The short answer is: it depends on which fluid you’re talking about. Scientists now recognize two distinct phenomena that often get lumped together under “female ejaculation,” and they come from different places in the body with different compositions. One is mostly urine. The other is not. Understanding the difference clears up most of the confusion.
Squirting and Ejaculation Are Two Different Things
Research over the past decade has established that what people casually call “female ejaculation” actually describes two separate events that can happen independently or at the same time during sexual arousal and orgasm.
Squirting is the expulsion of a larger volume of clear, watery fluid, typically 10 milliliters or more. This fluid comes from the bladder and exits through the urethra. Biochemically, it looks a lot like dilute urine: it contains urea, creatinine, and uric acid at concentrations comparable to what you’d find in a normal urine sample. Ultrasound studies have confirmed that the bladder fills rapidly during arousal and empties during squirting, even when a person has urinated right beforehand.
Female ejaculation (in the narrower, clinical sense) is a much smaller secretion, just a few milliliters of thick, whitish fluid. This fluid originates from the paraurethral glands, small structures on either side of the urethra that are sometimes called the “female prostate” because they share the same embryological origin as the male prostate. The fluid they produce contains prostate-specific antigen (PSA), has lower concentrations of urea and creatinine than urine, and may even have antibacterial properties that help protect the urinary tract.
Both phenomena can happen at the same time during orgasm, which is one reason they’ve been so difficult to study and so easy to conflate in everyday conversation.
What the Bladder Studies Found
A widely cited 2015 study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine used ultrasound imaging to track what happens inside the body during squirting. Researchers had participants empty their bladders, confirmed the bladders were empty on ultrasound, then monitored them during sexual stimulation. Despite starting with an empty bladder, the participants’ bladders refilled noticeably during arousal. After squirting, the bladders were empty again.
When the researchers compared the chemical makeup of the squirted fluid to urine samples collected before and after, the concentrations of urea, creatinine, and uric acid were comparable across all three. In some participants, the squirted fluid also contained PSA, suggesting a small contribution from the paraurethral glands mixed in. The conclusion: squirting fluid is primarily urine, sometimes with a small addition of prostatic secretion.
Why It Doesn’t Always Look or Smell Like Urine
If squirting fluid is mostly urine, many people wonder why it sometimes seems different from what they’d expect. A few things explain this. The bladder fills rapidly during arousal, meaning the fluid is freshly produced and highly dilute. Dilute urine is lighter in color, less concentrated, and has a much milder odor than the urine you pass after hours of not drinking water. The presence of glandular secretions can also subtly change its consistency and smell. So while the chemical fingerprint matches urine, the sensory experience can feel quite different from a trip to the bathroom.
The Paraurethral Glands and the “Female Prostate”
The paraurethral glands, formally known as Skene’s glands, sit along the wall of the urethra near the vaginal opening. Immunohistochemical studies have confirmed that these glands are structurally and functionally homologous to the male prostate. They produce PSA, the same protein measured in prostate screening for men, though in smaller quantities.
These glands vary significantly in size from person to person, and some people have more developed glandular tissue than others. This natural variation likely explains why some people experience noticeable ejaculatory fluid, some experience squirting, some experience both, and some experience neither. It’s a normal part of anatomical diversity, not a measure of sexual function or response.
How This Differs From Coital Incontinence
A separate condition called coital incontinence also involves involuntary urine release during sex, but it has a different underlying cause. Coital incontinence is typically linked to pelvic floor disorders, such as stress urinary incontinence or overactive bladder muscle contractions. It can happen during penetration, during orgasm, or both.
The key distinction: squirting and female ejaculation are physiological sexual responses that occur in people with normal urinary function. Coital incontinence is a medical condition that involves urinary dysfunction and responds to treatment. A 2013 systematic review in the Journal of Sexual Medicine emphasized that distinguishing between these overlapping but fundamentally different phenomena is important, both for accurate diagnosis and for reassuring people that normal sexual responses don’t require medical intervention.
What This Means in Practical Terms
If you experience a gush of fluid during sex or orgasm, the fluid most likely contains a significant amount of urine, especially if the volume is large. That’s a normal physiological event, not a sign of a problem. The smaller, thicker secretion that some people produce is chemically distinct from urine and comes from glandular tissue near the urethra.
A 2024 Swedish cross-sectional study found that many women who experience squirting or ejaculation report it as a positive part of their sexual experience. Anxiety about whether the fluid is “just pee” is common but largely misses the point: the body does several involuntary things during sexual arousal and orgasm, and rapid bladder filling followed by expulsion during climax appears to be one of them. It’s neither a failure of bladder control nor something that needs to be fixed.