"pulling out"
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"pulling out"
| Fri, 09-29-2006 - 8:49pm |
I was wondering, how can a woman still get pregnant if the man pulls out? I've heard it has something to do with 'pre-cum'?
My girlfriend and I have been doing this but she's also on the pill. We both feel uncomfortable with me ejaculating inside of her yet but now that I know about "pre-cum" I'm a bit nervous. What does it look like and when does it come? Should I be wearing a condom as well?
My girlfriend and I have been doing this but she's also on the pill. We both feel uncomfortable with me ejaculating inside of her yet but now that I know about "pre-cum" I'm a bit nervous. What does it look like and when does it come? Should I be wearing a condom as well?

Hi paulbpc, welcome!
Jill
The withdrawl method, sometimes called pulling out, has a failure rate around 50% and it fails primarily for two reason. Reason number one is there is sperm in pre-cum. Pre-cum tends to be a clear liquid that the male secretes prior to ejeculation and it is not noticable in the backflow. The amount of time between pre-cum and ejaculation varies a bit. Sperm is found in the pre-cum but it is less than what is contained in the ejaculate. So it is possible at the point of withdrawl that sperm has already entered your girilfriend. Its purpose is primarily to make the vagina less acidic. Too acidic of a vagina will kill the sperm. Second reason why the withdrawl method fails is because you may not be able to pull out in time. That basically means you start to ejaculate in her before pulling out and controlling your orgasm is not always possible. This is the primary reason why the withdrawl method fails.
In my honest opinion the withdrawl method is not an effective birth control method and I would not recommend it. Using the withdrawl method is playing Russian Roulette with birth control and at some point your luck will run out. If you are wanting to prevent pregnancy the best thing to do is use a condom and / or have your gf get on the birth control pill.
If you're going to be quoting numbers for the failure rate for a method, here's the real numbers:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/birth-control-pregnancy/birth-control/effectiveness.htm
Withdrawal isn't perfect, but it's far better than 50%. With a failure rate of 4% for perfect use and 27% for typical use, that's actually better than using spermicide. The original poster also said that his girlfriend is on the pill, so they're not even relying on withdrawal as a primary method.