Credit: Thinkstock
When Shakespeare wrote "What's in a name?" he most likely wasn't talking about female ejaculation. That said, since the dawn of time* (*roughly), scientific debate has been divided over what to call, and at its very essence what is, the notable amount of fluid some women emit during orgasm. Is it simply urine? Or is it some kind of "real" female ejaculate?
Luckily, there's a new study on the matter—the delightfully named "Nature and Origin of "Squirting" in Female Sexuality"—devoted to answering this enduring and significant question. Off the cuff, its authors identify the issue they are wading into and seek to provide more clarity about: "To date, both the nature and the origin of squirting remain controversial."
To figure out the phenomenon, our fearless researchers—a team of six consisting of one gyno from a hospital in Le Chesnay, France and five from Association Inter disciplinaire post Universitaire de Sexologie in Pérols, France—"not only analyzed the biochemical nature of the emitted fluid, but also explored the presence of any pelvic liquid collection that could result from sexual arousal and explain a massive fluid emission."
In laymen's terms? Seven participants with known squirting abilities were observed via pelvic ultrasound (you know, the scary giant-dildo-shaped machine that detects babies and ovarian cysts) after peeing, then immediately before and after squirting. Researchers noted the appearance of each lady's bladder in all three states—and right before squirting, every woman's bladder filled. After gettin' jizzy, the bladder was noticeably emptied.
The researchers also ran tests on the biological properties of the liquid emitted.
Their findings? *Drumroll* . . . the fluid is very similar, chemically, to urine, with a little bit of something extra from the female prostate.
In conclusion?
"The present data based on ultrasonographic bladder monitoring and biochemical analyses indicate that squirting is essentially the involuntary emission of urine during sexual activity, although a marginal contribution of prostatic secretions to the emitted fluid often exists.”
This isn't the first study to tackle the question. We (OK, it was me) wrote about a study in 2009 exploring the makeup of women's ejaculation. This research found that the ejaculation cocktail contained creatinine, antigens (specific to the Skene's gland or female prostate), acidic phosphatase (connected to the Skene's gland again), and glucose.
We imagine the debate over female ejaculate will continue to rage . . . but at least now we know it's some sort of acidic, glucose-infused watery pee.
To which we say: Sexy.
