San Francisco Sex Information

Q: I am an 18 year old guy and I have a question I need help with. Me and my girl were having sex I pulled out and came. I spit on a shirt and wiped myself off and made sure I got down deep to get all the sperm down in the shaft out. After I wiped it off with saliva and a shirt I made sure all of it was off then I stuck my dick back in her. Will she get pregnant because I’m not ready for a kid.

A: Thanks for sending us your question; we’re glad you’re taking the time to ask and learn a bit more about sex and the risk of pregnancy. While we can’t tell you for sure whether your girlfriend will get pregnant or not, we can tell you what to look for over the next few weeks. Anytime you put your penis inside your girlfriend’s vagina there’s a risk she will get pregnant, no matter whether you plan to pull out, or whether you wipe semen off your penis before you put it back in. But overall, the risk of pregnancy from a single sexual encounter isn’t all that high; it’s your long-term habits that count.

If your girlfriend has gotten pregnant, she may not have any symptoms for a while. She may not even miss her period; some women get a light period a couple weeks after they get pregnant. But many women begin to feel nausea and will miss their periods, so keep an eye out for those symptoms. If you want to be sure, buy a home pregnancy test. The earliest you can take it is a week after her next period, or after she misses her next period, depending on the pregnancy test. Make sure to read the instructions.

It sounds like this whole experience made you feel anxious about the possibility of pregnancy, so we want give you some information to help you decide if you want to use a birth control method in the future. After all, some activities are riskier than others. The highest risk is if you ejaculate inside, but pulling out, like you did, offers some protection. Over time, though, there is still a fairly substantial risk of pregnancy. For your typical couple using the withdrawal method (pulling out), there’s a one in four chance of getting pregnant over the course of one year. You can lower your risk if you use some sort of protection. A condom, for a typical couple, will give a one in ten chance of getting pregnant, and hormonal methods, such as the Pill, will give a one in fifty chance or lower.