Planned Parenthood

Someone asked us:

Can you get pregnant without penetration?

You bet. You can get pregnant without penetration in a couple different ways. How so? Well, since everyone’s got World Cup fever, let’s think of it like a game of (kinda weird) soccer.

Let’s pretend sperm is the ball and your eggs are the goal. When sperm from semen is ejaculated into your vagina, it’s like a penalty kick — it’s basically the easiest way for sperm to swim up through your cervix and into your uterus or fallopian tubes where it can meet one of your eggs and cause a pregnancy.

When sperm gets on your vulva (the area surrounding your vagina), it can swim in your bodily fluids up into your vagina. Since it has to travel that extra distance it’s less likely to get in there, and pregnancy is less likely to happen, but it’s still in the range of possibilities. It’s kind of like the ball getting passed from one player to another all the way into the goal on the other side of the field. It’s a longer shot and the chances are lower, but it still can and does happen.

The other way pregnancy happens without penis-in-vagina penetration is by assisted reproductive technology (ART), like intrauterine insemination (IUI) and in vitro fertilization (IVF). Those are kind of like playing soccer in a lab and putting the ball in the goal using amazing science lab technology stuff! OK, so soccer analogies don’t really do these fertility treatments justice, but many people get pregnant as a result of these procedures with zero penis-in-vagina action.  

Want to avoid pregnancy? Keep semen and pre-cum away from your vulva and use birth control and condoms. And not to burst your bubble, but you can get STDs from non-penetrative sex, like oral sex.

Luckily, you can still use condoms and dental dams to prevent getting or spreading an STD!

Go team!

-Emily at Planned Parenthood