Surveys put the number somewhere between 5% and 54%, depending on how the question is asked and what counts as “squirting.” That enormous range isn’t a cop-out. It reflects genuine disagreement among researchers about definitions, real anatomical differences between women, and the difficulty of studying something that doesn’t happen on command in a lab. The best answer from the available data is that roughly 10% to 54% of women report experiencing some form of fluid release during orgasm at least once, with the higher figures coming from surveys that use broader definitions.
Why the Numbers Vary So Much
The wide range comes down to how researchers define what they’re measuring. In one population-based survey of 233 women, 54% reported a spurt of fluid at orgasm. A large mail survey of 1,172 women found that about 40% identified themselves as ejaculators. Yet a clinical study by Masters and colleagues recorded only 4.7% of 300 women ejaculating under observation. That gap, from roughly 5% to 54%, has persisted across decades of research.
Part of the problem is that “squirting” and “female ejaculation” are often used interchangeably in everyday language, but they describe different things physiologically. Surveys that lump them together tend to produce higher numbers. Studies that use stricter clinical observation tend to produce lower ones. Self-reported surveys also depend on whether a woman recognizes what happened, since many describe their first experience as confusing or unexpected.
Squirting and Ejaculation Are Different Events
Researchers now distinguish between two separate phenomena that often get confused. Female ejaculation is the release of a small amount of thick, milky fluid from the Skene’s glands, sometimes called the female prostate. These glands sit around the urethra and produce a secretion rich in prostate-specific antigen (PSA), glucose, and fructose. The volume is small, sometimes just a few milliliters, and it doesn’t gush out.
Squirting is a larger-volume release that comes primarily from the bladder. Ultrasound imaging has confirmed this directly: researchers scanned women before arousal and found their bladders empty, scanned again just before squirting and found noticeable bladder filling, then scanned immediately after and found the bladder empty again. The fluid contains urea, creatinine, and uric acid at concentrations consistent with very dilute urine. In four out of five women in one study, the squirted fluid also contained PSA from the Skene’s glands, suggesting some mixing of the two fluids occurs.
So when someone asks “can women squirt,” they’re usually asking about the higher-volume, more visible release. That fluid is chemically distinct from the smaller ejaculate produced by the Skene’s glands, even though both can happen during the same orgasm.
Anatomy Plays a Role
Not every woman has the same anatomical equipment for producing either type of fluid. The Skene’s glands vary significantly in size from person to person, roughly the size of a small blueberry on average, but some women have notably larger or smaller glands. More importantly, not everyone has functional Skene’s glands at all. This variation likely explains why some women ejaculate easily while others never do regardless of stimulation technique.
The gland tissue surrounds the entire length of the female urethra, which is why stimulation of the front vaginal wall (the area commonly called the G-spot) is associated with both ejaculation and squirting. But having smaller or absent glands doesn’t indicate any health problem. It’s simply normal anatomical variation, similar to how other body structures differ in size from person to person.
What the Fluid Actually Contains
Chemical analysis draws a clear line between the two fluids. Female ejaculate is dense and milky, with high concentrations of PSA, glucose, and fructose but virtually no urea or creatinine. Squirting fluid is watery and higher in volume, containing urea, creatinine, uric acid, sodium, potassium, and chloride at levels that resemble dilute urine, with little to no glucose or fructose.
In practice, most women who experience a visible gush during orgasm are producing a mix of both. The Skene’s gland secretion gets carried along with the larger bladder release, which is why some squirting samples test positive for PSA while still being mostly urine-like in composition. This is also why the fluid is typically clear or slightly milky rather than yellow, and why it often doesn’t smell like urine despite originating partly from the bladder.
Coital Incontinence Is a Separate Issue
Some fluid release during sex is actually involuntary urinary leakage, which is a medical condition called coital incontinence. Prevalence estimates for this range from less than 1% to as high as 66% depending on the population studied, with higher rates among women who already have stress urinary incontinence. The two types look similar from the outside, but they have different causes. Coital incontinence can happen during penetration (not just orgasm), is associated with bladder disorders, and is typically something women find distressing rather than pleasurable.
Researchers have emphasized that mixing up normal sexual fluid release with coital incontinence can lead to unnecessary anxiety or, in the other direction, to a treatable bladder condition being dismissed as normal. The key difference is context and pattern: squirting tends to happen specifically at orgasm and is associated with pleasure, while coital incontinence can occur at any point during sex and is linked to underlying urinary issues.
How Women Experience It Emotionally
Research into women’s subjective experiences reveals a complicated emotional picture. Many women report feeling surprise, fear, or confusion the first time it happens, largely because they had no prior knowledge that it could. The emotional response spans a wide range: some women describe pleasure, calm, and deep relaxation, while others feel embarrassment or shame.
Pornography has shaped expectations on both sides. Some women feel pressure to squirt because it’s portrayed as the ultimate sign of arousal, creating performance anxiety. Others who do squirt feel self-conscious because they worry about the mess or fear their partner will think they’ve urinated. Women who discussed the experience openly with their partners reported better sexual self-esteem and greater overall satisfaction, suggesting that the social discomfort around squirting is more about silence and stigma than anything inherent to the experience itself.
A large international survey published in BJU International found that female ejaculation had a positive impact on the sexual lives of both women and their partners when it was understood and accepted rather than treated as something abnormal.