Female Ejaculation: What the Research Actually Shows
Female ejaculation and squirting are two different things. Here is what the bladder studies measured, how common it really is, and when leakage needs a doctor.
58%of 1,568 Swedish women surveyed in 2024 had experienced it
7%of those experience it every time
4 of 5samples contained PSA in the 2022 dye study
1 in 4first thought they had simply urinated
In short
- Two different things hide behind one phrase: a small milky secretion from the Skene’s glands, and a large release of clear fluid from the bladder.
- The two studies that looked inside the bladder, by ultrasound in 2015 and with a blue dye in 2022, agree that the large release is mainly very dilute urine.
- It is sterile, not a medical problem, and not a grade: over a third of women never experience it and lose nothing.
- No technique triggers it reliably. Only 7 percent of women who experience it do so every time.
- Leakage that also happens when you cough, laugh or exercise is something else entirely, and it treats well.
Female ejaculation is one of the few topics where almost everything most people know came from somewhere other than a health source. In the largest survey on the subject, just 4 percent of respondents had learned about it at school, while 16 percent had learned about it from pornography. That gap explains a lot: the shame, the assumption that it is a skill to master, and the quiet worry that something is leaking that should not be.
If you landed here hoping a device would make it happen, the honest answer sits right at the top of our vibrator comparison: no reputable product claims that outcome, because none can deliver it. What follows is not a method. It is what the research actually measured, with the numbers and the sources.
Female ejaculation and squirting are not the same thing
In medical writing, two separate phenomena carry two separate names, because they differ in volume, origin and composition. Everyday English collapsed them into one word, and most of the confusion starts there.
The small one: an actual glandular secretion
Female ejaculation in the strict sense is a small volume, typically under one millilitre, of thick, milky fluid. It comes from the Skene’s glands, which sit on either side of the lower urethra, along the front wall of the vagina. These glands develop from the same embryonic tissue as the male prostate, which is why they are sometimes called the female prostate. According to the Cleveland Clinic’s anatomy page on the Skene’s gland, they produce prostate-specific antigen and prostatic acid phosphatase, and help lubricate and protect the urethra. Their size and activity vary widely between people.
The large one: clear fluid from the bladder
Squirting describes something quite different: a substantially larger release of clear, watery fluid through the urethra. Both can occur together, which is why the biochemistry of real samples is never purely one or the other.
What the two key studies measured
For decades the question stayed open because nobody could see inside the bladder at the right moment. Two studies solved that, with different methods and converging answers.
2015: three ultrasound scans, before and after
Samuel Salama’s team followed seven women with no gynaecological abnormalities who reported recurrent, high-volume emissions. Three pelvic ultrasound scans were taken: after voluntary urination, just before the emission, and immediately after. The bladder was confirmed empty at the start, visibly filled just before, and empty again afterwards. Urea, creatinine and uric acid concentrations matched those of urine, and PSA was present in the emitted sample in five of the seven participants. The paper in the Journal of Sexual Medicine concludes that squirting is essentially the involuntary emission of urine, with a marginal but common contribution from prostatic secretions.
2022: the blue dye, a visual answer
Seven years later, Miyabi Inoue and Motoo Araki took a more direct route. In five women aged 30 to 60 who could produce the phenomenon voluntarily, the bladder was emptied by catheter and filled with blue dye. In all five cases the expelled fluid was blue. PSA was detected in four of the five. The report in the International Journal of Urology states it carefully: the fluid mainly consists of urine, but may also contain secretion from the Skene’s glands.
What this actually means for you
- The fluid is sterile and heavily diluted. There is no hygiene emergency and nothing to be embarrassed about.
- Both samples were tiny, seven and five participants. We know where the fluid comes from; we do not yet know why some people experience it and others never do.
- Feeling like you need to urinate during an intense moment is unremarkable, and it does not mean leakage is coming.
How common is it, really?
In October 2024, Jessica Påfs and colleagues published a cross-sectional survey of 1,568 Swedish women in the journal Sexual Medicine. Participants were aged 18 to 69, with a mean age of 30. It is the largest dataset available, and it undercuts both the people who call this rare and the people who treat it as standard.
58.2 percent had experienced it at least once, 35.9 percent never had, and 5.8 percent were unsure. The frequency breakdown tells a very different story from that headline number.
| Among those who had experienced it | Share |
|---|---|
| Every time | 7% |
| About half the time | 16% |
| Sometimes | 22.5% |
| Only on a few occasions | 52% |
So the repeatable, on-command version shown online represents a sliver of real experience. The survey also captured how it felt: 77 percent rated the experience as positive overall, yet the first reaction had been shock or shame for 28 percent, and 25.4 percent initially thought they had urinated. Asked where the fluid came from, 32.4 percent simply did not know. Friends or partners were the main source of information for 31 percent, media for 29 percent, pornography for 16 percent, and school for 4 percent.
Three beliefs worth dropping
The first is that it proves an orgasm was good. In the Swedish survey, 61 percent reported orgasm close to or simultaneous with the emission. That is a majority, not a rule, and the reverse claim does not follow. An intense orgasm without any emission is still an intense orgasm.
The second is that it is a technique. No study describes a reproducible method, and the 7 percent figure points to individual anatomy and physiology rather than skill. What does respond to attention is relaxation, unhurried time, and familiarity with your own responses. If that is the direction you want to go, starting from a calm, no-pressure first device beats starting from a target.
The third, and the most corrosive, is that it is dirty. Heavily diluted urine released at the height of arousal is sterile and almost always odourless. A towel within reach solves the practical side, and with it most of the discomfort: among women in the survey who had wanted to avoid the phenomenon, 78.8 percent cited excessive wetness rather than disgust.
Three habits that remove the worry
- Use the bathroom beforehand. A less full bladder settles most of the anxiety by itself.
- Keep a large towel on the bed, without ceremony. The issue becomes logistics instead of emotion.
- Mention it to your partner in one plain sentence beforehand, so surprise and shame do not arrive together.
Squirting or urinary leakage? How to tell
This is the most useful distinction in the whole article and the one most rarely made. Coital incontinence means urine leaking during or after sex. It is usually stress urinary incontinence, caused by a weakened pelvic floor, and it has nothing to do with the phenomenon described above, even though the sensation can feel similar in the moment.
A few markers separate them. Stress leakage also happens in other situations: coughing, laughing, sneezing, lifting, running. It is not tied to the peak of arousal. It often appears or worsens after childbirth, around menopause, or after pelvic surgery. The volume tends to be smaller, and the smell is that of ordinary urine. Squirting happens only during intense arousal, and only then.
The encouraging part is that stress incontinence responds well to conservative treatment. NHS guidance on non-surgical treatment of urinary incontinence puts pelvic floor muscle training first, with at least eight contractions three times a day for a minimum of three months, and the Cochrane review of pelvic floor muscle training supports its benefit.
Worth a medical appointment
- Leakage outside intimacy: coughing, laughing, lifting, exercising.
- Leakage that began after childbirth, pelvic surgery, or around menopause.
- Pain, burning on urination, a very frequent urge, blood, or an unusual smell.
In any of these cases, speak to your GP, midwife or gynaecologist. A professional assessment is necessary, and this article does not replace one.
What if it never happens to you?
Then you are in very large company. More than a third of the women surveyed in Sweden had never experienced it, and nothing in the literature links that to less desire, less pleasure or any anatomical shortfall. It is not a level to unlock. It is variation.
The trap is turning variation into a goal. Chasing an emission pulls attention away from what actually feels good and manufactures exactly the pressure you were trying to escape. The useful question is never how to trigger it, but which areas, rhythms and intensities suit you. That is the thinking behind our guide to choosing a vibrator by sensitivity rather than power, and if dual stimulation is what you are curious about, our piece on how rabbit-style designs work covers it without the hype. More of the same register sits in our intimate wellbeing advice.
The short version
Female ejaculation is an everyday phrase stretched over two distinct physiological events. One is a small glandular secretion; the other is heavily diluted urine released from the bladder, and they can occur together. None of it is dirty, none of it is a disorder, and none of it is required. What deserves a doctor’s attention is leakage that spills outside the bedroom, not the emission itself. And what deserves to be discarded is the idea that pleasure can be measured in millilitres.
Frequently asked questions
Is female ejaculation just urine?
For the large, watery kind, mostly yes. The two studies that looked directly inside the bladder, by ultrasound in 2015 and with a blue dye in 2022, agreed: the fluid comes from the bladder and resembles very dilute urine, usually mixed with PSA, a marker of Skene’s gland secretions. It is sterile, and it is not a sign of anything being wrong.
What is the difference between female ejaculation and squirting?
Female ejaculation in the strict sense means a small volume, usually under one millilitre, of thick milky fluid from the Skene’s glands. Squirting means a much larger volume of clear fluid expelled through the urethra, originating in the bladder. Both can happen at once, which is why PSA shows up in most analysed samples.
Can you learn to squirt?
No published study describes a technique that works on demand. In the 2024 Swedish survey, only 7 percent of the women who had experienced it did so every time, and 52 percent had experienced it only a handful of times. What genuinely responds to practice is relaxation, time, and knowing your own sensations. The rest is individual variation, and not experiencing it takes nothing away from pleasure.
How common is it?
In the largest survey available, 1,568 Swedish women aged 18 to 69 were asked directly: 58.2 percent had experienced ejaculation or squirting at least once, 35.9 percent never had, and 5.8 percent were unsure. The gap between that figure and the impression given online comes down to frequency rather than prevalence.
When should I see a doctor about it?
When leakage also happens outside intimacy, with coughing, laughing, lifting or exercise; when it starts after childbirth, pelvic surgery or around menopause; or when there is pain, burning, blood or a very frequent urge to urinate. That pattern points to stress urinary incontinence, which responds well to supervised pelvic floor muscle training.
