sperm

Pregnancy Scared?

Worried you might be pregnant? Evaluate your risk, find out what steps you may need to take next, check in with your feelings and by all means, breathe. We're here to walk you through it.

Who's Afraid of Sperm Cells?

Judging from the number of users I see experiencing pregnancy scares on the Scarleteen message boards, particularly from situations besides genital intercourse, you’d think sperm cells were some magical weapon of mass fertilization, powerfully wiggling their way through clothes/towels/fabric, and leaping off hands to impregnate every person around them within a 50 mile radius. Look out for scary sperm! Get outta the way! They're coming right for you! (pun intended)

As a volunteer for Scarleteen, I'm here to tell you none of this is physically possible. It just isn't. As a former laboratory technician at a fertility clinic, having worked directly with sperm and semen (and without having ever gotten pregnant doing so, no less!), I want to tell you why.

DRY HUMPING FREAKOUT!

…was the major overall theme yesterday in our anonymous texting service’s inbox here at Scarleteen! 

Her pregnancy of two years ago came BACK?!?

confused
asks:
I recently found out that my girlfriend is pregnant. The problem is I am a virgin. She had an abortion about 2 years ago and she told me that her doctor said it could randomly come back at anytime without her having sex. I want to believe her but something tells me that isn't right. PLEASE HELP!...

A cornucopia of "Can I get pregnant if...?"

Anonymous
asks:
Does precum contain enough sperm to get you pregnant if you have sex when its present? Also, if the guy pulls out and the cum gets all over your vagina and the a few minutes later he re-enters you, is that a pregnancy risk? My friends have told me that it's impossible, but I don't know. I'm scared, please help!...

Shooting blanks or a loaded gun?

Anonymous
asks:
I had this girlfriend and me and her always had unprotected sex and I was wondering why didn't I get her pregnant if I always ejaculated in her? This was like a 5 month thing that I had sex with her everyday and always ejaculated do you think that when I am ejaculating I'm shooting blanks cause I'm like really thinking about it. I'm 15 years old....

Where does the ejaculate go?

thomas
asks:
When me and my girlfriend have sex, and I ejaculate, it seems that all of the ejaculate just comes right back out. Why doesn't the semen stay inside her?...

Pill + Condoms = Effective Enough?

Teenie
asks:
I'm 18 and i've JUST started having sex. I've done the deed 3 times and I've done all this research about fertility detection, rhythm method, and effectiveness of condoms and the pill. I've been on the pill for 2 years for acne reasons and I've used a condom every session without slippage or breakage....

EC Questions

Anonymous
asks:
I'm a virgin and engaged in foreplay with my boyfriend a few days ago. There was a point during manual sex where some preejaculate may have come in contact with my vulva in spite of the condom. According to the pregnancy assessment, my odds of being pregnant are low depending on various factors such as ovulation, sperm count, etc....