Squirting. Is it pee? Is it female ejaculation? Is it a fluke of the human body that only a few can perform?
As a man who is in no way an expert on the female anatomy, I don’t have much to say in the matter. Nor should I. That’s why this article isn’t about me but rather about the women who use their scientific backgrounds to research the fabled squirt.
Wendy Zukerman, host of Science Vs., a podcast that separates science fact from science fiction, was a guest on Scientific American’s Science Quickly podcast to discuss the science of squirting. While we may still not have all the answers, we’ve some solid revelations that could (or, rather, should) finally put the debate to rest.
Zukerman’s team took a deep dive into the squirting question by combing through several existing studies and conducting their own survey, with thousands of responses. What they found is that the fluid firing out is mostly urine with some additional components possibly coming from the “female prostate.”
That last part about the prostate alone is a whole different realm of controversial debate.
The Science Behind Squirting: What’s Actually Happening?
A French gynecologist, Samuel Salama, conducted one of the most comprehensive studies by using ultrasounds to track the bladder before and after squirting. His findings showed that the bladder fills during arousal and empties once the squirt happens, with chemicals commonly found in urine showing up in the fluid.
But—BUT—there’s a twist: not all squirts are the same. While some squirting seems like just diluted pee, others contain trace amounts of what could be a substance originating from the controversial female prostate, which may or may not exist. That in itself is a whole scientific and philosophical debate.
Zukerman also shared some squirting stats: 45 percent of people with vaginas had squirted at least once in their lives, and oddly, 7.6 percent of people with penises admitted to squirting too—although some urologists are skeptical about that claim. That said, Zukerman mentions finding a single case study about a single person with a penis who did, in fact, squirt in the in the way that women are known to squirt.
So, is it pee? Is it ejaculate? It’s more than likely a mixture of urine and…something else. One thing that’s for sure is that the scientific community needs to spend a lot more time studying it so we can finally put this question to rest, or we can all just shut up, stop overthinking this, and just enjoy it when it happens.
Let’s just think of it as the ultimate expression of a job well done.
