740-Person Ejaculation Study: Swallowing, Facials & Semen

• 740 men and women told us exactly where they most and least prefer giving or receiving ejaculations.
• 64% of men and 42% of women admitted porn has shaped their preferences.
• 4 in 10 have never given or received a facial come shot, while 1 in 4 do it "sometimes or often."
• Men are 3.3 times more likely to prefer giving facials than women are to enjoy receiving them.
• The more porn someone watches, the more likely facials become their favorite way to finish.
• 26% said facial come shots are degrading – feminists were less likely than non-feminists to agree.

To dig into the psychology behind male ejaculation, we ran the world's first "semen census," asking 740 heterosexual American men and women where they or their partner most recently finished, where they most and least enjoy it happening, where they think the opposite sex loves or hates it, and where they most recently watched a man ejaculate on screen.

Precision mattered to us, so survey participants pinpointed their answers by clicking directly on a photo of a naked woman. The resulting heat maps reveal distinct portraits of male and female sexual psychology, exposing real gaps between men and women, and between real life and porn.

Anatomy of an Ejaculation

Biologically speaking, ejaculation is a fairly straightforward process. At peak stimulation, the nervous system triggers sperm release from the testes, which combines with other fluids into semen before being expelled in rhythmic pulses into the vaginal canal — biologically speaking, to conceive a child. Unless, of course, you're on the receiving end of a blow job.

In practice, most of the roughly 300 million people worldwide having sex on any given day1 aren't thinking about conception at all — yet about half of them still ejaculate, and that collective river of semen (enough to fill roughly 1,460 bathtubs2) inevitably ends up somewhere, whether by accident or intention.

Some of those finishes are just minor messes to clean up, while others feel like something worth savoring — the ejaculate itself, loaded with symbolism, becomes a stand-in for a man's sex drive and essence, taking center stage. Where exactly a man finishes can matter enormously, ranging from an accidental splash that once threatened a presidency to a deliberate facial that sparks entire cultural debates.

Few bodily fluids carry as much controversy, weight, and taboo as semen.

Let's dive into where people typically aim or receive ejaculations. Expect plenty of graphic references and puns that barely try to hide themselves along the way. As the saying goes: build it, and they will (ahem) come.

Where Americans Most Recently Ejaculated

Among the 740 sexually active Americans surveyed, vaginal ejaculation topped the list as the most common finishing spot. Ninety-two percent reported they or their partner finish there "sometimes" or "often" — with a third using no birth control at all, 54 percent relying on a non-condom method, and exactly half finishing into a condom.

Slightly more than half said the man frequently finishes in the woman's mouth, while just over 1 in 5 finish elsewhere — a tissue, or their own body, for example.

Most people mix things up at least occasionally: only 22 percent said the man never finishes in the mouth, and 10.7 percent said external finishes never happen at all. That external category is the one we found most interesting.

Seventy-four percent said the man sometimes or often finishes externally, and nearly 9 in 10 of those chose the front of the body over the back. Digging deeper into external finishes, we showed respondents a photo of a naked woman and asked them to click exactly where they or their partner most recently finished.

The single most common spot, chosen by 24.3 percent of respondents, was the mons pubis, or "mound of Venus," the fleshy pubic area above the outer labia — likely a natural landing zone when pulling out during face-to-face sex.

Close behind were the chest (23.7 percent) and abdomen (19.8 percent), with the face not far off. Sixteen percent said the most recent external finish landed on the face, and 1 in 10 specifically aimed for the lips (without going into the mouth).

Ejaculating on a woman's face — the facial — splits opinion sharply. Roughly 4 in 10 said they'd never given or received one, while just over a quarter do it sometimes or often. We'll circle back to the face shortly.

Once we had these baseline numbers, we wanted to understand what actually drives someone toward external ejaculation. Sex frequency turned out to be the first major factor.

Couples who'd had sex within the past week were more than twice as likely to report an external finish compared to couples who'd last had sex four to eight weeks earlier.

Sexual orientation mattered too. Bisexual respondents were more than twice as likely as straight respondents (12.1 percent versus 5 percent) to have finished externally.

The third — and clearest — factor was age.

The Evolution of Ejaculation Preferences

Plenty of reasons might push a man toward finishing in one spot over another — practicality (less cleanup with a condom), relationship dynamics (a partner might not enjoy it on her chest), or biology (finishing on the feet obviously won't cause pregnancy).

As people get older, these influences shift. Compared to other age brackets, 18- to 24-year-olds are the least likely to finish inside the vagina and the most likely to finish on the body or face.

Heading into their 30s, as long-term relationships and thoughts of conceiving become more common, people shift away from external or oral finishes and toward internal ones.

Just 6 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds reported sometimes or often finishing internally without birth control, compared to 27 percent of 25- to 35-year-olds, 36 percent of 35- to 44-year-olds, and 50 percent of those 45 to 54.

Notably, 23.1 percent of single-but-sexually-active respondents across all ages finish internally with no birth control at all, roughly matching people in steady relationships (21.6 percent) and about half the rate seen among married couples (52.1 percent).

External finishes don't lose much appeal with age, either — at no point between 18 and 55 does the average person's chance of occasionally choosing an external finish dip below 69 percent. But where, specifically, does shift.

The biggest predictor of preferred location comes down to role: are you the one finishing, or the one being finished on — the man, or the woman?

A Seminal Debate: Male vs. Female Ejaculation Preferences

Men's and women's finishing preferences diverge sharply. Men were 3.3 times more likely than women to name the face as their preferred external spot (42 percent versus 12.7 percent).

A quarter of men specifically chose the lips — four times the rate among women, who instead leaned toward anything below the neckline. The chest ranked as women's top pick (37.1 percent), though nowhere near as dominant a preference as facials were for men.

Beyond external preferences, we also asked about favorite internal spots. Men were four times more likely to name the mouth as their top choice (43.9 percent versus 11.9 percent), while 38.9 percent of women ranked the mouth as their least favorite spot — even less appealing than the butt after anal sex (37.7 percent).

What about people who are sexually active but have never actually experienced an in-mouth finish? Interestingly, their hypothetical preferences still tracked the same pattern — 23 percent of men said this option appealed to them most despite never trying it, compared to just 1.6 percent of women.

It seems women without in-mouth experience mostly aren't eager to try it either. That mirrors the long-running debate around spitting versus swallowing. Just 9 percent of women called swallowing their favorite finish, versus 42 percent of men — quite a gap (and quite a different physical task, to be fair).

These stark differences raise a bigger question: how aligned are men and women, really, when it comes to external ejaculation? Does it appeal to both, assuming good aim?

We asked directly whether the idea of ejaculating on — or being ejaculated on by — a consenting partner was a turn-on.

A majority of both sexes said yes, though the gap was substantial: 91 percent of men versus 63 percent of women. Those are overall averages, though — the actual likelihood shifts depending on relationship length.

Do Long-term Lovers Like It?

To trace how attitudes toward external ejaculation shift over the course of a relationship, we first controlled for age, since we already know older respondents lean toward internal finishes.

The data showed men consistently more turned on by ejaculating externally than women are by receiving it.

Within the first year of a relationship (regardless of age), 94 percent of men found external finishes appealing, compared to 79 percent of women. By the five-year mark, men held steady around 92 percent, while women dropped to 69 percent.

A decade in, 89 percent of men remained into it, versus a shrinking 57 percent of women. By fifteen years, women had fallen to 45 percent, compared to 87 percent of men.

Part of this may trace back to female sexuality being more fluid and adaptable than male sexuality, historically shaped more by social context than the comparatively fixed physical drivers behind male arousal.3 Early in a relationship, novelty (or watching a partner's enthusiasm) may be what makes external finishes exciting for women, but that appeal tends to shift toward other finishing styles over time.

Men aren't immune to outside influence either. Porn is frequently cited as the biggest external factor shaping male sexual attitudes4, so naturally, we looked into how it might be shaping ejaculation preferences too.

Porn consumption may even tie into a growing interest in BDSM.

Come Shots in Real Life vs. in Porn

Here's where things get interesting. When we asked where respondents most recently saw a man ejaculate in porn, 48.5 percent said on a woman's face. When we asked men to guess where women least want a man to finish, 50.3 percent guessed — correctly, it turns out — the face.

Meanwhile, 35.1 percent of women guessed the face was men's top preference. So both sexes recognize how common facials are in porn: half of men assume women hate them, and over a third of women assume men love them (and that guess lands just 6.9 percentage points off the real figure).

We also asked whether respondents' own preferences had been directly shaped by porn. Sixty-four percent of men and 42 percent of women said yes.

The Divisive Facial

We promised we'd circle back to the face, and here we are — 10 times over. Below are 10 demographic groups, each showing what share picked the face (their own, or a partner's) as their favorite finishing spot.

Overall, 42 percent of men favored facials compared to just 13 percent of women — and the gap widened further among married respondents (40 percent of men versus a mere 5 percent of women).

While being married or in a long-term relationship generally lowers the odds of preferring facials — especially for women — heavier porn consumption correlates with a stronger preference for facials in both sexes.

Among men watching porn up to four days a month, 35 percent preferred finishing on the face, climbing to 50 percent among men watching daily or near-daily.

Among women, only 8 percent watching porn up to four days a month preferred facials, versus 38 percent among those watching 14 to 30 days a month. Here's that pattern illustrated with specific examples:

A typical 38-year-old man in a steady relationship who doesn't watch porn at all has a 40 percent chance of preferring facials, which climbs to 50.1 percent if he watches porn 20 times a month.

A typical 37-year-old woman in a steady relationship who doesn't watch porn has just a 12.3 percent chance of preferring facials — but that jumps to 53.8 percent if she watches porn 20 times a month.

So while gender remains the strongest predictor of facial preference overall, with men favoring it far more than women, heavy porn consumption narrows that gap considerably between the sexes.

Does that mean porn is reshaping how men and women everywhere think about finishing during lovemaking? It's genuinely hard to say — nobody can definitively prove whether porn mirrors real life or the other way around.

Realistically, it's probably some tangled combination of both. We won't claim facials date back to cave-dwelling days, but references trace as far back as 1785.

They truly exploded in popularity during the 1970s, when the porn industry's "money shot" facial became the go-to visual proof of male climax, alongside the female performer's exaggerated "enthusiasm."

As porn has grown more accessible over the decades since, a lingering question remains: are facials — on screen or in reality — inherently degrading, or simply another freaky sex idea worth trying?

One thing seems clear either way: receiving a facial from a partner can genuinely feel deeply submissive.

Are Facials Feminist?

Anti-pornography activist and feminist campaigner Gail Dines once described the facial as "one of the most degrading acts in porn," claiming it "marks the woman as used goods."5

We wanted to see how the average American actually felt about that claim. Twenty-six percent of respondents (a minority, though still 1 in 4) agreed that "a man ejaculating on a woman's face is degrading, even in a consensual context" — with virtually identical rates among men and women.

That said, respondents who identified as feminists were notably less likely to view facials as degrading. Twenty-nine percent of non-feminist men called consensual facials degrading, versus 16 percent of feminist men. Among women, the split was 31 percent (non-feminists) versus 21 percent (feminists).

Feminists of both genders were also more likely to name the face as their preferred external finishing spot, and just as likely as non-feminists to say porn had shaped their preferences directly.

So the divide between people who love facials and people who find them degrading doesn't neatly split along feminist versus non-feminist lines — it's far more nuanced than that.

For example, at least 15.3 percent of Americans in our survey seem to echo sex columnist Dan Savage's take that "facials are degrading — and that's why they're so hot,"6 since that's the share who both called facials, even consensually, degrading and named them their favorite way to finish.

Our Climax

At this point, you can decide which finishing style resonates most with you. There's the straightforward, expected takeaway — like safely finishing in a condom — men, on average, show more enthusiasm for external ejaculation than women.

Or there's the more surprising angle, like an unexpected chest shot: women genuinely enjoy external finishes early in a relationship, but that enthusiasm fades over the years, while men's stays consistently high.

And finally, there's the boldest finding of all, around facials specifically: while men favor them far more than women overall, only a minority of either group actually finds them degrading. Feminists are less likely than non-feminists to call them degrading, and feminist and non-feminist respondents alike are equally likely to credit porn with shaping their real-life preferences.

Whatever result stood out most to you, that wraps up our tour through the world's first semen census (or cum catalog, or nut numeration — take your pick). Catch you next time!

Methodology

We recruited 740 American men and women aged 18 to 74 to take part anonymously. Every participant was sexually active, and every male participant was physically able to ejaculate. The visualized heat-map data reflects heterosexual respondents only, though we also separately reviewed answers from bisexual and gay participants. Respondents answered a range of ejaculation-related questions, including where they or a partner most recently finished and where they most and least prefer it.

Heat maps were built using click tracking. Participants viewed a photograph of a nude woman's body, front and back, and clicked precisely where their answer applied. Anyone who had never given or received an external ejaculation, or never seen one in porn, was excluded from the relevant heat maps but included in other questions and graphics.

Our findings rely entirely on participants' self-reported memories and preferences. While everyone was encouraged to answer honestly and accurately reflect what they'd seen, experienced, or assumed about the opposite sex, self-reported data always carries some risk of inaccuracy. Unfortunately, there's no other (ethical!) way to gather a sample this large.

References

1. No one has an exact count of how many people worldwide have sex daily. As a rough estimate, we updated a figure from The Penguin Atlas of Human Sexual Behavior (New York, Penguin Reference, 2000), which cited "sex occurs 120 million times a day," projecting it forward to 2017 using global population growth between 2000 and 2017.
2. Per the World Health Organisation, the average ejaculation produces 3.7ml. Multiplying that by roughly 150 million men (an estimate of daily sexually active men) yields 550,000 liters. Assuming a 100-gallon bathtub, that's enough to fill approximately 1,460 bathtubs daily worldwide (excluding masturbation). Just an estimate, of course.
3. Gender differences in erotic plasticity: The female sex drive as socially flexible and responsive
4. Google search: "The influence of porn on men."
5. Dines, G. (2010). Pornland: How porn has hijacked our sexuality. Boston: Beacon Press.
6. https://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=1220590

Fair Use Statement

Lovecuri.com is happy to have you share these findings. Feel free to reuse the images for noncommercial purposes — all we ask is a link back to this page, crediting the research team and giving readers access to the complete findings.

October 26, 2020