<< Ejaculation >>

Ejaculation is one of the most characteristic products of the spasms or convulsions which follow orgasm in the male. The prostate and seminal vesicles are thrown into spasms which press their liquid secretions into the urethra, and urethral contractions and contractions of muscle tissues in the crura of the penis may propel the semen with a force which is sufficient to carry it at least to the meatus (the opening of the urethra).

It is generally believed that semen is usually ejaculated with a force which is sufficient to propel it for some distance beyond the tip of the penis. Some clinicians have considered that the force with which the semen is thrown against the cervix in vaginal coitus may be a factor in determining whether fertilization occurs.
Ejaculation against or into the cervix is mentioned by: Roubaud 1876:45. Rohleder 1907(1):311. Friedlaender 1921:27-28. Forel 1922:57. Hirschfeld 1928(2):226. This idea is, however, denied by Dickinson 1933, 1949:93-94.

However, a considerable body of data to which we have had access, based on observations of some hundreds of males, indicates that there is considerable individual variation in this regard and some lesser variation in the experience of any single individual. In perhaps three-quarters of the males the semen merely exudes from the meatus or is propelled with so little force that the liquid is not carried more than a minute distance beyond the tip of the glans of the penis. In other males the semen may be propelled for a matter of some inches, or a foot or two, or even as far as five or six (or rarely eight) feet. This variation in function may depend upon anatomic or physiologic variations, for the pattern of ejaculation is largely fixed for each individual except as fatigue and, ultimately, age may reduce the intensity of all the physiologic responses.

Since the prostate gland and seminal vesicles are only vestigial structures in the female, she does not actually ejaculate. Muscular contractions of the vagina following orgasm may squeeze out some of the genital secretions, and in a few cases eject them with some force. This is frequently referred to, particularly in the deliberately erotic literature, as an ejaculation in the female; but the term cannot be strictly used in that connection. Ejaculation is, in fact, the only phenomenon in the physiology of sexual response which is not identically matched in the male and the female, or represented by closely homologous functions.
The expulsion of genital secretions by the female at orgasm, which is the so-called “female ejaculation” is popularly known and talked about. In the literature it is described, for instance, in: Van de Velde 1930:195-196. Havelock Ellis 1936(11,1):145. Grafenberg 1950:147.

Because ejaculation is almost invariably and immediately associated with orgasm, it is often considered as the orgasm of the male. This interpretation is not acceptable, for the following reasons:

       1.    The data already presented show that sexual arousal and orgasm involve the whole nervous system and, therefore, all parts of the body. Ejaculation is only one of the events that may follow the release of nervous tensions at orgasm.
       2.    Orgasm in the female matches the orgasm of the male in every physiologic detail except for the fact that it occurs without ejaculation.
       3.    Pre-adolescent boys may experience orgasm, duplicating the experience of the adult male in every respect except for the fact that they do not ejaculate. This simply depends on the fact that the prostate gland and seminal vesicles of the younger boy are not sufficiently developed to secrete seminal fluids.
       4.    Adult males who are capable of multiple orgasm may have several experiences with ejaculation and then, when the secretions of the prostate and seminal vesicles are exhausted, they may have further orgasms without semen. The later orgasms may be duplicates of the earlier ones, except that they do not lead to ejaculation. Physiologically and psychologically they may be as satisfactory as those in which ejaculation occurred.
       5.    There are some males in whom ejaculation does not occur until some seconds after orgasm, and in whom, therefore, it is possible to distinguish orgasm and ejaculation as two separate events.
       6.    There are a few adult males (perhaps one in four thousand) who are anatomically incapable of ejaculation, although they may experience orgasms which are in all other respects similar to those which are accompanied by ejaculation.
       7.    Males who have had their prostate glands or a portion of the sympathetic system removed by surgical operation (a prostatectomy or a sympathectomy) are no longer capable of ejaculation, although they may still be capable of orgasm if no other complications have been involved in the operation. Although the males of some of the lower mammalian species (e.g., rats) may have their capacity to reach orgasm stopped by such a prostatic operation, they may again become capable of reaching orgasm if they are given male hormones (androgens) ; and such orgasms may be typical in every respect of orgasm in the normal rat except that they occur without ejaculation.

Because of this mistaken identification of ejaculation as orgasm, many persons have concluded that orgasm in the female is something different from orgasm in the male. On the contrary, we find that orgasm in the female is, physiologically, quite the same as orgasm in the male. Ejaculation may constitute a spectacular and biologically significant event which is unique to the male, but it is an event which depends on relatively simple anatomic differences, rather than upon differences in the basic physiology of sexual response in the female and male.

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