Condom Questions

[raily_]

Hello everyone, I am a teenager who has just become sexually active. I am curious about the pregnancy risks when using a condom. I know there is always a 2% risk of getting pregnant after a year of use, but what does that risk entail? Human error or condom error? If I know the condom did not break, slip off, and is consistently used and put on correctly; how is there still a risk of me being pregnant?

Also, I am currently on birth control and consider myself a perfect user, I take my pill regularly within 30 mins of each other max. Is it safe to say I won't get pregnant? How am I still at risk, and what can I still do to prevent it?

[Sam W]

Hi raily,

So, if you're combining the pill and condoms, and using both correctly (which it sounds like is the case), the chances of pregnancy are close to zero. With condoms, it can help to think of them as often having a 100% effectiveness rate in a given instance of sex, as if they're used correctly and for all activities that pose a risk, they're pretty dang good at what they do. When they do break, it's generally human error in the sense that they've been put on wrong, or not enough lube was used, or someone grabbed one that was way past the expiration date, things like that.

The reason why you still see some percentage, or fraction of a percent, of risk even with combined methods is that we have to account for the EXTREMELY tiny chance that either a single, highly effective method will still fail, or somehow two combined methods will fail at the same time. That's why it can be helpful to think about things in terms of realistic risk; if your combined methods are listed as being 98% or 99% effective, then realistically, you're not going to get pregnant while using that combination.

[raily_]

Hi sam, thank you for your response! That really helped ease my mind and educate me some, everywhere besides this website always told me, you'll always get pregnant no matter what. It is very comforting to hear from someone else that I am being very safe.
Another question I have, are the "thinner" condoms that you can buy are less protective or are they the same? Would they be more inclined to break?

[Sam W]

You're welcome! And no, thinner condoms shouldn't be more likely to break; condoms tend to be really heavily tested regardless of what style they are, because condom manufacturers don't want to end up being known for condoms that break all the time.