Can women ejaculate?
Executive summary
Yes — clinical and anatomical research supports that some people with female anatomy can and do expel fluid from the urethra during sexual arousal or orgasm, a phenomenon commonly called female ejaculation, though large-volume “squirting” is often a distinct process that mostly involves bladder-derived fluid [1] [2] [3].
1. What scientists mean when they say “female ejaculation”
Medical literature generally defines female ejaculation as the expulsion of a usually scant, often milky or whitish fluid from the paraurethral (Skene’s) glands — structures sometimes described as the female prostate — through or around the urethra during arousal or orgasm, and that anatomical studies have linked the ejaculate’s origin to those glands even as the fluid’s exact composition is debated [1] [4] [5].
2. Two phenomena: ejaculation vs. squirting
Contemporary reviews distinguish two etiologically different events: “female ejaculation,” typically a small-volume secretion that can contain prostate markers such as PSA, and “squirting” or “gushing,” a larger-volume, watery expulsion that imaging and biochemical tests have often shown to include urine from the bladder — meaning the terms have been conflated in popular use even as researchers separate them [2] [6] [3].
3. What the fluid contains — and why samples are tricky
Biochemical studies have found that ejaculatory fluid can contain substances absent from typical urine — such as prostatic-specific antigen (PSA) or fructose in some samples — which supports a glandular source, but methodological hurdles (small sample sizes, contamination with urine, menstrual-cycle variability and difficulties collecting uncontaminated specimens) make it hard to draw definitive, population-level conclusions about composition [7] [8] [9].
4. How common it is — wide estimates and survey bias
Prevalence estimates vary widely: meta-analyses and surveys report anywhere from low single digits up to about half of women experiencing some form of ejaculatory response, but much of those figures come from self-report questionnaires, online surveys, or small clinical series that select for people who notice the phenomenon, so true population prevalence remains uncertain [10] [11] [12].
5. Why the debate persists — science, culture and methodology
The controversy endures because historical descriptions, anecdote and erotic culture collided with inconsistent research methods, small studies and differing definitions — critics argue some findings confuse urinary leakage with ejaculate while proponents point to anatomical, biochemical and ultrasound evidence identifying paraurethral gland secretions, so both scientific caution and growing supportive evidence coexist [9] [1] [6].
6. Practical takeaways and open questions
Clinically, female ejaculation appears to be a real, physiological response for a subset of people, distinct from urinary incontinence, and may positively affect sexual experience for those who have it, but important open questions remain about prevalence, exact glandular physiology, function and why volumes and compositions vary between individuals and episodes [11] [2] [4].