Scarleteen

Can I get pregnant if my partner ejaculates in his pants/in the bathtub/across an interstate highway (and so forth)? The way people become pregnant, setting aside in-vitro technologies, is through direct vulval or vaginal contact with semen that is being ejaculated right there and then. Sperm cells can only stay motile up to around a half hour or so in an environment that is unfriendly to them (in other words, outside the testicles, vagina or in specific lab conditions). Again, they are very, very delicate, especially once outside the testes. Were there a comic book about sperm, they wouldn't be the superheroes: they would be the helpless folks superheroes need to save. I don't mean to go all cagematch, but if egg cells and sperm cells were to have a fight, sperm cells wouldn't stand a chance.

So while, for instance, having unprotected anal sex where sperm can run right down into the vagina does create a possible (but unlikely) risk of pregnancy, it isn't anything close to as likely a risk as it is with vaginal intercourse. If there is a distinct barrier, like clothing or a condom, or serious distance between the vagina and the penis in question, such as pants, a condom, a body of water or a mall, there is not a likely risk of pregnancy. People also do not have to worry about pregnancies being caused by things like semen left on bedding, toilets or sinks, shaking hands with someone who maybe masturbated that day, or any other kind of indirect contact like that. In addition, you cannot get pregnant by swallowing semen, through oral sex, or by manual ("handjobs" or "fingering") sex.