Is It Squirting Or Peeing? Experts Weigh In

Have you ever “squirted” enough liquid to fill a drinking glass?  Probably not.  But we bet you’ve seen?  Here, we investigate the truth behind the elusive sexual phenomenon.

Female ejaculation and squirting are NOT the same thing. Many people think the two terms are interchangeable, but this is simply not true. Confused as to what is what and which is which? Thankfully, we’re here to help you out.

Female ejaculation. Female ejaculation is the concentration and release of saliva-like fluid that occurs in the vagina. It can happen during or before an orgasm. Specifically, female ejaculation is the small amount of milky white liquid that comes out (no pun intended) during sexual arousal.

Squirting. “Squirting” or “gushing,” on the other hand, is a much larger expulsion of clear fluid which comes from the urethra — usually there's enough to make it look like you’ve wet the bed. Studies have revealed that 35-50 percent of women report they have experienced the gushing of fluid during orgasm at one point or another. However, other research has found that the number is anywhere from 10-69 percent, depending on the definitions and methods used.

Squirting. A 1994 survey of 200 women found that 6 percent reported “ejaculating," while around 60 percent reported “release of fluid without actual gushing.” The question here is: What exactly is coming out? Squirt or pee?

Squirt is pee. The Journal of Sexual Medicine published a French study which suggested that squirting is essentially involuntary urination. Led by Samuel Salama, the French team recruited seven healthy women who reported recurrent and massive fluid emission to undergo “provoked sexual arousal.” The researchers conducted pelvic ultrasound scans after urination and during sexual excitement just before and after they ejaculated.

Squirt is pee. Although the women had empty bladders before arousal, the urine collected just before squirting revealed that the bladder was filling up. Urine sampled after squirting showed that the bladder had been emptied again, thereby revealing the origin of the expelled liquid. In short, squirt is pee!

The "female prostate.” Along with the French study, other publications have suggested that female ejaculation — the whitish thick fluid — is from the Skene's glands, which are located near a woman's urethra and are made of tissue that's similar in composition to a man's prostate gland. Meanwhile, squirting, as mentioned, is diluted fluid from the urinary bladder that’s released during intercourse. In other words, that female ejaculation isn't pee, and that squirting is. But not everyone agrees with this conclusion.

Squirt isn’t pee. Squirters around the world will tell you squirt is not, in fact, pee. To them, the fluid does not smell, taste or look like pee. Their argument is that while female ejaculate could possibly be made up of the fluid urine mostly consists of, that doesn’t necessarily make it pee.

Squirt isn’t pee. An article titled “Female ejaculate — where does it come from?” on Colombia Health states: “…. Researchers point to chemical analysis of female ejaculate that reveals the presence of high levels of prostatic acid phosphatase (a chemical secreted by the prostate gland and found in semen). This would seem to indicate that a woman's ejaculation is similar in composition to semen — without the sperm, of course. Female ejaculate is not pee. It's generally clear or somewhat milky and nearly odorless.”

Calling it “pee” makes women feel ashamed. Some women argue that calling squirt “pee” is essentially making women feel even more ashamed about their sexuality. In an article for Thought Catalog, Raine Leigh, author of "Squirting: It’s Easier Than You Think: A Holistic Guide to Female Pleasure,” writes: "One of the reasons women struggle with orgasming is because they worry about how they smell, taste, or look. We’ve just given women another reason to worry.” Great. Thanks. I'll be hiding in the corner with a bag over my head and hazmat suit covering my body.

Calling it “pee” makes women feel ashamed. Leigh adds: "Now when an orgasm is feeling over-the-top amazing, and fluid is starting to gush out of a woman, she will become embarrassed, ashamed, and think she is just peeing, encouraging her to hold back when the feeling surfaces in the future."

What’s the point of squirt? To date, the actual physiological function of the purported liquid is unknown. A 2009 paper in Medical Hypotheses suggests that it may have an anti-microbial function that protects against urinary tract infections. Still, its exact purpose remains unknown.

Some women squirt without orgasming. News flash: Squirting doesn’t always happen at the same time as orgasm. What’s more, not everyone finds the phenomenon pleasurable. While there’s no anatomical predisposition that determines if you can or can’t “gush,” you shouldn’t feel like you’re "weird" or "not normal" if you don’t.

Adult films. Of course, squirting is a sexual act that’s featured over and over again in adult films. Adult film performers who are alleged to squirt on film include Hotaru Akane, Charley Chase, Annie Cruz, Cytherea, Jamie Lynn, Jiz Lee, Missy Monroe and Jenna Presley. In other words, nearly everyone in the industry.

Adult films. Not everyone is a fan of the squirt, however. The United Kingdom has banned films alleged to show female ejaculation, claiming that the expert medical advice it received was that there is no such thing as female ejaculation, and therefore the films must be showing urine.