Withdrawal (pull-out method)

Good to hear that you’re thinking about more reliable methods of birth control! You can buy multiple methods over-the-counter such as condoms, internal condoms, the sponge, and spermicide. However, the most effective methods are only available after a visit with the doctor, so we hope you’ll think about making an appointment. At the very least it’s good to be getting annual exams when you’re sexually active.

Try searching for low costs clinics, if you don’t have insurance coverage. And while you’re there for the appointment, you might as well talk with your provider about your birth control options, right?

The only birth control options for guys that are currently available are condoms, sterilization, and the withdrawal method. There have been some promising leads for other options, but they’re still in development.

Everyone is different, so there are no universal signals to look out for. Communicating with your partner will help. If you want to use withdrawal for birth control but your partner is unsure what his signals are, practice with a condom first, or it might be fun to mess around without penetrative sex to learn his “I’m getting close” quirks.

According to PBS, the withdrawal method (a.k.a. pulling out) dates all the way back to the Bible’s book of Genesis. Today, the best studies suggest that the majority of people in the U.S. have used withdrawal for birth control at least once in their lives.

Good for you for looking into more reliable methods of birth control!

If you or your partner pulls out perfectly every single time, meaning that no semen whatsoever gets in your vagina or on your vulva, then withdrawal is 96% effective. That means that on average, 4 out of every 100 people using the withdrawal method will get pregnant over the course of a year.

In practice though, the withdrawal method is one of the hardest methods to use correctly, so with the way most people use it, it’s only 78% effective. That means that on average, 22 out of every 100 people using the withdrawal method will get pregnant in a year.