What is pre-ejaculate? Is it semen or not? Can you assume? Are the risks high? Is there anything besides pregnancy? Let's talk about everything in order.
What is pre-ejaculate?
Preejaculate, it's preseminal fluid, it's also presemen, it's also Cooper's fluid - it's a transparent secret released from the penis in the state of sexual arousal. The Cooper's glands and Littre's glands, located near the urethra, are believed to be the same tube through which semen and urine leave a man's body, producing presemen.
Amin Gerati, MD, a urologist at Johns Hopkins University, explains that pre-semen prepares the urethra for the passage of semen. The fact is that urine creates an acidic environment that is very unfriendly to sperm. Preseed fluid is needed to neutralize residual acid and make the path safe for the semen. Generally, think of Precum as the artist opening for the show's main headliner.
Wait, so sperm are present?
No, they don't live there. But those little trouble spots can stay in the urethra if your partner ejaculated before sex — especially if they didn't urinate afterwards. And if all the stars are right, Cooper's liquid could very well be carrying live sperm into your vagina.
"Usually that's not enough, " says Dr. Geraghty. "The chance of pregnancy from pre-sperm is very small, but it's never zero. "
There is not as much research on this topic as we would like. In 2013, Human Fertility magazine published the results of one of them: scientists tested 40 pre-ejaculate samples from 27 men. Live sperm were found in the presemen of 41% of the participants. Of course, you can't call them first class: only 37% were mobile enough to make their way into the uterus.
The study's authors found that all but one of the "samples" contained up to 23 million sperm. Sounds threatening, but it's actually not a number to fear. In 2010, the WHO examined the semen of 1. 953 men who were pregnant in the past year and only 2. 5% of these men had fewer than 23 million sperm in their semen.
And why are we even talking about pre-ejaculation?
The topic of presperm is most often brought up in connection with the method of interruption (aka coitus interruptus - like the name of a dinosaur, isn't it? ) that couples often use for birth control. It consists of a man pulling his penis out of the vagina just before ejaculation to minimize the risk of pregnancy.
As you probably suspect, this is not the most effective method of protection: its reliability is only 78% at "normal" (non-ideal) performance. And it certainly doesn't protect against STDs. However, Precum is hardly to blame for the questionability of the do-it-yourself method: There are no studies that could answer the question of when pregnancy occurred through pre-sperm and when - because of sperm, a drop of which ended up in the vaginadue to man's carelessness.
So the problem isn't that there is a lot of sperm in the preseed that can get you pregnant. The point is that it's very difficult to use the interrupt method perfectly. If you're worried about two lines, choose condoms with a 2% failure rate. Also, make sure your partner puts the condom on before his penis is in your vagina.
When resorting to interruptions, remember: it requires trust in the lover. Do you know for sure that he's in control of himself and will always abide by the rules you've set together? Discuss emergency contraception: remember that it is more expensive than condoms, and if business interruption is chosen then you can get into trouble.
And of course there are sexually transmitted diseases. If you've both been tested and aren't having unprotected sex with other people, then you've done everything you can to avoid such conditions. But if these two points are not met, it must be taken into account: without barrier contraception, it is very easy to catch something uncomfortable.
And the infection occurs independently of the ejaculation. For example, gonorrhea and chlamydia often have a genital discharge that can transmit infection, and skin-to-skin contact is sufficient for some STDs. Although condoms do not protect against the latter, they help to reduce the number of contacts.
Well, let's summarize. Precum is a pretty interesting thing that serves a purpose. The question of how great the risk of becoming pregnant because of him is not yet able to be answered confidently by science, but it doesn't matter. The bottom line is that by relying on the method of interruption and not using condoms, you are putting yourself at risk of pregnancy and STDs. If this thought scares you, then discuss it with your doctor: he will help you choose the protective products that best suit your lifestyle.