no accounting for taste?

March 3, 2009 7:12 PM

A question about a change in the way a woman tastes during oral sex. NSFW, obviously

after a nice long jaunt of going down on my beautiful girlfriend, right before she comes she tastes different, sort of salty, tangier. i think it's awesome, but i'm curious about it too. does anyone know why this would be? my google-fu is not helping at all; i just keep finding erotic stories.

posted by anonymous to health & fitness (18 comments total)

some girls pee a little during orgasm. they think they're squirting, and they are squirting... urine.
posted by Davaal at 7:23 PM on March 3, 2009

Actually the chemical composition of female ejaculation is different from urine davaal. There is substantially reduced levels of creatine and urea and increased levels of acid phosphotase.
posted by vuron at 7:31 PM on March 3, 2009

i'm not disagreeing with you, i'm sure there is a difference. But once you've had a mouthful of piss, you never forget it. I'm sure some women have an increased flow during orgasm - but when you google squirting, which is what i was talking about - the chicks in those vids are pissing.
posted by Davaal at 7:43 PM on March 3, 2009

I don't have the source handy and can't google it at work, but I read recently that female ejaculate is essentially plasma (that is, the fluid your blood gets carried around in), so that could have something to do with it.

Or, possibly, this is a sort of placebo effect. If you are going down on her and she orgasms there's a very strong likelihood of her increasing the pressure on your tongue and lips during the orgasm, which is likely to give you, errrm, "greater mouthfeel", so to speak.
posted by turgid dahlia at 8:01 PM on March 3, 2009

By which I mean, perhaps the taste hasn't changed, there's just more of it, pressed harder against your tongue, and you're more cognizant of it.
posted by turgid dahlia at 8:02 PM on March 3, 2009

Davaal is mistaken entirely. So is turgid dahlia. Really, is there any more egregious example of male answer syndrome?

Vaginal secretions are actually filtered blood plasma.

Gushing, squirting, or female ejaculation, is released from "the female prostate," which is still a bit shrouded by mystery, but is being more researched, and has some similar components to urine but IS NOT URINE.

As in, women squirt their hearts out and get up and go pee. As in, it is faintly cloudy clear liquid.

As to your question, it may be squirting, it may just be increased vaginal moisture production. Both believably coincide with certain female orgasms.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 8:08 PM on March 3, 2009 [9 favorites]

The "saltier" is probably sweat, to some extent--I know that I get literally hot when I get metaphorically hot.

The "tangier" is probably secretions from the Bartholin's glands and/or female ejaculate.
posted by Sidhedevil at 8:46 PM on March 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

While the beatdown was probably unnecessary (although seriously this is metafilter and snarky answers go with the territory), I do think it's fair for women to get annoyed when men chime in with factually incorrect posts about how a woman's body works.
posted by vuron at 8:55 PM on March 3, 2009 [2 favorites]

i don't know how this turned into a bitchfest about squirting. the OP seems to be talking about the change in consistency that many women get before and during their orgasm. i am no doctor, but seems that hormones would interact with the ph of a woman's secretion and ejaculate. i know that i taste different depending on where i am in my cycle and how turned on i am.
posted by nadawi at 8:59 PM on March 3, 2009

some girls pee a little during orgasm. they think they're squirting, and they are squirting... urine.


Folks, I was all ready to jump on Davaal's comment too, until he explained. Sort of. But he's right - 90% of the women squirting in porn vids are just peeing. He isn't saying female orgasmic ejaculation doesn't exist (although he doesn't say it exists, either).

I can absolutely testify it exists. That's probably not what the OP is referring to, however.

Yes, most women do change in flavor during cunnilingus. All women are different, but the general pattern is: (1) musky pussy scent & flavor (from the ordinary residue of sweat & mucus), (2) increased wetness with less overall flavor, (3) increased metallic taste just before orgasm. The latter is probably due to the seepage of plasma through the distended labial walls.

And, assuming good basic hygiene, each stage is yummy & wonderful.

Damn, and me without a girlfriend...
posted by IAmBroom at 9:01 PM on March 3, 2009 [4 favorites]

Okay, let's lay this all out. There are four distinct sources of moisture in the female genitalia that are in play during intercourse. Which is to say, excluding stuff from beyoonnnnnd the cervixdome. Hormones, flora and uterine discharge vary cyclically and by response to other stimuli.

1. The labia minora (and the labia majora, but less relevantly there) are covered with sweat glands, and also more susceptible to transepidermal water loss than other skin. So, this is salty sweat as well as what is basically condensation of epidermal moisture. Most of the moisture in the vulva is basically sweat, flavored with flora and skin cells and waste.

2. The vaginal walls filter moisture directly from the blood vessels within them, in the form of plasma. That is amazing, by the way. Blood plasma is slick and contains sugar and minerals and maybe the other components have a taste, too.

3. The Bartholin's glands on either side of the vaginal opening secrete small amounts of lubricant, and a few drops just before orgasm. ding ding ding? Could be.

4. The Skene's glands, from which female ejaculate, typically noticeably copious, issues. These are is probably not your culprit, because you'd probably know where the stuff shooting you in the eye was coming from. Purportedly mildly sweet but less flavorful by the flagon than the other glandular grogs above.

Basically, which is "tangier": a bit of extra-hormonally excited plasma or mucus? I have no idea.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:32 AM on March 4, 2009 [8 favorites]

A little off topic, but Daval, dude, don't get your sex ed from porn. Really, it's not going to help you any more than trying to learn physics from Star Trek.

My money's on the Bartholin's gland, combined with fluids from deeper in the vagina being pushed into licking range. Speaking from experience, things do get tangier the deeper in you go. Female ejaculate has a much milder flavour, but I've only ever tasted it once so ymmv.
posted by Jilder at 4:15 AM on March 4, 2009

I read recently that female ejaculate is essentially plasma -- turgid dahlia

Davaal is mistaken entirely. So is turgid dahlia. Really, is there any more egregious example of male answer syndrome?

Vaginal secretions are actually filtered blood plasma. -- Ambrosia Voyeur


???? -- me
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 7:05 AM on March 4, 2009

ahfU, I am not using the term "vaginal secretions" as a category including female ejaculate, which differs greatly in origin, composition, volume and incidence from the usual vaginal and labial lubricants. If you aren't familiar with female ejaculate, that's not a surprise, because it seems to be produced only by some women only some of the time, in conjunction with, I think, vigorous g-spot stimulation. It's hard to mistake for anything else.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 7:31 AM on March 4, 2009

Ah yes, I missed the secretion vs. ejaculate distinction.
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 7:51 AM on March 4, 2009

To those dumping on Davaal, some women do urinate during sex. It's not well understood, and it's commonly related to weakened pelvic floor muscles. Urinary stress incontenence. I've also heard it referred to as "sexual incontenence." It's pretty rare though, and probably has no bearing on the OP's question, and is certainly distinct from female ejaculate or squirting.
posted by lekvar at 12:23 PM on March 4, 2009

Ah yes, I missed the secretion vs. ejaculate distinction. - and hosted from Uranus

... and also the distinction that female ejaculate isn't vaginal. It originates from within the urethra, almost certainly from the Skene's glands, as our lovely and erudite Miss Ambrosia Voyeur has noted.
posted by IAmBroom at 11:10 AM on March 6, 2009

Just to clarify about female ejaculation based on an academic textbook published 2006 (Human Sexuality by Levay and Valente):

Approximately 40% of women report a discharge of fluid at sexual climax. There appear to be two types: a low volume opalescent ejaculate that is secreted by Skene's gland (homologous to the male prostate) and a high volume clear ejaculate. There is some disagreement over what this ejaculate is and whether it is urine or something different. Schubach (1996) tested this and found that high volume ejaculate comes out of the bladder and is urine. The low volume ejaculate is epelled somewhere further down than the bladder and is chemically distinct from urine.

In summary, you are likely tasting the low volume ejaculate from the Skene's gland, which contains, among other things the enzyme prostatic acid phosphatase (textbook doesn't mention anything on its flavor :P )
posted by vegetableagony at 7:46 PM on March 6, 2009