Scientifically: Can Women Ejaculate? The "Female Prostate & G Spot"

WHEN the British Board of Film Classification ordered 6 minutes and 12 seconds of material cut from British Cum Queens in 2002, they found themselves under attack from an unlikely quarter: a group of feminists.

The offending segment showed some of the female participants apparently ejaculating fluid from their genitals on orgasm. The film board stated that female ejaculation did not exist, so the actresses must have been urinating. And urinating on another actor on film is banned under the UK's Obscene Publications Act.

The group Feminists Against Censorship marshalled all the scientific evidence they could find to prove that some women do in fact ejaculate. The film board eventually backed down from its complete denial of the phenomenon, stating that female ejaculation was a "controversial and much debated area".

It was only a partial climbdown, however, as the film board insisted that the scenes in question were "nothing other than straightforward urination masquerading as ejaculation". In their defence, most pornography scenes that depict women ejaculating are indeed staged. Either the fluid is put into the vagina beforehand off-camera, or the actresses are simply urinating.

The dispute raises an intriguing question. In the 21st century, when human biology has been investigated right down to the genetic level, how can the existence of female ejaculation still be open to debate?

Medical textbooks are silent on this aspect of female physiology and most physicians never learn anything of it, unless of course they experience it themselves or witness it in their partners.

In the past few years, however, there has been an upsurge of research into the female sexual response. It seems that, even today, the human body may be harbouring a few surprises.

Although still controversial, many scientists now accept that some women can ejaculate some kind of fluid during sexual arousal or orgasm. Just how common it is, what the fluid is, and whether it serves any kind of function are some of the most hotly debated questions of sex research today, and I am playing a small part in helping to investigate them.

Many historical texts, such as the Kama Sutra, spoke about female "semen", as did writers, including the Greek physician Hippocrates. Sometimes the writers may have been referring to everyday vaginal secretions, which increase during sexual arousal. However, there are several references to something more akin to ejaculation. In the 17th century, the Dutch physician and anatomist Regnier De Graaf spoke of "liquid as usually comes from the pudenda in one gush".

In the last century, Ernst Gräfenberg, the German doctor who gave his name to the controversial G spot, drew attention to female ejaculation in a 1950 paper published in The International Journal of Sexology. "This convulsory expulsion of fluids occurs always at the acme of orgasm and simultaneously with it," he wrote. "Occasionally the production of fluids is so profuse that a large towel has to be spread under the woman to prevent the bed sheets getting soiled."

Most people did not take the paper seriously and thought Gräfenberg was probably describing a type of incontinence. It is certainly true that a few women experience loss of bladder control during sex, sometimes at the moment of penetration or at orgasm. But some who end up being investigated and even surgically treated for such "coital incontinence" may in fact be experiencing ejaculation. (And probably some who think they ejaculate may in fact be leaking urine.)
Ground-breaker

It is unknown how common genuine female ejaculation might be, or even whether it occurs solely on orgasm or merely during heightened sexual arousal. Just as with men's semen, women who believe that they are ejaculating report great variation in the nature and volume of the fluid produced. It can range from clear to milky-white in colour, and the amount of fluid can range from a few drops to more than a quarter of a cup.

The real ground-b