Dribbler or spurter? 5 common questions about male (and female) ejaculation

Male ejaculation is often discussed purely in terms of what can go wrong. A lot of trusted information focuses only on problems or difficulties and how they can be managed. Although tackling problems can be important in helping you have a happy and satisfying sex life, there’s a lot more to ejaculation than that! We talk about ejaculation quite a lot – here are the answers to some of the common questions we get asked.

Does male ejaculation only happen during orgasm?

Male ejaculation happens when a man shoots semen (also known as seminal fluid – it contains sperm and other nutrients to help sperm survive) from his penis. This is usually as an end result of the muscular contractions that happen during an orgasm. But it’s perfectly possible for men to have an orgasm without ejaculation, and you can ejaculate without having an orgasm too.

How much semen should I ejaculate?

You’ll usually ejaculate about 5ml of fluid (about a teaspoon full), although there may be more than this if you haven’t ejaculated for a while. Although this probably doesn’t seem a huge amount of fluid, the number of sperm contained in the average ejaculation is about 100 million! Is there a normal number of spurts? Men sometimes ask us how many ‘spurts’ the average ejaculation should be, but there’s no right answer to this question. Ejaculation is different for different men. Some men’s semen dribbles out, some men have one big gush, and other men spurt five times or more; all are totally normal. The amount of semen that you ejaculate will get less as you get older but this is nothing to worry about. If you’re comparing how you ejaculate compared to some male porn stars, be aware that some of these shots are faked using a small tube and something like liquid soap to make the amount of ejaculate look bigger. In real life, you can’t drown someone with your cum, and you don’t need clever camera angles to enjoy your ejaculation!

How quickly should I reach ejaculation?

This depends on all sorts of different factors, and again, there is no one right answer. If you’re worried about any aspect of your ejaculation, maybe you think you cum too quickly or it takes too long, then the Sexual Advice Association contains trusted information and advice about the four main ejaculation problems that can affect men – so if you think you have ejaculation problems, don’t keep them to yourself.

Can women really ejaculate?

Yes! Women can ejaculate too, although the process is completely different from male ejaculation and not all women will do so.