“I know someone who is having unprotected sex and has been for a while with her boyfriend. She says they are not protected whatsoever and he does not finish to her knowledge. Do you think she is playing with fire and will end up pregnant if she keeps that up? Help me help her!”
First off, that is nice of you to care so much about your friend!
You are right – the most probable answer is that she has just gotten lucky for now rather than not being able to get pregnant. Of course, there’s no way to know if she can’t get pregnant without being checked out by a health care provider but the reality is, most women can, and eventually do, get pregnant.
As you said, your friend is playing with fire! Not finishing, the “pull-out” or “withdrawal” method, is not considered a good method for two reasons: 1) the chances of getting pregnant are high – 27% will eventually get pregnant with the pull-out method, when using it every time. Not good odds if you really don’t want to get pregnant, right? 2) If the man is infected with one or more STDs, the pull-out method doesn’t protect the woman from getting them, because the fluid that comes out of a man’s penis before he ejaculates (“comes”) has the STD in it.
Some of the STDs, like herpes, HPV, and HIV, can only be treated for control, not cured. Others, like gonorrhea (GC) and chlamydia, can be cured, but may cause permanent damage to the fallopian tubes (the tubes the egg passes through to the uterus or womb) which can make it difficult to get pregnant in the future.
Sometimes fire can be put out quickly and easily with no harm done…..but all of us know that sometimes fire causes much harm….harm that lasts forever. If you are her good friend – tell her it’s not worth playing with.
Hope this helps.
