The debate about female ejaculation may have finally been resolved.
According to a study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, the copious amounts of liquid some women claim they release at orgasm is mostly urine.
That's not to say that many women don't release a different fluid when they climax: studies have found that the Skene's glands, also known as the female prostate, which are located on the front wall of the vagina, release a small amount of liquid.
But this study focused on seven women who reported secreting "massive" amounts of fluid at climax. Using pelvic ultrasound scans, the researchers tracked the contents of the subjects' bladders before arousal and after orgasm. All the women started the study with empty bladders, which filled as they became more sexually excited. A scan performed after orgasm showed their bladders were empty.
Samples of the liquid also showed similar levels of compounds that are usually found in urine. However, five out of seven samples contained prostate-specific antigen, a protein made by the prostate gland that helps sperm swim. It's also found in female ejaculate, the liquid released by the Skene's glands, gynecologist Samuel Salama told New Scientist.
Neurophysiologist Beverly Whipple told the publication she thinks this discovery means that female ejaculation should only refer to the small amount of fluid produced by the Skene's glands and not "squirting".
"This study shows the other two kinds of fluids that can be expelled from the female urethra - urine alone, and urine diluted with substances from the female prostate."
The findings may lend support to new U.K. guidelines on online porn, which now prohibit female ejaculation, among many other things, from appearing in sex acts. Female ejaculation is included because it can be "difficult to distinguish" between ejaculate and pee, which is also banned.
"The situation is further complicated, for us, by the fact that medical advice we have taken has suggested that some scenes submitted to us that purported to show 'female ejaculation' were, in fact, urination," the British Board of Film Classification told Vice U.K.
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