pregnant or not?

[chailover2]

Hi,

my boyfriend and i had sex without a condom multiple times a month ago, and then two weeks ago. i've been consistently taking birth control pill for many months now, and he not only ejaculated before insertion, to try to reduce amount of precum as possible or sperm but pulled out way before being close to orgasm + ejaculation. do you think i'm at risk of pregnancy?

[Sam W]

Hi chailover2,

So, while vaginal intercourse, even with protection, technically always poses some risk, combining two methods is a really good way of making that risk much, much smaller. You can actually see the effectiveness rate of combining the pill and withdrawal here: The Buddy System: Effectiveness Rates for Backing Up Your Birth Control With a Second Method. As long as you've been taking your pill consistently and correctly, which it sounds like you have, you can go ahead and assume it did what it was supposed to and prevented pregnancy.

To check, are you and he up to date on your STI tests? I ask because going without a condom does increase the risk of those. Too, with withdrawal, if he's ejaculating close to when you have sex but NOT urinating in-between, that's actually increasing the odds of sperm still being around in the urethra that can then be picked up the next time he produces pre-ejaculate.

[chailover2]

when should i take another pregnancy test? since periods on birth control aren't real periods and not indicators of not being pregnant. also, what are the odds of precum getting me pregnant while on birth control?

[Sam W]

If you've already taken a test, and you took it according to the directions about when and how to test, then you can assume the result was accurate. But if taking a second one would help you feel more at ease, that's certainly an option. Too, while a withdrawal bleed is technically different than a period, you can treat it as signalling the same thing, as someone who is pregnant will most likely not have their withdrawal bleed.

If you look in the Buddy System article, the combination of withdrawal and the birth control pill is over 97% effective (and that rate is per a year of use; the effectiveness being that high means the majority of times that combination is used, it's 100% effective).

[chailover2]

ah ok, thank you so much! so helpful! have a great day.

[Sam W]

You're welcome!