Every so often, we get a post on here about squirting and inevitably, they tend to descend into pedantic/partisan-like "pee vs. not pee" debates. As we don't currently have anything about the topic in our Wiki, I wanted to offer this up for consideration for future inclusion.

The most comprehensive and current research on the topic include two separate meta-analyses. For those unfamiliar, meta-analyses don't conduct original research but rather compile and analyze existing studies.

The first, from July 2020, was co-written by six authors (lead author: Rodriguez), and analyses 44 previous studies/articles on the topic: "Female ejaculation: An update on anatomy, history, and controversies".

The second, from July 2022, comes from Zlatko Pastor (who's been working on this work for at least a decade) and Roman Chmel, who analyze 46 studies/articles on the topic: Female ejaculation and squirting as similar but completely different phenomena: A narrative review of current research.

(Note: while both of these are likely going to be behind academic paywalls for many people, check your local library to see if scholarly databases are included as part of your library card privileges if you care to read the full articles).

I'm going to summarize the key findings from these studies (but folks think I'm interpreting this stuff wrong, feel free to offer corrections in the comments).

The biggest takeaway is that there are different phenomena that need to be distinguished between. Specifically, the current literature distinguishes between these three phenomena:

1. Female Ejaculation (FE). This is a thick, opaque fluid that originates from the paraurethral glands (some studies identify it as the Skene's Glands). It accompanies orgasm but only in small volume (a few ml). It is not what squirting "looks like" but it does travel through the urethra even though it does not originate in the bladder. This is not urine. It's considered similar to the fluids produced by the male prostate. Again: not urine at all but also not what you see in porn.

2. Squirting (SQ). This is what most people are talking/thinking about when they talk about squirting: it's a transparent liquid that originates in the bladder and compared to FE, it's much more voluminous. Pastor/Cheml describe it as a "massive orgasmic transurethral expulsion." Chemically, it resembles urine but how it's produced/expelled can happen during the course of sex in such a way where the chemical composition is slightly different (namely that the urine portion is more diluted compared to urine produced outside of sexual arousal). More importantky though, some studies discuss how the experience of squirting is different from conventional urination (aka peeing). In other words, while they may be chemically similar, how they're experienced is not.

1. Coital Incontinence (CI). Basically, this is leakage, i.e. the involuntary release of urine during sex. It's not an "expulsion" nor is it linked to orgasm.
   

Note: the one thing that these studies do not cover would be "golden showers", i.e. the voluntary act of (non-orgasmically) urinating on someone in order to sexually arouse either party. A golden shower is different from all three above on account of its deliberate/voluntary nature.

The other thing to point out is that none of these are common phenomena. Most women neither ejaculate nor squirt during sex. Porn has obviously influenced the perception that it's far more commonplace than it really is. People shouldn't be embarrassed if they can/do either ejaculate or squirt during sex but by the same token, people shouldn't be embarrassed if they can't or don't want to.

If there are other studies people want to point to, especially more recent ones that take into account similar research as the studies mentioned above, feel free to point to them in the comments. Just keep in mind that this science is still being explored and debated.