What is pre-ejaculate? Is it sperm or not? Can you start from that? Are the risks high? Is there anything other than pregnancy? Let's talk about everything okay.
What is pre-ejaculate?
Pre-ejaculate, it is pre-seminal fluid, it is also pre-sperm, it is also Cooper's fluid - this is a transparent secret that is released from the penis in a state of sexual arousal. Cooper's glands and Littre's glands, located near the urethra, the same tube through which sperm and urine leave a man's body, are believed to produce pre-sperm.
Amin Gerati, MD, a urologist at Johns Hopkins University, explains that pre-semen prepares the urethra for the passage of sperm. The fact is that urine creates an acidic environment, which is very unfriendly to sperm. Preseminal fluid is needed to neutralize residual acidity and make the path safe for the seed. Generally, consider precum to be an artist opening for the main headliner of the show.
Wait, so is there any sperm in the premen?
No, they don't live there. But those little sources of trouble can reside in the urethra if your partner ejaculated before sex—especially if he didn't urinate afterward. And if all the stars align, Cooper's fluid may very well bring live sperm into your vagina.
"Usually that's not enough, " says Dr. Geraghty. "The chance of pregnancy from pre-sperm is very low, but never zero. "
There is not as much research on this topic as we would like. In 2013, the journal Human Fertility published the results of one of them: scientists tested 40 pre-ejaculate samples provided by 27 men. Live spermatozoa were found in the premen of 41% of the participants. True, you can hardly call them first class: only 37% were mobile enough to make the trip to the womb.
The study authors noted that all but one of the "samples" contained up to 23 million sperm. It sounds ominous, but it's actually not a number to fear. In 2010, the WHO examined the sperm of 1, 953 men who had pregnant women 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-ejaculate?
The pre-sperm issue is usually raised in connection with the interruption method (aka coitus interruptus - just like a dinosaur's name, right? ), which couples often use for contraception. It consists in the fact that a man pulls his penis out of the vagina immediately before ejaculation in order to minimize the risk of pregnancy.
As you can guess, this is not the most effective protection method: its reliability is only 78% with "normal" (not ideal) performance. And it certainly doesn't protect against sexually transmitted diseases. But precum is hardly to blame for doubting the do-it-yourself method: there are no studies that can answer the question of when pregnancy occurred due to presperm, and when - due to sperm, a fall of which nevertheless ended. up to the vagina due to the carelessness of the man.
So the problem is not that presperm contains so much sperm that you can get pregnant. The point is that it is very difficult to use the interrupt method perfectly. If you are concerned about two lines, choose condoms that have a 2% failure rate. Also, make sure your partner puts on a condom before his penis is in your vagina.
If you are going to resort to termination, then remember: it requires trust in the lover. Do you know for sure that he is in control of himself and will always follow the rules you set together? Discuss emergency contraception: remember that it is more expensive than condoms and if the economy chooses to cut it, then you can get into trouble.
And, of course, there are sexually transmitted diseases. If you are both tested and do not have unprotected sex with other people, then you have done everything to avoid such diseases. But if these two points are not met, it should be taken into account: without barrier contraception, it is very easy to catch something unpleasant.
And infection occurs despite ejaculation. For example, gonorrhea and chlamydia often have a discharge from the genital tract that can transmit infection, and for some sexually transmitted diseases, skin-to-skin contact is sufficient. Condoms do not protect against the latter, but help reduce the number of contacts.
Well, let's summarize. Precum is a pretty interesting thing that serves a specific purpose. Science still can't answer for sure the question of how big the risk of getting pregnant is because of it, but that doesn't matter. The bottom line is that if you rely on the termination method and don't use condoms, you put yourself at risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. If this thought scares you, then talk to your doctor: he will help you choose the means of protection that best suit your lifestyle.