Is the pull out method an effective method of contraception?

[Anonymous]

[TonyV]

A pack of condoms is like 5 bucks? Hell some bars just give them out for free.

Pretty fucking stupid to risk changing your life forever or at least 18 years, plus who knows how many thousands of dollars just to save 5 bucks now.

Oh and would be good to avoid catching any studs a random stranger may have.

[Bricealan]

At times. I did that when I was sexually active in my teens, 20's and 30's and confess I only wore a rubber on two occasions, once in college with a girl I hooked up with in night school, and once with a girl that I had only fucked a few times.

I don't know if "lucky" or what. Pre-ejaculate has viable sperm in it, and I always had plenty in those years, but YES for me, 'withdrawal' was a successful BC for me during those times.

[Anonymous]

It’s 77% effective. So it’s fairly effective but you wouldn’t want to use it as everyday birth control. Only a matter of time before you fall on that 23% side.

[PenkWing]

77% effective is not "fairly effective". It means it's a disaster. It means that most people got pregnant after 3-4 times of doing it. And 23% of people got pregnant the first time. It's a disaster, don't do it.

[Opinion Owner]

@PenkWing No it doesn’t mean that at all. It means 23 out of 100 couples will typically become pregnant after a year of using the method. Many couples go years before having a failure. When someone posts a question like this, the least we can do is give accurate information.

[PenkWing]

My bad. You're absolutely right., thank you. I was in a hurry to reject the idea that pulling out is "fairly effective". But it was absolutely dumb of me to write that people "get pregnant" that often. I cannot delete the first comment, but I'll do what I can to rectify. Therefore I sat down and read the science. It's messy.

The source of the most commonly quoted figure of 23% is a 1991 publication https://doi.org/10.1016/S0002-9378(11)90581-X This 23% is interpreted exactly as you said: an estimate of the probability of pregnancy after one year of typical use of the practice. It is estimated using the so-called life table method, as part of a clinical trial which followed 869 women in different countries for varying amounts of times. IMPORTANT: the study was on the ovulation method, NOT simply "pulling out". The couples involved in the clinical trial were taught extensively how to use the method (predicting the fertility cycle and following some rules) to prevent pregnancy. In total, couples who violated some or all rules had a failure rate which was similar to not using a prevention method at all (84%). On the other side of the spectrum, when the method was followed perfectly failure rate was as low as 2.1%.

[PenkWing]

Going further: this doesn't tell anything about probability of pregnancy per intercourse. But there is one VERY rough calculation that can be done. The probability of 23% (typical use of pull out with ovulation method) is about 3.6 times smaller than 85% (no pregnancy prevention), and 2.1% (perfect use of ovulation method) is 40 times smaller. You can say that, in terms of pregnancy risk, having unprotected sex once is equivalent to having pull-out sex between 4 and 40 times, depending how good you are at predicting the fertility cycle and avoiding genital contact those days. If you ask me, the 1 to 4 reduction is not worth the risk. If one doesn't know her cycle very well, she's probably better off not having sex, or hurrying to find a condom. Good fertility awareness makes that risk a lot lower, so that it becomes acceptable for one-off sex. Thanks again for pointing out my mistake. Sorry for answering impulsively.

[Apple1996]

It works out good when mixed with the fertility awareness method

[SnowedIn]

No! This is a joke question, right?

[Msputiton]

Amazing. 2022 and still asking this 🤦🏾‍♀️

[Mac-One]

I would not trust that method.

[tfan1]

No because the pre - ejaculate fluid leaking out of the penis still contains trace semen even before the main ejaculation. That’s just my opinion. 🙂

[genericname85]

yes. if you like accidental unplanned pregnancies, it is.

[TroyDT2]

If you're sterile.

[Staximus]

Only an idiot believes in the pull out method. I think 3 of my friends had kids because they thought pulling out works

[Twalli]

It's consistently rated as the worst form of contraception and preganancy rates from using only this method are close to those of people trying to become pregnant.