diff --git a/doc/ssl/SSL_get_session.pod b/doc/ssl/SSL_get_session.pod
index 8547faa58b..dd9aba40b6 100644
--- a/doc/ssl/SSL_get_session.pod
+++ b/doc/ssl/SSL_get_session.pod
@@ -37,8 +37,10 @@ if the session is valid, it can be removed at any time due to timeout
 during L<SSL_CTX_flush_sessions(3)|SSL_CTX_flush_sessions(3)>.
 
 If the data is to be kept, SSL_get1_session() will increment the reference
-count and the session will stay in memory until explicitly freed with
-L<SSL_SESSION_free(3)|SSL_SESSION_free(3)>, regardless of its state.
+count, so that the session will not be implicitly removed by other operations
+but stays in memory. In order to remove the session
+L<SSL_SESSION_free(3)|SSL_SESSION_free(3)> must be explicitly called once
+to decrement the reference count again.
 
 SSL_SESSION objects keep internal link information about the session cache
 list, when being inserted into one SSL_CTX object's session cache.