At Scarleteen, we believe that no one should ever have to be pregnant if they do not want to be.
Part of assuring that is understanding when you or a partner are and are not likely to be at risk of pregnancy, and how great your risk may be. You can use that knowledge to decide what sexual activities you're really up for, as well as to know when you need to be sure you're using reliable contraception if you want to engage in those activities and not get pregnant.
We also believe that all sex should be safer sex - and that means using barriers like condoms, gloves, and dental dams for genital sex, or only going without barriers after using them for at least six months, and after each partner has been fully tested, with negative results, for STIs at least once before going without. While safer sex alone usually provides pretty good birth control, accidents do happen. And sometimes, whether we agree with it or not or even whether we intend it or not, unprotected, unsafe sex does take place.
These flowcharts of sexual activities, variables within those sexual activities, and their accompanying risks of pregnancy is not intended to give you a list of things you can do without worrying about pregnancy. We feel you should be having protected sex EVERY TIME, no matter what you do, because safer sex minimizes your chances of catching an STI (Sexually Transmitted Infection), including HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, a deadly syndrome for which there is still no cure as well as reducing risks of pregnancy.
What these flowcharts will tell you is the relative degree of risk of pregnancy should there be an accident in your safer sex practices, or should you or your partner choose to engage in unsafe sex practices.
Find out - click on the type of sexual activity you want to know about.
If after going through one of the flowcharts, you discover that you may have, or certainly have, been at risk of pregnancy, we strongly suggest that you either obtain emergency contraception if it has been less than 120 hours and you do not want to become pregnant. If it has been more than 120 hours and you have had a risk, you can take a home pregnancy test either around two weeks after your risk, or should you miss your period, whichever comes first.
If you get a positive result, or get a negative result but a menstrual period still doesn't appear within a couple of weeks, we encourage you to visit your healthcare provider. If you are pregnant, the sooner you see your healthcare provider, the more options you will have with a pregnancy, and should you choose to remain pregnant, the sooner you can begin important prenatal care.
Please understand that risks of pregnancy will almost always only occur with direct genital or fluid contact between members of the opposite sex: primarily vaginal intercourse or direct penis-to-vulva rubbing and secondarily with anal intercourse. In other words, if you want the most simple assessment of a possible pregnancy risk, ask yourself this: Was there direct -- no condom, no clothing -- contact between a vulva and a penis? Or, was there semen (ejaculate or "cum") in any kind of contact with a woman's vulva (not just her vagina)or anus? If the answer to either or both questions is a yes, then there was a possible pregnancy risk. If the answer to both is no, then it is NOT likely there was a risk of pregnancy.
Dry sex is only likely to pose risks when it wasn't dry, or clothed, at all: in other words, when one or both people were not dressed and/or when fluid exchange occurs. If a bare penis is rubbing on a bare vulva, it's really not dry sex anymore, but more like intercourse. Manual sex can only pose risks if fingers inserted into a vagina had fresh semen on them. Oral sex can't pose risks at all, but if you need to be doubly assured, feel free to click the link for it anyway.
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