Squirting is the involuntary expulsion of fluid from the urethra during sexual arousal or orgasm. The fluid comes primarily from the bladder, though small glands near the urethra also contribute secretions. It is a normal physiological response that anywhere from 10% to 54% of women report experiencing, depending on the study.
Where the Fluid Comes From
There are actually two related but distinct phenomena that often get lumped together. The first is female ejaculation: a small amount of thick, whitish fluid produced by the Skene’s glands, two tiny glands located on either side of the urethra. These glands are sometimes called the “female prostate” because, like the male prostate, they produce a protein called prostate-specific antigen (PSA). The fluid they release is typically just a few milliliters and may have antibacterial properties that help protect the urinary tract.
The second phenomenon is squirting, which involves a much larger volume of fluid. Reported volumes range from about 3 milliliters to as much as 126 milliliters. This fluid is chemically different from the whitish ejaculate. A 2015 study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine used ultrasound imaging to track what happens inside the body during squirting. Researchers scanned participants’ bladders at three points: before arousal, just before squirting, and just after. Before arousal, the bladder was empty. During sexual stimulation, it filled noticeably. Immediately after squirting, it was empty again.
The biochemical analysis from that study showed the fluid is primarily dilute urine, though it often contains a small contribution of prostatic secretions from the Skene’s glands. Both phenomena can happen at the same time, which is part of why they’ve been so difficult to study separately.
What It Feels Like
Women who experience squirting commonly describe a building sensation of pressure, similar to the urge to urinate, that intensifies alongside arousal. One participant in a 2024 qualitative study described it as “your bladder starts to swell, and you feel pressure that makes you want to expel it. Usually, it comes suddenly while I’m having a lot of pleasure.” Others reported a tingling sensation in the legs right before it happened. The release itself is consistently described as producing deep relaxation and calm afterward.
An important distinction: squirting and orgasm are not the same thing. They can happen together, but squirting can also occur without orgasm, and most orgasms don’t involve squirting. Women in the same study noted that pornography creates a misleading association between the two, often framing squirting as proof of intense pleasure or as a goal to achieve. As one participant put it, “In porn, it seems that squirting is associated with orgasm and pleasure, when the reality is not like that.” This external pressure can cause frustration for both women and their partners when squirting is treated as an endpoint rather than something that may or may not happen naturally.
The Role of Pelvic Floor Muscles
The pelvic floor, a hammock of muscles that supports the bladder, uterus, and rectum, plays a central role. During orgasm, these muscles contract and relax in a reflexive sequence. Research dating back to the early 1980s found that women who experienced ejaculation tended to have stronger pelvic floor muscles, suggesting that the force of these contractions contributes to the expulsion of fluid. The same muscle group is involved in bladder control, which helps explain why the sensation of squirting can feel so similar to the urge to urinate.
This overlap is also why some women may hold back during arousal, worried they might accidentally urinate. Understanding that the fluid release is a recognized physiological response, not a loss of bladder control in the medical sense, can make a meaningful difference in how comfortable someone feels during sex.
Why There’s Still Debate
Female ejaculation and squirting have been documented for centuries, but the science has been slow to catch up. One reason is that the Skene’s glands vary significantly in size from person to person. Some women have well-developed glands, others have very small ones, and a small percentage may not have them at all. This anatomical variation likely explains why some women ejaculate, some squirt, some do both, and many do neither.
The composition of the fluid also sits in an uncomfortable gray area that has made the topic culturally and scientifically contentious. Because the larger-volume squirting fluid is chemically close to urine, some researchers classify it as involuntary urinary emission during sex. Others argue that the presence of PSA and other prostatic markers, along with the fact that the fluid is more dilute than typical urine, makes it a distinct secretion. A 2013 systematic review concluded that female ejaculation (the small whitish secretion) and squirting (the larger volume of diluted fluid) are “two different physiological components of female sexuality” that happen to look similar from the outside.
What is broadly agreed upon is that squirting falls within the range of normal sexual response. It is not a sign of a medical problem, and its absence is equally normal. The wide prevalence range in studies, 10% to 54%, reflects how much the numbers shift depending on whether researchers rely on self-reported surveys or objective lab measurements. Objectively documented cases of true female ejaculation (the Skene’s gland secretion specifically) number only in the tens across the scientific literature, while self-reported squirting is far more common.