seems that large-volume fluid emissions, or squirting, contain only a small proportion of urine. Another small volume of fluid is actually secretion from the female prostate caused by mechanical stimulation of the G-spot. It remains to be seen whether this constitutes true female ejaculation, since most previous studies include the full range of fluid emissions. Nor is it definitively known whether these two forms of excretion are mutually exclusive or overlap, as suggested by the presence of PSA in the women's urine in this study. Women who can ejaculate probably vary naturally in the amount of fluid they expel.

Squirting and women's sexual health
 

The implications for personal and sexual health are also unclear. An international survey of women who could ejaculate found that four in five reported that squirting enriched their sex lives. However, this included any volume of fluid release. 

Squirting generally results from:

• combination of G-spot stimulation
• relaxation and a comfortable emotional state
• understanding your own body and sensations
• a healthy relationship with your sexuality

I have gone on long enough: now it is time for you to learn to squirt too, through the exclusive Tantra Yoni massage for curious women... So... stay hydrated and have fun!

This article is based on research by James Sherlock conducted at the School of Psychology, University of Queensland. 

• A course to learn to squirt