About 5% of women report experiencing squirting during sexual activity, making it far less common than porn or social media might suggest. While the exact number is hard to pin down because of differences in how studies define and measure it, squirting is a real physiological event that most women never experience, and those who do don’t necessarily experience it every time.
What the Prevalence Data Shows
The most commonly cited estimate puts the prevalence of squirting at roughly 5% of women. That figure comes from survey-based research, which means it depends on self-reporting. Some women may squirt without realizing it (especially if the volume is small), while others may mistake normal vaginal lubrication for something else. The true number could be slightly higher or lower, but the key takeaway is that it’s uncommon.
Among women who do squirt, it doesn’t happen with every sexual encounter. Factors like arousal level, type of stimulation, hydration, and even how relaxed someone feels can influence whether it occurs. There’s no reliable way to make it happen on demand, despite what online guides claim.
Squirting and Female Ejaculation Are Different Things
Researchers now treat squirting and female ejaculation as two separate events, even though people use the terms interchangeably in everyday conversation. The distinction matters because the fluid, the source, and the volume are all different.
Squirting refers to a larger gush of fluid, typically ranging from a few milliliters to considerably more. Biochemical analysis shows this fluid is primarily diluted urine. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine used ultrasound to monitor women’s bladders before and during sexual stimulation. The bladders filled noticeably during arousal and emptied during squirting. The fluid contained urea, creatinine, and uric acid at concentrations consistent with diluted urine. This doesn’t mean squirting is simply urination. It’s an involuntary release that happens in the context of high arousal, and the fluid’s composition is altered compared to regular urine.
Female ejaculation, by contrast, involves a much smaller amount of thick, whitish fluid, often just a few drops. This fluid comes from the Skene’s glands, two small structures located near the opening of the urethra. These glands are sometimes called the “female prostate” because they produce prostate-specific antigen (PSA), the same marker found in male prostate fluid. The ejaculate has biochemical characteristics closer to some components of male semen (minus the sperm cells) than to urine.
In some women, both events happen simultaneously. The squirting fluid may contain traces of PSA from the Skene’s glands mixed in with the larger volume of diluted urine. In the 2015 ultrasound study, five out of seven participants had detectable PSA in their squirting fluid even though it wasn’t present in their urine samples taken before arousal.
The Anatomy Behind It
The Skene’s glands sit on either side of the urethra and swell with increased blood flow during sexual arousal. In some women, these glands produce a mucus-like secretion during orgasm. The size and development of the Skene’s glands vary significantly from person to person, which likely explains why some women ejaculate and others don’t. In a small number of women, the glands may be nearly absent.
Squirting itself appears to involve the bladder. During high arousal, the bladder fills rapidly even if it was recently emptied, and the fluid is released involuntarily, often during orgasm or intense stimulation of the front vaginal wall (the area sometimes called the G-spot). The pelvic floor muscles contract during orgasm, which may contribute to the expulsion of fluid from the urethra.
How Much Fluid Is Involved
The volume varies enormously. True female ejaculation (the thick, whitish fluid from the Skene’s glands) is typically so small it might go unnoticed, often less than a milliliter. Squirting produces noticeably more. Studies have measured specimens ranging from 3 to 15 milliliters on average, roughly a teaspoon to a tablespoon. Some sources suggest volumes up to 30 to 50 milliliters are possible, though this hasn’t been well confirmed in controlled settings. The dramatic volumes shown in pornography are not representative of what most women experience.
Why It Happens for Some Women and Not Others
There’s no clear answer yet, but anatomy plays a role. Women with more developed Skene’s glands may be more likely to produce ejaculatory fluid. Pelvic floor muscle strength, the intensity and type of stimulation, and the degree of arousal all seem to factor in. Some women report that it started happening later in life after becoming more comfortable with sexual response or after learning to relax the pelvic floor muscles during orgasm rather than tensing them.
The inability to squirt is completely normal and says nothing about sexual function or satisfaction. Likewise, squirting is not an indicator of a “better” orgasm. It’s simply a variation in how different bodies respond to arousal, much like how some people flush across their chest during sex and others don’t.