Penetrating Questions | The Mysterious Female Ejaculation: Part I

Jiná Ashline
Columnist

Sometimes when I orgasm, I feel a release of liquid from my vagina that feels like I’m peeing, but I know I’m not! What is this liquid and is there something wrong with me?
—Good thing we are wearing wetsuits

Dear Wetsuits,

What you are feeling is the totally normal and wonderful experience of female ejaculation (also called squirting or gushing). Congratulations, some women have to work to achieve what you experience naturally! For those who have never experienced FE, it is a gush of fluid that can happen anytime during G-Spot stimulating sex that can greatly increase pleasure. The phenomenon of FE is not well understood, but you’re normal whether you can ejaculate or not.

Body fluids are normal (and essential) to sex. While ejaculation is generally considered a man's thing, women can produce significant amounts of fluid when aroused. However, our culture teaches that it is abnormal and undesirable for women to be “too messy.” It may be difficult for a woman to be comfortable and enjoy sex if she is constantly worried about what her partner might think if her body gushes with incredible amounts of fluid. The taboo is truly unfortunate because FE is extremely pleasurable when a woman is comfortable with her body fluids, and can also be pleasurable for her partner. By denying herself FE, she may be missing out on a potentially mind-blowing orgasm, whether because she isn’t experiencing FE (a deeply embodied feeling of release) or because she is making her body tense and less open to pleasure out of fear of what fluids she might release. Women need to feel comfortable to release when that feeling arises, so that pleasure can be taken to a new level.

Many people, including ones in the medical world, have never heard of FE or don’t believe that it exists, but it has been around as long as women. Even Aristotle is said to have written about its existence. Before the 1980s, FE was unrecognized by the medical world and was controversial when discussion began. It was once thought that only 10% of women were capable of it, and there was confusion between FE and bladder infection (urinary incontinence).

Unfortunately, even today, women and their doctors who may not be informed about FE may assume that the fluid might be the result of a STI or bladder infection, when that could be a misdiagnosis. Even worse, treatment for these issues may involve the use of medications or surgery, both unnecessary and dangerous if it is FE. Medical and scientific communities are slowly recognizing and beginning to develop answers to the many questions surrounding FE.

FE may feel similar to peeing, but it is an ejaculation of a clear, odorless, smooth (not sticky) fluid that is released in much the same way as semen is released by the prostate in men. It is suspected to be made in the Skene’s Gland, a series of glands and ducts also called the “female prostate” or the para-urethral gland. It is located directly beneath the urethra. Sex researchers from the early 1990s, Milan Zaviacic and Beverly Whipple, have extensively studied FE and support these findings. They have said of women experiencing FE that what “they expel may be different from urine and a normal phenomenon that occurs during sexual response.”

Since then, studies of FE have shown it is definitely not urine, but is an alkaline liquid that contains some of the same components found in semen. Of course, the main difference is that women’s ejaculate does not contain sperm. This research also suggests that all women produce this female ejaculate fluid, even if some are not aware of it.

It is hypothesized that the opening of the Skene’s Gland, while it exists in all women, may vary in size from one woman to another, and can be as small as a pinhole. It may even appear to be absent in some women, which may explain why some are less likely (or even seemingly unable) to ejaculate as compared to others. This information is supported by another researcher, Dr. Gary Shubach, who nonetheless believes that “the overwhelming proportion of women” are capable of ejaculation.

Whether a woman ejaculates seems to depend on where she is stimulated, with the G-Spot being suspected as the best way to achieve FE. A suggestion of how it occurs has to do with strong pelvic muscles and the muscle contractions that occur during an orgasm. The contractions may force out any fluid that has collected in the Skene’s gland during sexual arousal. The fluid will create a swelling of the tissue surrounding the urethra that can be felt through the vaginal wall and not easily seen with the eye. This erectile tissue is the same kind that gives a man his erection.

Thankfully, scientific studies beginning in the 1980s have proven that FE is unrelated to urination and, while many facts are still unclear, new research suggests that it’s likely that any woman can learn to ejaculate! Stay tuned for next issue’s climactic conclusion of “Female Ejaculation” with “Part II: Techniques for Ejaculating.

—Jiná Ashline ’08 is a Religion major with Women’s Studies correlate. She is also president of C.H.O.I.C.E. Each week she will answer a question about sex and sexuality. Send your questions to jiashline@vassar.edu or by dropping a note in Box 2172.