Ejaculation

From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change

A woman and a man kissing. It is well known that a man ejaculates when he has an orgasm. However, it is now believed that a woman can also ejaculate.

Ejaculation happens when the body shoots out fluid after it has been aroused or stimulated (excited sexually). Many animals ejaculate when they reproduce sexually. This article is about ejaculation in human beings. It is well known that a man ejaculates when he has an orgasm. However, it is believed that women also ejaculate.

When a man is stimulated, his penis becomes erect. When he has an orgasm, semen comes out from the end of his penis. Semen contains sperm and other substances. How long a man can be stimulated before ejaculating, how long the ejaculation lasts, the strength of the ejaculation, and the amount of semen that comes out, all vary from one man to another. When a man ejaculates, he has a very good feeling in his penis and his groin area (the part of his body where his torso joins the top of his legs). A man can ejaculate after he masturbates or is touched by someone else sexually, or even if he is not touched (for example, if he looks at sexy pictures or watches sexy videos). Ejaculation can also happen without control when a man is sleeping. Boys do not ejaculate until they reach puberty.

Scientists now think that women can also ejaculate when they have an orgasm. They think that a woman ejaculates when her Gräfenberg spot or "G-spot", which is near the front of the vagina, is stimulated, and that the fluid comes out from somewhere near the opening of the urethra into the vulva. They also think that the fluid is produced by the Skene's glands. This fluid contains glucose and fructose, which are kinds of sugars, and other chemicals.

In grammar, an ejaculation is something spoken rather suddenly to express a feeling. "Oh!", "Hey!" and "My goodness!" are ejaculations. Although it was common at the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century to call such terms "ejaculations", today it is considered old-fashioned.

[change] Men

In a man, ejaculation is what happens when semen shoots out of the end of the penis. Slang terms for ejaculation are "blowing a load", "creaming", "cumming" and "jizzing". Ejaculation takes place when the man has an orgasm (the height of sexual excitement), usually after he has been touched in a sexual way. However, ejaculation can also happen if a man has not been touched, for instance if he becomes aroused or stimulated (made sexually excited) by looking at sexy pictures or watching sexy videos. Ejaculation can also happen by itself when a man is sleeping.

[change] How it happens in men

A diagram of the male sex organs, showing an erection

Before a man can ejaculate, his penis needs to be stimulated. The penis is usually soft, quite short and hangs down. When a man is stimulated, for example by seeing another naked person, masturbating or being touched by someone else sexually, the inside of his penis fills with blood. This causes it to become longer, thicker, harder and to stand upright, and is called having an erection. Men can be stimulated for different amounts of time before they ejaculate.

Ejaculation takes place in two stages.

• First stage: Emission. The first stage is called "emission" (which means "the act of sending or throwing something out"). A man's testicles make sperm cells, and these are stored in a coiled tube called the epididymis. During emission, the two ducts (tubes) called the vasa deferentia, which carry sperm away from the testicles, squeeze the sperm from the epididymis to the top end of the ducts. When this happens, the man feels that he cannot stop his ejaculation. It is sometimes said that the man has reached the "point of no return". The sperm then passes through other tubes called the ejaculatory ducts, where they are mixed with fluids made by glands called the seminal vesicles, the prostate and the bulbourethral glands (also called Cowper's glands). (Glands are special body organs that make chemicals.) The mixture of sperm and fluid is called semen or ejaculate. It is white or yellowish, and sticky.^[1]

• Second stage: Ejaculation proper. The second stage is called "ejaculation proper" (which means "real ejaculation"). When ejaculation proper begins, the man starts having an orgasm. A muscle in the man's body squeezes strongly again and again. This forces semen to move from the ejaculatory ducts into the urethra, which is a duct that passes right through the penis. Semen is pushed along the urethra until it shoots out of the end of the penis in spurts.^[1] Once the muscle starts to squeeze, the man cannot stop the semen from coming out of his penis. During an orgasm, the man's muscle will usually squeeze about 10 to 15 times. The squeezes happen very quickly. They start at about 0.1 second apart, then slow down and become weaker. Most of the semen is ejaculated in the first few squeezes. How strong an ejaculation is varies from man to man. For some men the semen shoots out of their penis very far, while for others it dribbles out. An ejaculation is often stronger if a man has been stimulated for a longer time. The squeezing of the man's muscle gives a very good feeling to his penis and his groin area (the part of his body where his torso joins the top of his legs). A man's orgasm usually lasts about 17 seconds, but some men have an orgasm for only a few seconds while for others it can last for up to one minute.^[2]

After a man has ejaculated, his penis usually becomes soft and shorter again. It takes some time before he can have another erection and ejaculation. This time is called the "refractory period". The average refractory period is about half an hour. Younger men normally have a shorter refractory period than older men. Men who are 18 years old have a refractory period of about 15 minutes, while men in their 70s have one of about 20 hours.^[3] Some men's penises remain hard after one ejaculation, and they are able to have another ejaculation after some time without losing their erection. Most young and middle-aged men can probably have about two to three ejaculations in a few hours, but it has been said that some men are able to have up to nine ejaculations a day.^[4]

When a man ejaculates before he wants to, this is called "premature ejaculation". If a man cannot ejaculate after having been aroused for a long time, even though he wants to, this is called "delayed ejaculation" or "anorgasmia". A man who is unable to ejaculate at all is said to have "anejaculation". Some men are able to have an orgasm without ejaculating. This is called a "dry orgasm".

Apart from giving a man pleasure, ejaculation may help a man to stay healthy. A study carried out in Australia seemed to show that men who ejaculate often have less chance of getting prostate cancer.^[5]

[change] Semen

Main article: Semen

Some semen on a piece of glass. Semen is a white or yellowish, and sticky fluid that contains sperm.

Semen is known informally as "cum", "jism" or "jizz". Men ejaculate different amounts of semen. Normally, an ejaculation makes between 1.5 and 5 millilitres (up to one teaspoonful) of semen.^[6] More semen tends to come out if a man has not ejaculated for many days, or if he has been stimulated for a long time. Older men produce less semen. If a man ejaculates an unusually small amount of semen, this is a medical condition called "hypospermia".

Semen is usually a white or yellowish fluid. It starts off being slightly thick and sticky, then after a while it becomes more watery. Semen contains many chemicals. These include citric acid, fructose (a type of sugar), enzymes that speed up chemical reactions in the body, lipids (substances that fat is made of), and slippery fluids that help the semen to move through the urethra.

The number of sperm in an ejaculation of semen depends on many things. There may be more sperm if:

• the man is younger,
• his body produces more of the hormone testosterone, which makes a person look and feel like a man,
• his testicles are not too warm,
• he produces more semen,
• he has not ejaculated for some time, and
• he has been stimulated for a longer time before ejaculation.

If there are an unusually low number of sperm in an ejaculation, this is called "oligospermia". If there are no sperm at all, this is called "azoospermia". A man with oligospermia or azoospermia is usually infertile, and cannot or finds it very hard to make a woman pregnant by having sex with her.

If a man has a sexually transmitted disease or STD (a disease or sickness that is passed from one person to another by sex), the germs that cause the disease can appear in his semen. If the person that the man has sex with touches the semen, he or she can become infected by the germs and pick up the disease. AIDS, gonorrhea, hepatitis B, herpes and syphillis are examples of STDs. One of the ways for a man to lower the chance of passing on an STD to his sexual partner is to wear a condom on his penis when having sex.

[change] Fertilization

Main article: Fertilization

When a man has sexual intercourse with a woman, the woman's vagina stimulates the man's penis, which causes him to have an orgasm and to ejaculate. The sperm in the semen travels into the woman's uterus and Fallopian tubes. If there happens to be an ovum or egg cell in a Fallopian tube, a sperm may fuse with the ovum. This is called fertilization, and makes the woman pregnant.

However, before a man ejaculates, a clear, colourless, sticky fluid called "pre-ejaculate" (also known as "pre-ejaculate fluid" or informally as "pre-cum") can come out of his penis. Pre-ejaculate is produced by the bulbourethral or Cowper's glands. Some tests have shown that pre-ejaculate does not contain any sperm.^[7] However, some sperm may have been left behind in the urethra from an earlier ejaculation and the pre-ejaculate may carry this sperm out of the penis.^[8] That is why a woman can become pregnant even if the man pulls his penis out of her vagina before he ejaculates. Also, if a man ejaculates near the woman's vagina and semen falls on her body, sperm can accidentally enter the vagina and cause a pregnancy. To avoid the woman becoming pregnant when she does not want to, the man and the woman can use methods of contraception or birth control. For example, the man can wear a condom on his penis, or the woman can take birth control pills.

[change] First ejaculation

Young boys cannot ejaculate. A boy's first ejaculation usually happens about one year after he begins puberty, which is when his body starts changing into a man's body. Most boys go through puberty in their teens. The first time a boy ejaculates usually happens when he is asleep. This is called a "nocturnal emission" (which means "an emission happening at night") or a "wet dream". It happens without the boy's control, often when he is having a dream about sex. Scientists believe that wet dreams are the body's way of removing too much semen. When a boy begins masturbating, wet dreams usually stop happening.

When a boy starts to ejaculate, he usually produces only a small amount of semen. The semen is different from what an adult man produces. It is usually clear and stays sticky. It either has no sperm in it, or sperm that do not move properly or do not move at all. A boy's semen only becomes like an adult man's semen about two years after his first ejaculation.^[9]

[change] Women

Female ejaculation, informally known as "gushing" or "squirting", happens when a woman has an orgasm and clear fluid comes out of her. Scientists are not sure how the fluid is produced, but think it is produced by the Skene's glands (also called the paraurethral glands or female prostate). Female ejaculation was mentioned in ancient times by the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 B.C.),^[10] and by doctors and people who study anatomy. However, in much of the 20th century there were people who did not believe that female ejaculation existed, and it was not studied in detail. In the 1980s, more people found out about the matter after a book called The G-spot (1982)^[11] came out and became popular. After that, more research was done on female ejaculation.

[change] How it happens in women

This diagram shows the parts of a woman's vulva. The opening of the vagina (the big circle in the middle) is below the opening of the urethra (the smaller oval) into the vulva.

Many doctors and scientists now agree that there is such a thing as female ejaculation, but do not know much about how it happens or how the woman's body makes the fluid ejaculated. Some think that female ejaculation mostly happens when a woman's Gräfenberg spot or "G-spot", which is near the front of the vagina, is stimulated.^[12] It is not known for sure if the fluid is ejaculated from the urethra or the vagina. However, in 2007, tests by researchers from Vienna in Austria found that there is tissue like glands around a woman's urethra, and that substances made by the tissue enter the urethra near its opening into the vulva.^[13] Therefore, it is more likely that during female ejaculation the fluid comes out from the urethra. It is thought that the Skene's glands make the fluid because female ejaculate contains a protein called prostate-specific antigen (PSA),^[14] and the Skene's gland is known to make PSA.^[15]

Scientists have asked women about female ejaculation. Between 54% and 60% of these women said that when they had an orgasm, fluid came out of them. Out of these women, 6% said they ejaculated regularly and that it was strong, while 13% said they ejaculated now and then.^[16][17] A doctor called Gary Schubach believes that most women can learn how to ejaculate if taught how.^[18]

[change] Fluid

Some scientists think that "female ejaculation" is just urine leaking out of a woman's urethra. However, studies show that the fluid ejaculated is not exactly the same as urine, although it has small amounts of urine in it.^[16] The fluid is alkaline and has these substances in it:

• Glucose and fructose, which are types of sugar.^[19] It may be that these sugars provide food for sperm, which would give them a better chance of fertilizing an egg cell.
• An enzyme called prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), which speeds up certain chemical reactions.
• Two proteins, prostate-specific antigen (PSA)^[15] and human protein 1.^[20] These proteins are also produced by a man's prostate gland and are found in semen.
• Very small levels of the chemicals creatinine and urea.^[21] As these chemicals are found in large amounts in urine, this shows that female ejaculate is not the same as urine.

Some diseases or sicknesses can cause large amounts of fluid to come out of women. For example, fluid can come out of a woman's vagina if she has an infection of the vagina or a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Some women also suffer from urinary stress incontinence, which means that sometimes they cannot stop urine from leaking out. Because of this, if large amounts of fluid come out from a woman's vulva, it is a good idea for her to see a doctor in case it is not female ejaculation but some kind of sickness.

[change] Notes

Human reproductive system
Female anatomy	Cervix – Clitoris – Clitoral hood – Fallopian tubes – Bartholin's glands – Gräfenberg spot (G-spot) – Hymen – Labia – Mammary glands – Ovaries – Skene's glands – Urethra – Uterus – Vagina – Vulva
Female physiology	Ejaculation – Orgasm – Ovum
Male anatomy	Bulbourethral glands – Corpus cavernosum – Ejaculatory ducts – Epididymis – Foreskin – Frenulum – Glans penis – Penis – Prostate – Rete testis – Scrotum – Seminal vesicles – Seminiferous tubules – Sertoli cell – Spermatic cord – Testicles (testes) – Urethra – Vasa deferentia
Male physiology	Ejaculation – Erection – Orgasm – Semen – Sperm – Testosterone