(( VaginaPagina ))

Hello, fellow superstars!

The maintainer team has noticed an increase in posts lately asking about the reliability of the withdrawal/"pull-out" method of birth control. We became concerned about some of the misinformation and misconceptions we've been seeing and thought we'd make a general post to clarify.

What exactly is the withdrawal method? According to Planned Parenthood, it works like this: "The man withdraws his penis from the vagina before or when he feels he has reached ejaculatory inevitability—the point when ejaculation can no longer be stopped or postponed. He ejaculates outside the vagina, being careful that semen does not spill onto his partner's vulva."

Many people--including sex educators, despite good intentions--have a negative view of the withdrawal method and spend a lot of time promoting misinformation about its unreliability as a birth control option. The truth is, the withdrawal method is 96% effective with perfect use and 73% effective with typical use, according to Contraceptive Technology.

While those numbers might not present a risk level that is ideal or acceptable for everyone, that certainly does not rule withdrawal out entirely as a viable contraceptive method for anyone ever--and it sure beats using no method at all (which has a failure rate of 85%, by the way)! We agree with this doctor: There is a place for withdrawal in discussions of contraceptive options, though it is not the method for everyone. To deny this would be to keep potentially valuable information from our members, which goes against VP's goals.

There are plenty of valid reasons why couples choose (not) to use withdrawal as their (only) method of birth control (you can read some pros and cons here). Because it depends on the male partner's self-control and his ability to know when he has reached ejaculatory inevitability, withdrawal is best suited for sexually experienced couples.

In other words, it probably isn't a good contraceptive choice with a temporary hook-up/one-night stand, someone you don't trust/know well, a partner who has not been recently tested for STIs, a sexually inexperienced partner, a partner who does not have experience with the method, or a partner who has not urinated between ejaculations to flush out his urethra (more about this in the next paragraph). That said, many people find they can alleviate the concerns above by combining the withdrawal method with other methods (such as condoms) for added protection/assurance.

Concerns about the reliability of the withdrawal method are often linked with misunderstandings about whether or not pre-ejaculatory fluid ("pre-cum") contains viable sperm. We know from various reputable scientific studies (see here and here for starters) that "Preejaculatory fluid secreted at the tip of the urethra from Cowper's gland during sexual stimulation did not contain sperm and therefore cannot be responsible for pregnancies during coitus interruptus."

The key here is that that "pre-cum" is produced in the Cowper's gland while semen comes from the testicles. Secretions from the Cowper's gland do not contain sperm and therefore cannot cause pregnancy. Nevetheless, the possibility remains that small amounts of sperm may be present in a male's pre-ejaculatory fluid due to sperm lingering in the urethra from a previous ejaculation. This can usually be remedied by making sure the male partner has urinated between ejaculations.

Our purpose here isn't to promote withdrawal above other forms of contraception or to endorse it as a method that's appropriate for everybody. Rather, we want to make sure members receive accurate information about this and other methods so they can make informed decisions about what works best in their own lives.

That's it in a nutshell (pun intended)! If you'd like to read more about this or other methods of birth control, take VP's Vulvapedia for a spin.

--Bob
For the VP Team
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