If you’re someone who can get pregnant, or get someone else pregnant, you might wonder what kinds of sex have that risk. For pregnancy to happen, someone who has a uterus and ovulates has to have sexual contact with someone who has sperm. The sperm has to go inside the person with a uterus’ body, through their vagina or front hole.

Pregnancy risk isn’t the same as the risks for STIs (sexually transmitted infections). Even if pregnancy isn’t something to worry about, you could still get an STI. To prevent STIs, it’s important to use different types of protection, like condoms or dental dams. It also helps to get tested regularly!

What needs to happen for someone to get pregnant?

Someone can only get pregnant when these things happen:

• They have a uterus, ovaries, vagina or front hole
• They’ve started puberty
• They ovulate, which is when an egg is released into the uterus. It happens once a month and starts happening around the time someone gets their first period.
• They’re with a partner who makes sperm
• Their partner’s sperm goes inside their vagina or front hole.

What are things me and my partner can do with no pregnancy risk?

There are lots of things people can do that don’t have a risk of getting pregnant. Some of them are things like kissing, touching each other’s bodies with clothes on, masturbating with someone, or fingering someone.

Another thing that has no pregnancy risk is oral sex, which is when you use your mouth, tongue or lips on someone else’s privates. Using sex toys can’t make someone pregnant either!

What are things that might get me pregnant?

Any sexy thing you do where people touch their private parts together has some risk for pregnancy. That means having vaginal or front-hole sex can get someone pregnant if they’re with someone who makes sperm. Rubbing genitals together without anything between them can also have a pregnancy risk.

It’s important to know that there are lots of ways to have the kinds of sex that could get someone pregnant, without anyone getting pregnant. Some ways to have sex that could get someone pregnant without worrying a lot about pregnancy include:

• Using barriers like condoms whenever there’s genital-to-genital contact
• Oral contraceptives, also called the pill
• Long-term contraceptives like the IUD
• Permanent contraceptive options like vasectomy

Can I get pregnant if my partner pulled out?

Yes, someone can still get pregnant even if their partner pulled out. One way this can happen is because of pre-cum.

Pre-cum is the little bit of fluid that comes out of someone’s penis or strapless before they orgasm (ejaculate). Some people think that moving their privates away before they orgasm and their cum comes out will stop pregnancy. But there’s often a small bit of sperm in pre-cum, and sperm is what gets someone pregnant. There’s no way to tell how much sperm could be in someone’s pre-cum, although going pee before sex can lower the amount.

There are a few other ways that pulling out before ejaculation can still lead to pregnancy:

• Someone might orgasm without realizing
• Someone could start ejaculating before they pull out
• If someone orgasms close to your privates it could drip into your vagina or front hole

Can I get pregnant from oral sex or swallowing cum?

No, you can’t get pregnant from oral sex. If you swallow semen, your body will digest it. There’s also no way for sperm to get from your stomach into your reproductive organs.

Can I get pregnant from anal sex?

You can’t get pregnant from having sperm inside your anus. But since it’s close to the vagina or front hole, there is a small risk it can drip down and go inside. So it’s possible, but not likely.

The uterus and ovaries aren’t connected to the anus. So, there’s no way for sperm in the anus to get to an egg in the uterus or Fallopian tubes if it doesn’t go in through the vagina.

Can I get pregnant from sperm going through my underwear?

Sperm live for a very short time outside the body. They also need to stay in a liquid (like semen) to survive. They can’t move on their own. When your partner ejaculates onto something dry, like clothes, sheets, or towels, sperm will die quickly. When the semen is dry, the sperm are also dead.

If your partner ejaculates on your underwear while you’re wearing it, and the liquid soaks through and drips into your vagina, there could be a risk for pregnancy from that. But, you can’t get pregnant from wearing underwear that someone ejaculated on a while ago.

Can I get pregnant from fingering or a handjob?

No, you can’t get pregnant from fingering or handjobs.

However, if there is fresh, wet semen on fingers and those fingers are put into your vagina or front hole, you might get pregnant. This is unlikely because sperm will die quickly. You cannot get pregnant if the semen is dry, and washing your hands will kill all of the sperm.

Can I get pregnant from a condom slipping off inside my vagina?

Yes. You can get pregnant while using a condom if:

• The condom slipped off or broke before your partner ejaculated. This is because there can be sperm in your partner’s pre-cum. The risk is very low.
• The condom slipped off or broke and your partner ejaculated inside you. This is the same as having sex without a condom. There is a high risk of pregnancy.
• Your partner ejaculated inside the condom, then the condom slipped off or broke. This means semen was spilled into your vagina or front hole.
• The condom was broken or expired before you used it.

Can I get pregnant from period sex?

Yes! Sperm can live for up to five days in your body. That means if someone ovulates early in their cycle, the sperm might still be alive and can get them pregnant.