The publication of Fanny Fatale's videotape "How to Female Ejaculate" in 1992 raised questions again in my mind, but there was no scientific data to investigate. But even from the very first public discussions about female ejaculation (i.e., well before there was any public cultivation of it as an art form) I was aware of reports of larger volume ejaculations than I had personally experienced - or could comprehend.

The recent research of Gary Schubach provides a new handle on the investigation of female ejaculation. Gary was kind enough to send me a copy of his paper, and to loan a videotape of the actual research activities. His methodology was innovative - and, I think, interestingly flawed - but like good research should, it has significant heuristic value.

What Gary and his staff did was to catheterize female subjects who were then stimulated in their favorite ways to "ejaculate". The fluid that was collected (before, during and after) was later analyzed. The fluid was described as a "watered down" form of urine; that is, with much lower than normal (within subjects) amounts of urea and creatinine.

There were no components that might have had origins in the paraurethral glands, which was expected, since the catheter prevented their entry into the collection device. The author speculates that in other researcher's results, such as Belzer et al, the fluids which may have originated in the bladder were mixed with fluids which may have originated in the paraurethral glands. [This is only a superficial comment on Schubach's first report, which we can expect to see in greater detail in the appropriate publishing time.]

Schubach's finding of "watered down urine" in the bladder of sexually-stimulated subjects was especially provocative. I have long been fascinated by - and irritated by - the presence of what appeared to be "watered down urine" in my own experience. When I was growing up, we learned to call it "Beer Piss". Folklore explained that this as a function of drinking excessive amounts of alcoholic beverage. I found that it happened to me most often when flirting and drinking in very active "pick up" bars. Just when the conversation got interesting, I'd have to excuse myself to pee, and I was always irritated to notice the colorless "urine" that I expelled, sometimes three or four times in a single evening.

As a matter of fact, I switched to concentrated hard-liquor drinks under such circumstances, hoping to reduce the amount or at least the frequency of "beer piss" interruptions. It didn't really solve the problem, but in typical unscientific reasoning, I would tell myself how much worse it would be if I had been drinking beer! An alternative explanation, which is given some support by Schubach's research, is that the colorless expulsions were really stimulated by sexual arousal.

Research Suggestion: I've long been vaguely aware of the role of sexual stimulation in "beer piss". In fact, I once envisioned doing "field studies" in the men's room of a popular singles bar. One experimenter, stationed next to the urinals, would offer a financial incentive to men who would (1) describe their drink selections and (2) pee into a bottle for later analysis. A confederate, cued by hidden communications devices, would observe and record the social interaction of the sample-givers. I predicted that the most aggressive males would have the "weakest" pee.

Research Aside: Just as "beer piss" has nothing to do with "beer", so also the "Piss Hard-On" of the just-awakened male has nothing to do with "piss". It is only coincidental that the male has to pee AND has an erection, a fact which becomes obvious when - in later years - one begins to pee in the early morning and go back to bed. Then one still wakes up with the erection, but doesn't have to pee. Erections come from thinking (or dreaming) about sex, not from having a full bladder.

 
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The "beer piss" hypothesis raises an interesting question about the famous Urised experiment conducted by a student of Prof. Ed Belzer in Halifax in 1980 ("Orgasmic Expulsions of Women", Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 17, Feb. 1981, p. 6). You will recall that Belzer first became interested in researching female ejaculation when a graduate student reported wetting the sheets during sex. As a test, she ingested a Urised tablet, which turns the urine blue, and reported that sex-related wet spots ranged from "a faint bluish tinge" to "no color at all". On the other hand, intentional urination produced a distinctly deeper blue such that "there was no comparison". Missing from the report is information about the timing of the various spots - we don't know if the "urine" spot came before or after the "ejaculations", nor by how much time.

Now that Schubach has established the presence of watered-down urine in sexually-aroused subjects, the Urised experiments will have to be repeated in a manner to control for "beer piss". Obviously the same mechanism that produces fluid in the bladder that lacks the yellow color might also produce fluid that lacks the blue color. We need a kidney expert on the team!

Prior to 1980 it was accepted that any fluid released during orgasm was a variation on urinary stress incontinence. Several subsequent reports have demonstrated the presence - sometimes -- of chemical components that obviously have their origins in the paraurethral glands. But the paraurethral glands can only produce a small amount of fluid (just like in the male, of course.) What are we to make of large-volume non-yellow expulsions, such as shown in the recent "How To" film? One hypothesis is that women are being trained to release "beer piss", either in addition to OR instead of ejaculation.

In summary, there now appears to be three kinds of fluid that women may expel during sexual activity:

(1) ordinary urination (large volume, yellow color) 

(2) female ejaculation (small volume, colorless) 

(3) "beer piss" (large volume, also colorless)

And combining (2) and (3) leads to a fourth option: 

(4) ejaculation mixed with "beer piss" (large volume, colorless)

The proof - provided by Schubach's research - that women can produce "beer piss" (just like men) goes a long way towards resolving the skepticism that many scientists had about female ejaculation in the early 1980s. After all, most skeptics did not challenge the presence of acid phosphatase and glucose in ejaculation specimens, but they did reject the large volumes of fluid reported as being inconsistent with the glandular source. Option (4) above provides a plausible explanation.

 
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There is much more of interest in Schubach's research, which I'm sure will soon be published and reported in detail.

In view of the recent discussions on SexNet* about the importance of revising one's opinions in the light of recent discoveries, I felt it was incumbent on me to report this first major revision in my thinking.

- John D. Perry, PhD

* This paper was first posted on "SexNet", a professional mailing list for academically oriented sex researchers, on May 1, 1997

Copyright 1997 by John D. Perry, PhD.  All rights reserved.