Study Concludes That Women Who Squirt During Sex Are Actually Peeing

When aroused, some women may
experience squirting, or a rather
noticeable discharge of fluid. What it is
exactly and where it comes from has
been hotly debated: female ejaculation or
adult bedwetting? Researchers are now
saying that squirting is essentially
involuntary urination.
Female ejaculate is technically the small
amount of milky white fluid that’s
expressed when climaxing, New Scientist
explains . Squirting, on the other hand,
results in a much larger gush of a clear
fluid, which comes from the urethra, the
duct where urine is conveyed from the
bladder. The findings , which combine
biochemical analyses with pelvic
ultrasounds, were published in the
Journal of Sexual Medicine on Christmas
Eve.
A French team led by Samuel Salama
from Hopital Privé de Parly II recruited
seven healthy women—who’ve reported
recurrent and massive fluid emission
(enough to fill a cup) during sexual
stimulation—to undergo “provoked sexual
arousal.” The team conducted pelvic
ultrasound scans after urination and
during sexual excitation just before and
after the squirting event.
All of the women had empty bladders
before sexual excitation, however, urine
collected just before squirting showed
that the bladder was filling up. Urine
sampled after squirting revealed that the
bladder had been emptied again,
revealing the origin of the squirted liquid.
The researchers also analyzed chemical
concentrations in the urine samples
(before arousal and after squirting) as
well as the squirting sample itself. These
included urea, uric acid, creatinine (a
byproduct of muscle metabolism), and
prostatic-specific antigen (PSA). The
latter is a protein that’s produced in
men’s prostate glands and in the “female
prostate” called the Skene glands; PSA is
found in “true” female ejaculate. Urea,
uric acid, and creatinine concentrations
were comparable in all of the urine and
squirt samples. However, PSA, which
was not detected before sexual
simulation in six of the women’s urine
samples, were present in urine collected
after squirting and in the squirt sample in
five of the women.
Squirting, they found, is essentially the
involuntary emission of urine during
sexual activity—though there’s also a
small contribution of prostatic secretions
as well. Salama’s team is now working
on a protocol to test whether the kidneys
work faster to produce urine during
sexual stimulation than at other times,
New Scientist explains. And if so, why.
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