"Pulling Out" + If Pre-Cum Gets You Pregnant
How to Pull Out Properly (and How Much to Worry About It)
If you need free, discreet birth control, but are okay with the control being in your partner’s hands, you can utilize withdrawal, also known as the “pullout method,” wherein the semen-producing partner pulls their penis out of the vagina before they ejaculate (or come), which limits the amount of sperm that enters the vagina.
Once again, it’s essential that I’m clear that this is not a true “method” of birth control. Of the 100 couples that rely on pulling out as birth control, 22 will get pregnant in the first year. However, as mentioned, pulling out is free and (as logic would suggest) is a better idea than ejaculating within the vaginal canal.
HOW TO DO IT:
To pull out to the highest efficacy, your partner needs to have both impeccable timing and aim. For one, they need to pull out BEFORE they ejaculate, every time. This can be tricky, since it requires your partner to always be aware of when exactly they’re going to finish. Once your partner pulls out, they also need to be sure not to ejaculate anywhere near your genitals; that means ideally avoiding the thighs, pelvis area, and outer vulva and avoiding drips at all costs, since any amount of semen coming into contact with your vagina can lead to pregnancy. So, if you’re relying on pulling out, be sure to have a handy method of clean up nearby, to avoid contact.
THE PRE-CUM QUESTION
As the earlier statistics prove, there are plenty of couples who swear he pulled out before he came, and yet still got pregnant. This leads us to one of the favorite worries of teenagers— can pre-cum get you pregnant?
“Pre-cum”, properly known as pre-ejaculate fluid, is a clear fluid that the penis naturally produces right before the orgasm (and real ejaculation) begins. A lot of people worry about pre cum because, unlike semen, people with penises can’t predict when it’s about to come out of them; therefore, there’s no way to “pull out” and avoid getting pre-cum in the vaginal canal.
Scientists are still unsure, but there’s an overall consensus that pre-ejaculate fluid contains either no sperm cells or far fewer viable sperm cells than semen. However, pre-cum can contain sperm cells left over in the urethra.
If you’re relying solely on the withdrawal method and you’re worried about pre-cum, there are ways to reduce the risk. Generally, having the sperm-producing partner pee before sex can help flush old sperm cells out of their urethra and minimize the risk of sperm from their last orgasm ending up in your vaginal canal.
Of course, minimizing risk is not the same as reducing it, and any sex wherein fluids are allowed to come into contact with genitals carries a much higher risk than sex where those fluids are contained. Which brings us to…. CONDOMS