Finally, we’re bringing you very public answers to some of your most private questions. When sexual and vaginal health concerns arise, OB/GYN and nationally known women’s health expert Dr. Jessica Shepherd wants to ensure you have the answers you need to feel at ease. As the founder of Her Viewpoint, an online women’s health forum, she uses this outlet to focus on addressing taboo topics in a comfortable setting.
Q: Can all women “squirt,” as in have a female ejaculation?
A: Just like when men ejaculate, women can too. We usually don’t do it to the degree that men do because they’re doing it specifically for a purpose, which is to transport sperm, right? So we’re not transporting anything, so physiologically, there’s no reason for our body to projectile ejaculate. But, women obviously can do so. When we have a climax, we do ejaculate. It’s the same premise around male ejaculation, that when you are at a climax in sex, you will have a creation of liquid. We have glands that are located around the vagina and these glands really are [desgined] to keep the vagina moist and to make sure we can get rid of bacteria and irritants.
During climax, when you do have an increase in the amount of secretions that are built up, and then during ejaculation, some of that can be released. There are some women that obviously can do more than others, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s better. It’s a big topic that I have with some of my patients, because I think women feel that they have to do this. But, that’s actually something that has come about because of social perception, which I think actually comes from pornography. When we see it, we then have the expectation that all women should do that because men see that and think, oh wow. It has been projected as normal or indicating that the sex was good.
Every woman can’t learn how to do it. Either you have what we call an ejaculation or “squirting gland” or you don’t. If you don’t, then how are you going to increase your ejaculatory fluid that you make? That’s why it’s hard. How would I tell someone to increase it? There’s really no way. Your glands are your glands. How much you produce during sex is different. Also, the sex responds to how much you are stimulated and also has a factor on how much you climax. So, if you’re not having the best sex, you may not be following that course and preparing yourself for a climax.
Also, someone may experience it and it may not all be just secretory fluids or glands that are secreting. It could be a bit of urine as well because your urethra, which carries the urine from the bladder to the outside of the body, its literally located right below the clitoris.
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