A little worried

[kaualves2]

Hi, y'all! I'm a little worried - think I need some sexual ed.

If an ejaculation occurs outside, like, on my girl's body (no penetration involved) and accidentally after 2-3 minutes a little of sperm is rubbed by fingers into the vagina while washing it during shower, are there risks of pregnancy?

[KierC]

Hi there Kaualves2, and welcome to the boards!

This activity does not pose a risk to pregnancy. Sperm cells just won’t survive being dried out on the body, then diluted with hot water, then rubbed and washed. That’s why we say that indirect contact does not pose a risk to pregnancy. This article outlines it a bit more, explaining where sperm can and cannot survive: Who’s Afraid of Sperm Cells?

[kaualves2]

Got ya, thanks, KierC! Even with such a short period of exposure to air and if the girl is in her fertile period, this does not tend to cause pregnancy, right?

[KierC]

No problem! You are right, because sperm cells dry out really quickly. You can see in this advice piece that they’re really so fragile to begin with, that once they leave the body they start dying *very* quickly, and can dry out faster than 2-3 minutes. I think that advice piece could be helpful to read, too, because it emphasizes that you deserve to live without fear of your sperm cells, and goes through a bit of how to manage anxiety about pregnancy risk. You can use these tools we’ve given, which is now knowledge *you* have, to help ease your fears if you have them in the future. How does that sound?

[kaualves2]

Thanks! I just didn't understand the idea of ​​the sperm drying: in this case, that means more of a "dying" meaning, actually? It was still "wet" when my girlfriend went to take a shower, especially because it only stayed there for about 2 minutes before she washed it off. Does it die almost immediately in contact with air and skin?

[Ellie]

Hi Kaualves2,

Yes. Sperm is nonviable in this situation even if the semen still feels wet, it's too dry in the open for sperm to survive.