Scarleteen

I've realized I ask you guys a lot of questions haha, you're just so reliable! So I've had sex 2 times now, and both times I've bled. After the first time it was for about a day and a half, and this time it's been two days. It hasn't been necessarily heavy, but it's still there. I thought the bleeding would go away after the first time, so what is this? My friend was like "you're pregnant", which is obviously not true considering it's been a few days and we used BC, a condom, and pulling out. Thank you guys!

Hi ohj22,

So, bleeding after intercourse is generally a sign that either you were tense, or that there was not enough lubricant used during sex. Do either of those situations sound like they apply to you?

Just to also make sure you know, bleeding with vaginal intercourse (presuming that's the kind of sex you're talking about here) isn't about first, second or 203rd times. There hasn't been much study done on this, but what has been done has found that more people do NOT experience bleeding with first times than people who do.

When bleeding happens with intercourse, any time it happens, it's most often about the things Sam listed -- not being relaxed or aroused enough, or not being lubricated enough, which usually means using a lubricant from a bottle, especially if you're using condoms and/or are on a hormonal method of contraception -- or about a partner being too rough or hasty, not telling a partner when something hurts instead of feels good, an infection or abrasion from something.

I thought there was enough lubrication, and I don't think that I was nervous.. If anything I would've been more the first time than I was the second time

And it was all feeling awesome, no pain? And you felt very turned on throughout? You also were using additional lubricant, not just the little bit on the condom?

It was very sore the first time, not so much the second
And no, just the lubrication on the condom
Should I have used more than that?

Okay, so sounds like there were at least two things at play here that tend to make bleeding (and vaginal abrasion or other minor injury) more likely:

1) Nope, the amount of lube on a condom is so nada: it's just enough to keep the condom from breaking when putting it on and with initial use, really, and not enough for people's comfort, typically. Plus, when you use hormonal methods of BC, the vagina tends to be drier to begin with, so extra lube by that token alone is often a must.

2) If neither time things felt GOOD, but hurt at all, or didn't hurt, but didn't feel good either, that suggests that you were probably having intercourse when a) you weren't aroused enough, and wanting that specific activity enough, for it to feel good and b) what you were doing was likely causing abrasion or other minor injury (thus, part of the hurting), but you didn't stop doing it, only shifting to what DID feel good. The first time or any other, intercourse shouldn't be painful. If people keep doing it when it is, that's because they're hurting themselves while they do it, in a word.

Alright, so next time I'll make sure there's extra lubricant!
And I have an additional question, just based on the calculations of the effectiveness of methods of birth control
So if you use two methods together, but hypothetically one of them fails, there is a still no chance of pregnancy? Only if both fail implies a chance of pregnancy? That's sort of what the article implied, just wanted to check

Hooray for more lube!

We can never say that, even with a one effective method (or two, for that matter) that intercourse is 100% without risk. However, in your example, the answer depends a little on which methods are being used. So, a condom fails, but someone has the implant? Protection is still really high, because the implant is really effective. But say you're using withdrawl as a back-up and the condom breaks. Since withdrawl has a lower effectiveness than something like the implant, the risks are slightly higher. Does that make sense?

Yes thank you so much!