PERSPECTIVES
Is That Pee? And Other Questions You May Be Asked About Squirting
Published: MAY 28, 2015
| Updated: JULY 31, 2018
There’s a lot of debate about whether female ejaculation exists, whether it’s urine, and if it’s something every person with a vulva can accomplish (whether or not they identify with the female sex). It’s like the mystery fluid, and conclusive evidence about female ejaculation hasn’t been verified medically. People who agree that female ejaculation exists still don’t necessarily agree on its makeup, its origin, or its purpose.
Let’s just say I very much believe in female ejaculation, or squirting, as it’s often called. I’ve been ejaculating since I began having sex at the age of 15, but that’s not necessarily common. So what is female ejaculation? Or is it just pee? Here we'll answer this and other questions about squirting.
When Was Female Ejaculation First Discovered?
Documentation of female ejaculation has been discovered from as early as 500 B.C.E. in Chinese and Indian sex advice books. Glands around the female urethra that emit prostatic-like secretions were known to physicians and philosophers in ancient Greece, according to Dr. Rebecca Chalker, author of The Clitoral Truth. Even Aristotle wrote about squirting.
De-stigmatizing squirting is so critical because there are people who most definitely have experienced it or experience it regularly. Those who claim that female ejaculation isn’t real fail to validate those people’s experiences. It would be great if everyone could stop treating female ejaculation like a myth. There's ejaculation (the fluid that comes out of a penis), and then there's FEMALE ejaculation. My hope is that one day, we might acknowledge equal opportunity squirting.
What is Squirting?
Female ejaculation is known by many names. Terms such as fejac, squirting, gushing, lady cum, and wet orgasms all refer to the release of fluids from a woman, or person with a vulva, during sex play. Ejaculation doesn’t necessarily coincide with orgasm, but it can be a fun addition. Beverly Whipple and John Perry are some of the top researchers and proponents of female ejaculation. They have hypothesized that squirting evolved to combat urethra and bladder infections. They argue that many secretions and fluids produced by the human body, like saliva, tears, and male ejaculate, have compounds that inhibit the growth of bacteria.
Many people wonder if squirting is urine. The answer? No, no, and no again. You are not wetting the bed during sex (unless you’re into urolagnia and are wetting the bed intentionally). No, squirting is not pee. People are going to argue with me, but I’ve squirted. I’ve been with partners who squirted, I’ve talked to lots of people who have squirted. I am confident that it is not urine. If you’ve ever peed your pants, you know that it has an odor. If you’ve ever experienced female ejaculation, you’ll know that it’s not the same odor.
That said, the science around squirting is a bit iffy. Discovery recently published a study with a sample of seven participants "proving" that female ejaculation is just pee. I disagree, and I’m not just throwing science out the window here. Seven people is not a statistically significant sample size. And, while this study says that the squirting fluid is urine, there have been other studies that have determined that it is not. A couple of those other studies are cited in The Clitoral Truth, but unfortunately, host similarly small sample sizes. In one of the case studies featured in Clitoral Truth, a female participant peed on the bed, they tested it for urine, and then she ejaculated on the bed, and they tested the secretions for urine as well. The conclusion? The ejaculation was not urine. Another study had a sample of 24 participants: six of whom ejaculated. These researchers announced at the Thirteenth World Congress of Sexology that female ejaculation is absolutely real.
Where Does the Fluid Come From?
Unfortunately, many people seem terrified about female sexuality in general. For decades, sexual pleasure was considered nonexistent for women, so why are we surprised that female ejaculation is considered in much the same way? To help de-stigmatize squirting, it is important to understand it as an organic, scientific process:
Female ejaculation is released from up to thirty or more tiny glands in the urethral sponge or female prostate. This is the spongy erectile tissue surrounding the urethra. The urethral sponge is on the inner wall of the vagina, and is often referred to as the G Spot. I’d argue that this portion of the vagina is not just a spot. It’s a whole complex system that is part of the larger clitoral and vaginal network. Did you know that the clitoris is actually made of eighteen different parts?
