It’s one of those age-old questions that have haunted humans for centuries—right up there with, What happens when you die? and Why do the best shows on Netflix always get canceled after two seasons?: Is squirt pee?
Part of the reason this question has stuck around so long is because there’s a 12-year-old boy in all of us and anything that combines sex stuff with bathroom humor is going to keep us endlessly entertained. Also, it’s a tough one to answer. While it may seem like a simple yes-or-no question, “The answer is: yes and no,” says Gigi Engle, certified sex educator for 3Fun. So, yeah, it’s complicated. Don’t worry; we can explain.
But first, a quick little refresher on what we’re even talking about here. “Squirting,” aka female ejaculation, is when a person with a vagina gushes fluid, usually during orgasm. Maybe you’ve seen it in porn (in which case it was probably fake, FYI) or maybe you’ve actually experienced it. It doesn’t happen to all vagina-havers and it doesn’t happen all the time—so if you’re pretty sure you’ve had plenty of orgasms before and have never squirted, you can relax—but it is very much a thing!
Okay, but what exactly is that thing, and more importantly, is it pee? Again, it’s complicated. The shortest of short answers? Squirting comes from the urethra, Engle explains. So yeah, there’s probably at least a little pee in it. That said, squirt is not the same thing as pee because, well, it’s just not.
“Squirting is ‘squirting’ because it is squirt; it happens during sexual activity,” says Engle. You’re not sitting down to pee, you’re squirting liquid during sexual stimulation. The point is, “Squirting is squirting and peeing is peeing. Both are natural things that happen to human bodies,” says Engle. “We should all stop being so worried about it and try to enjoy ourselves instead.”
Okay, now that we’ve got that little PSA out of the way, let’s unpack this wet and wild (and totally natural) thing some bodies can do.
Why all the confusion?
Despite millennia of evidence that squirting is a very real thing that happens to some women and people with vaginas during sex (see the receipts below), so much about it still remains a big fat question mark. Experts have yet to come to a consensus on how, when, or why squirting happens—and, most importantly, whether or not it’s actual pee that comes out.
“There’s confusion because people don’t understand female anatomy in general,” says Engle. “There’s very little research on the topic; it’s only now getting any rigorous scientific study.”
Meanwhile, the research that does exist on squirting is often, well, confusing. For starters, let’s take a 2013 study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine that estimates between 10 and 54 percent of women ejaculate fluid during sex. Okay, so either half of all people with vaginas do it…or almost none. Yeah, not helpful. There are a handful of other small, conflicting studies about the phenomenon, but doctors say way more specific research is needed, which makes it tricky to scream, “It’s pee!” or “STFU, it’s not pee!” at brunch with any kind of conviction.
The thing is, though, the world really, really wants to understand it. Perhaps thanks to porn—in which vagina-havers are often seen shooting out streams of fluid during foreplay and intercourse—curiosity over this sexual feat has reached an all-time high. (Searches for “squirting” on Pornhub more than doubled between 2011 and 2017, and women are 44 percent more likely to look for this stuff than men.) Basically, it’s the Loch Ness monster of our sexuality: The less evidence there is about it, the more we want to know.
Okay, so is squirt pee or not?
Oz Harmanli, MD, chief of urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery at Yale Medicine, has reviewed much of the research on squirting. His personal conclusion? The liquid is urine that can be mixed with some sort of female ejaculate. But mostly urine.
Let him explain: Squirts often contain something called prostate-specific antigen, a protein found in semen, which suggests that women do have the ability to cum sort of like guys do. Some experts say that protein comes from the Skene’s glands, aka the female prostate, located on either side of the urethra. But, he adds, “there is no gland or reservoir in the female body, other than the bladder, that can produce the amount of fluid that is released with squirting.”
So, essentially, squirt is most likely urine and secretions from the Skene’s glands. As Engle explains, it’s really all a matter of anatomy. “Anatomically speaking, people with vulvas all ejaculate from the same exact place through which they pee, likely ejecting some urine-like liquid out with their ejaculate.”
Is there more than one kind of squirting?
Not to add any more confusion to the mix, but according to Engle, there are actually *two* kinds of squirting that can occur: squirting through the Skene’s glands, and what we might call “gushing” squirt. It doesn’t really matter though, because—spoiler alert—they’re both (probably) still pee, as both are emitted through the urethra.
“‘Squirting,’ or female ejaculation, has been thought to happen only when the Skene’s glands expel an alkaline, milky white fluid—usually in tandem with orgasm, but not always,” explains Engle. The Skene’s glands are located near the urethral sponge, and they only release about one to two tablespoons of liquid in total. “So if your partner is a big, fire-hydrant squirter, it’s coming from the bladder, not the Skene’s,” she explains.
That said, whether you’re squirting entirely through the Skene’s Glands—which Engle says is pretty unlikely given their proximity to the urethral sponge—or gushing from the bladder, “it makes very little sense that squirt wouldn’t have some pee in it.”
Is squirting bad for you?
Nope! Generally speaking, squirting is just a cool thing your body might do when you’re having sex, and it’s totally normal. In some cases, however, squirting may be a sign of urinary incontinence or, more specifically, coital incontinence—aka the inability to control your bladder during penetration or orgasm.
While standard pee leaks are typically a thing older women might deal with, coital incontinence may affect 20 to 30 percent of women of all ages, says ob-gyn Heather Bartos, MD. And it can be tied to the status of your pelvic-floor muscles, adds ob-gyn Morgan West, DO. When those muscles are strong, you have max control—your bladder and urethra are on full lockdown mode, so nothing is coming out if and when you don’t want it to. But when they’re weak or, you know, relaxed at the tail end of an intense tantric sexathon, the muscles may not be able to withstand the power of your orgasm, setting up the perfect (rain)storm of squirt.
Um, so…time to freak out?
Nope. Unless you or your partner are totally squeamish, squirting—and what exactly this love juice contains—is really NBD. Here’s a little secret: it doesn’t actually matter whether squirt is pee or not. Why? Because, as Engle puts it, “Either way, it’s great, so everyone should just calm down about it. Pleasure is pleasure.”
Yes, you may need to clean up after an intense squirt sesh, but don’t let that kill your vibe. Most people find even just the idea of squirting incredibly hot. And honestly, if someone is making you nut so hard that you’re legit losing all control over your own body and its functions…who cares about a little mess?
Gushing through the ages
Elaine Ayers, PhD, an assistant professor of museum studies at NYU, on the historical confusion around women’s orgasmic secretions.
5th century BCE: The ancient Greek Hippocratic treatise On Generation inaccurately claims that women’s “semen” is necessary for conception.
4th century CE: A Taoist text mentions a female genital fluid that comes out during orgasm, totally separate from natural vaginal lubrication.
1672: Dutch physician Reinier de Graaf is the first to describe the “female prostate.” He says its function is to “generate a pituito-serous juice that makes women more libidinous.” Right….
1905: Sigmund Freud links an “abnormal secretion of the mucous membrane of the vagina” to “hysteria”—an old term for female mental illness. It’s bullshit!