Reliability of Condoms?

[SugarPeach]

Hi Scarleteen,
I have a history of pregnancy anxiety. It took me a while to overcome my irrational fears of getting pregnant from things like fingering and dry humping, and now I am ready to have sex with my boyfriend of over 2 years for the first time. While I feel emotionally ready, I just want to make sure that using condoms as my only form of BC will be reliable if I make sure they're stored correctly and used correctly. I'm too afraid to go on BC for health reasons, and my menstrual cycle is very irregular so I can't try to schedule having sex around ovulation. I've read your articles about condoms and I have read online that they're very effective, but I'm afraid I'm going to be the horror story that gets pregnant from a busted condom.

[Eddie C]

Hello there, SugarPeach. Welcome to Scarleteen.

While condoms all by themselves have a very high efficiency rate when used properly, is good to keep in mind that there is NO contraceptive method 100% efficient on preventing pregnancy. The good news is that you can always back up condoms with a second method and it doesn't have to be just an hormonal one. Here's some info about this: http://www.scarleteen.com/article/sexua ... ol_with_a_

I'm not sure what exactly makes you worried about your health and hormonal methods, but this is something that you can always discuss with your healthcare provider in person just to make sure you know what are your options. Also, the female condom is a great option in case you still want to stick with non-hormonal methods.

I hear you when you talk about being scare of something going wrong with condoms and I'm glad you are taking some time to think about how to approach this in the best way. Is very important that you feel okay, safe and supported with whatever you decide to do. I'm going to leave you the next link that has very good pointers about this topic: http://www.scarleteen.com/article/relat ... _checklist

I hope you find this information useful.