When some people with a vagina are highly aroused or having an orgasm, a rush of fluid will squirt out. It is a real thing. It does happen. But what exactly is this liquid? Is it urine? Some kind of ejaculate? A heady blend of both?
On Scientific American's Science Quickly podcast, below, host Rachel Feltman and science journalist Wendy Zukerman explore this slippery subject.
Among other fascinating info, they share a 2015 study conducted by French gynecologist Samuel Salama. He recruited a small group of women who could consistently squirt during arousal and used ultrasound to monitor what was happening inside their bodies. First, the women emptied their bladders, confirmed by the ultrasound, and then at the peak of their arousal, Salama observed that their bladders had refilled. Of course, this suggests that the fluid released during squirting comes from the bladder. And after they squirted, their bladders were empty again.
Analysis of the fluid showed compounds typically found in urine, like urea and uric acid. Mystery solved? Not quite.
"Although the bulk of the fluid is coming from urine, in some cases there is a little bit of this sort of other substance that ends up in squirt, which comes from the female prostate," Zukerman explains.
As for the squirters, "for those who tend to think it's pee, they generally feel more negative about squirting which makes perfect sense. If you feel like you have just peed all over your partner or peed all over your bed, that's not necessarily a great thing, whereas if you feel like you have just ejaculated over your partner, well, you just had a sexy time[…]
"This is a normal physiological process… And I think you could feel good about it no matter what that substance is."
Previously:
• New study investigates over 2,000 orgasm recordings
• LA Philharmonic's performance of Tchaikovsky delivers an unexpected climax
