One of the great strengths of E2 is the catbox, where great minds can come together to discuss things of great import. Often have I dipped my toes in to find quantum physics, philosophy, or politics being debated amongst the many intellectual heavyweights that this website can boast as patrons. But then, every now and then you get conversations like this:
<amnesiac> Well the meme works like, you start telling a joke or ask someone something then ABRUPTLY ask if you can come on their tits.
<amnesiac> Ideally the candidate must be taken unawares.
<allseeingeye> ask? How quaint. Now go clean yourself off, baby.
<paraclete> Can I, as a girl, ask if I can come on someone's tits to comic effect?
<allseeingeye> the mechanics of female ejaculation, in fact, greatly enhance the comedy.
<amnesiac> I thought it was solid state, are there moving parts?
<allseeingeye> I really don't know. I'm just repeating what I read in Popular Mechanics.
<allseeingeye> It is my understanding that paraclete has some of the parts involved. Lets ask her obscene leading questions about it!
I feel that I might be getting a reputation for this kind of thing.
But anyway, being that I do know about the... err... mechanics of the moving parts, and being that this node was so poorly filled, it is my E2 given duty to impart this knowledge of mine for the greater good, and the good of all your girlfriends.
Ejaculation... in the traditional sense of the word
Ejaculation, in males, is the expulsion of sperm and seminal fluid secreted by the prostate through the urethra. It is a well-understood process, and is regarded as a normal, in fact expected, event during sexual intercourse. Sperm is manufactured in the testes, but stored, ready for ejaculation, in the epididymis; a tightly coiled tube that connects the testes to the vas deferens. At the point of orgasm, the vas deferens begin to contract, drawing sperm along their length by peristalsis, emptying into the ejaculatory ducts where they are mixed with fluid and various solutes secreted by the prostate, and expelled from the body via the penis. This is the goal of sex in terms of procreation; sperm deposited inside the vagina do all sorts of magical stuff involving storks and bees (my Mum got kinda vague at around this point in the discussion.) Anyway, a baby happens, and the cycle will eventually start all over.
It is accepted that it is normal for a man to expel messy liquid as par for the course during sex. The same is not true of women. In fact, the female orgasm is usually a very subtle thing... which is why men have spent the centuries scratching their heads as to whether or not she faked that last one. To be fair, even if you do know what you're looking for it can be easy to miss. Especially since there is no agreement as yet whether women are able to experience many different types of orgasm, or only one kind of orgasm in different ways. In fact, I could really complicate matters by further stating that we've yet to really define what an orgasm is; but this discussion is another writeup. So, the first question is whether or not female ejaculation actually exists. This isn't actually an easy one to answer...
Female anatomy 101
Okay, technically a misleading title, because anatomy is just one of those thing that can't be fully appreciated using only the written word. But let me take you on a quick tour, and then you've got some homework to go do a little later. The external female genitalia are often photographed so anyone with an internet connection (hint: if you're reading this, you've probably got one) can probably find themselves an example; however, for now I'll do my best to describe what you might see if you had some lovely lady lying on her back in front of you. First off she's not a porn star, so yes, she does have some pubic hair distributed over the mons pubis (the fleshy mound where her lower abdomen meets the point between her legs) and the outer labia (the flesh-coloured mounds of skin that form the cleft of venus). If, having been given her permission first, you were to now part the outer labia you would see... well, you'd see different things in different women, because we're all different. But, speaking for the theoretical average woman, at the top you may see a small nub of tissue; that, my dear friends, is the clitoris. However, similar to the penis, it varies in size and it isn't visible to the naked eye in all women, especially if she isn't aroused. It is entirely, or mostly, covered by a small fold of skin (the clitoral hood), and fold of skin is continuous, to the eye, with the inner labia, which are two soft folds of skin on either side of the vagina. Just below the clitoris is the urethra (the external opening of the bladder), and below that is the vagina.
I'm not going to give an in depth rundown of the internal genitalia because that's the sort of thing that needs a book. Just to state a couple of obvious things though; the vagina is a tubular tract that connects the uterus to the outside of the body. It acts as a deposit for sperm, increasing the chance of fertilisation occuring. Around a third of the way up the up the front wall of the vagina is the g-spot, or to give it its proper name, the Gräfenberg spot. For a full discussion of this fabled beast, I'll just direct you to the writeup that I already have on the subject; the important anatomical detail that I need to draw your eye to is the existence of what is theorised to be the anatomical structure of the g-spot; Skene's glands. More on those in a minute.
The clitoris is derived from the same embryological tissue as the penis; in fact, it contains roughly the same number of nerve ending as the penis, but over a smaller surface area, so it's a sensitive little nub. In fact, it's not that little a nub. MRI studies are starting to reveal that the clitoris is a lot larger than had previously been though to be true; in fact, it extends up and around both the urethra and the vagina (O'Connell et al, 2005).
Skene's glands
Skene's glands are named for Alexander Skene, the gentleman who first discovered their existence way back in the long ago. They are also called, in this modern day of attempting to be rid of eponymously named diseases and anatomy, parauretral glands because they are situated around and drain out into the urethra. They are thought to be, and are often referred to as being, the female prostate; that is, they are derived from the same embryological tissue as the prostate gland in men. They can be stained histologically using prostate specific antigen (PSA), a non-specific marker of prostatic-type tissue. Not all women have histologically evident Skene's glands, but then again, it could just be that we're not looking hard enough. There is very, very little serious research that is carried out in the field of female sexual anatomy, for a variety of reasons, not least that classic chestnut, "lack of funding". It is assumed that they are just an embryonic remnant, similar to nipples in men. However, the same way that men are still able to develop breasts and lactate from their nipples, it is thought that the Skene's glands in some women may be able to secrete a prostatic-fluid-like substance; female ejaculate.
Female ejaculation
Descriptions of female ejaculate vary: some describe it as being clear, some as being milky; some say only a small amount is ejaculated, others describe quite large amounts of liquid being produced. What is agreed is that this liquid is produced during orgasm, and that it is expelled with some force. It is unknown whether this liquid is urine, some kind of unknown secretion, or a combination of the two. The few samples that have been studied have been inconclusive either way.
This is, strangely enough, a very difficult subject to write up because practically no published research has been completed; and anything that has been published was done a long time ago, and copies are hard to get a hold of. Even if I could get hold of them, I wouldn't set much stock by them on account of the fact that they're twenty years old. However, one paper published in 1984 found that 54% of a sample of 227 women reported experiencing at least one explosive orgasmic expulsion of fluid in their lifetime (Bullough et al, 1984). However, that's all the abstract says, and without being able to see a copy of the article itself, that statistic is very easy to rip apart: Where were the women sampled from? What age ranges were they? Sexual orientation? How sexually active were they?
The trap of statistics is taking them at face value.
There is a particular segment of the pornographic industry devoted to 'squirting' or 'gushing'; films where the money shot is female ejaculation. Indeed, there are several female porn stars who have built their careers on this talent of theirs; Cytherea is acknowledged as being the top star of this particular genre. A squirt film is actually quite an impressive thing to watch, but remember, this is pornography. The only sexual encounter that I ever had that in anyway resembled a porn film was when... oh, wait. I've just remembered. The same way that real-life rarely happens like the movies, real-life sex only rarely mimics porn. In other words, don't believe everything you see on the TV.
In the UK, we're ever so slightly prudish about certain things, and one of those things is the portrayal of 'golden showers', the act of urinating on another person during sex in a pornographic film. The British Board of Film Classification views female ejaculation as being an act of urophilia. While the ban itself annoys my sensibilities somewhat, they probably are actually right.
The trap of porn films is taking them at face value.
For a start, it's very easy, in this digital age, for certain edits and special effects to be put in to suit the director's vision. At the end of the day, you see what they want you to see. The same way when someone's shot with a gun on film, they're not actually bleeding, it's very easy to fake female ejaculation, either using a device in the vagina (complicated) or by urinating (simple). No one knows any different. So little research has been done that no one really knows what female ejaculate is, so porn filmmakers take advantage of this ignorance. The clue is in the copious amounts of 'ejaculate' produced. By all means, continue to enjoy watching the films; just be aware that they are not necessarily as sold.
Back to reality
So, what's going on for those, many, many, women in real life who claim to have experienced female ejaculation? Well, probably, it's one of two things. The first (obvious) one is that it is urine. This may be the case for some women, maybe due to stress incontinence, but it certainly isn't for the vast majority; without a doubt, the paraurethral glands are responsible for the secretion, although there may be a little urine mixed in with the ejaculate. As I have previously said, descriptions of this liquid vary in terms of colour, smell, and consistency, and a single woman will find that her ejaculate will vary over time, similar to her vaginal secretions. Now, the million-dollar question is "how much?"
the-clitoris.com is an amazing website that I can't recommend enough, though a NSFW warning probably applies. It's a great information resource for people about all aspects of female sexuality, and female ejaculation is part of that spectrum. They have a very interesting section in within that page that gives me an answer to the million-dollar question, but they don't quote any sources. Now, I'm a bit of a stickler for sources, so it hurts me to quote them while I'm still waiting to get this email back off them, but I'm sure they won't let me down. They seem like a nice enough bunch. Anyway, it appears that they have unearthed a study that found some women can produce up to 30-50mls of ejaculate over 30 to 50 seconds, depending on how long her orgasm lasted, suggesting that the paraurethral glands are able to empty and refill at a rapid rate. Interesting stuff. Shame it can't get any research funding to explore any further, really.
To compare, men will generally release around 10mls of semen or so per ejaculation, but we've got a lot more studies into male ejaculation. One non-cited study into female ejaculation doesn't really provide much of a working comparison.
Anyway, this is usually the point where I would go into a massively detailed how-to guide to female ejaculation, but I see no point when the-clitoris.com have already done it so magnificently. All I'd be doing is being a pale imitation.
So. Off you go then.