Ejaculation: how much, how far, how long

The median load is 3 ml, most men dribble rather than shoot, and nobody has ever timed anal sex between men. Here is what the data say

Porn has taught a generation of gay men to expect a fire hose. The real thing is closer to a teaspoon, often less, and in most men it does not fly anywhere at all. Nothing on this page is a reason to feel short-changed: the numbers simply show how wide normal is.

Here is what is known about how much comes out, how far it goes, how many spurts there are and how long it takes to get there, plus a couple of myths that refuse to die.

How much comes out

The reference numbers come from the World Health Organization, which publishes them for fertility labs. In fertile men, the median ejaculation is 3 ml. One man in twenty produces less than 1.4 ml, which is the official lower limit of normal, and one in twenty produces more than 6.2 ml.

Very little of that is sperm. Textbook figures put most of the volume down to the seminal vesicles, around two thirds to three quarters, with the prostate supplying most of the rest. The testicles contribute only a few per cent, and precum glands even less.

Two things reliably change the amount. The first is time since the last orgasm: volume goes up with every day of abstinence, but in a fertility clinic study of 9,489 samples sperm quality started to get worse after ten days or so, and the authors advised normal men not to wait longer than that. The second is age. A review of the evidence found that, comparing 30-year-olds with 50-year-olds, volume fell by somewhere between 3% and 22%.

Shooters and dribblers

Some men shoot, some men ooze, and both are completely normal. The force comes from the muscle wrapped around the base of the cock, the bulbospongiosus, which squeezes in rhythmic bursts at orgasm, helped by the rest of the pelvic floor.

The best measurement of those bursts is a 1990 lab study in which seven volunteers masturbated with needle electrodes in that muscle and a small pan hanging in front of them, weighing every spurt as it landed. The striking finding is how many contractions are wasted: only a quarter to a little over half of the muscle bursts actually pushed out any semen. A widely repeated summary of the same study gives about seven spurts followed by around ten empty contractions, but that figure reaches us second-hand and is best treated as a ballpark.

Distance is even fuzzier. Masters and Johnson described the first spurts as reaching 30 cm11.8 in to 60 cm23.6 in at most, and Kinsey reported that in about three men out of four semen barely leaves the tip. Both are old observations, quoted here through later summaries, but they agree on the main point: the dribblers are the majority, and the porn shooter is the exception.

What makes the difference? Mostly the strength of those muscle contractions, how much has built up since the last time, how turned on you are, and age. A dribble is not a disorder. A change is worth a look, though: if you used to shoot and now nothing comes out at all, see Going again for dry orgasms and their causes.

How long it takes

The best data on timing come from 500 couples in five countries who used a stopwatch at home. The median time from penetration to ejaculation was 5.4 minutes, with a range from about half a minute to 44 minutes, and it got shorter with age, from 6.5 minutes in men aged 18 to 30 to 4.3 minutes in men over 51.

Read that with care. The couples were heterosexual and the clock measured vaginal intercourse only. Nobody has done the same stopwatch study for anal sex between men, so there is no reference number for gay sex at all. Anal sex is a different act, and there is no way to know whether the straight figure transfers. If anyone tells you how long a gay man is supposed to last, ask for the study: it does not exist.

Colour, smell and taste

Normal semen is grey-white and slightly cloudy. It turns jelly-like right after ejaculation and then thins out again, which according to the WHO should happen within an hour. A yellowish tint after a long break is common. Pink, red or brown streaks are usually harmless but are worth showing to a doctor if they keep coming back.

The taste is a mix of slightly sweet, from the fructose the seminal vesicles add, salty and a bit bitter. Then there is the diet folklore: pineapple and cinnamon to sweeten it, asparagus, coffee and garlic to ruin it. There are no controlled studies behind any of it. Some websites cite recent reviews in nutrition journals that cannot be found anywhere, which says a lot. Eat pineapple because you like it.

Often is good

One piece of research gives a respectable excuse for frequent orgasms. A study following almost 32,000 American men for about 18 years found that those who reported 21 or more ejaculations a month had about a fifth lower risk of prostate cancer than men who reported four to seven. All ejaculations counted, from sex, masturbation or wet dreams.

It is an association, not proof. The men reported their own habits, and men who come more often may differ in other ways that matter. It is not a reason to change anything if you are happy as you are, but it is a nice line to have ready when someone suggests you are overdoing it.