Withdrawal a Viable Method of Contraception?

According to the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth regarding methods of contraception used by sexually experienced women, 90% have used condoms in their sexual past and present and 82% have used in the pill. These statistics are not necessarily news, albeit the percentage of women who have used the birth control pill as a method of contraception is a little lower than other studies I have seen recently, but granted that this study was conducted in 2002, that is to be expected. However, a method of birth control that women have used and have been using that has not been considered a viable method of contraception is withdrawal (or, “pulling out” or “get out when you’re gonna get off.”) According to the survey, 56% of women have relied on withdrawal at some point in their life.

New commentary from Guttmacher Institute by Rachel K. Jones, “Better Than Nothing or Savvy Risk-Reducing Practice? The Importance of Withdrawal,” [PDF] was published in the June 2009 issue of Contraception. The commentary highlights that withdrawal is only slightly less effective than condoms when it comes to preventing pregnancy.

The best available estimates indicate that with “perfect use,” 4% of couples relying on withdrawal will become pregnant within a year, compared with 2% of couples relying on the male condom. More realistic estimates suggest that with “typical use,” 18% of couples relying on withdrawal will become pregnant within a year, compared with 17% of those using the male condom. In other words, with either method, more than eight in 10 avoid pregnancy.

Sex educators have been extremely hesitant to promote withdrawal as a viable method of contraception and in my book, that’s a good thing. Sex educators must be comfortable in knowing that whatever information they put out for the general public will be picked up by and taken 100% completely seriously by teenagers because teenagers believe anything when it comes to how to go about having sex without becoming pregnant. With the growing rate of teenage pregnancy, I do not believe that we should be telling them about how withdrawal and the male condom basically prevent pregnancy with the same statistics. Think of your teenage years and the teenage boys you probably slept with–Most likely, a great deal of them had very little knowledge of what they were doing to begin with; add them trying to withdraw when they are about to orgasm and chances are, you would have had a few problems on your hands.

On the other hand, I do believe that withdrawal should be looked at as a viable method of birth control when people have very little access to other resources, such as being able to purchase condoms or birth control pills, but only if those people are in a monogamous relationship and had already been tested for any possible sexually transmitted infections. While sex is great and should most definitely be enjoyed, it is more important to make sure you are being safe and protecting your health because by using just withdrawal you are not protecting yourself against infection or disease; the same goes for just using birth control pills.

As Jezebel pointed out, health providers and sex educators have been known to stigmatize women who practice withdrawal, telling women that they might as well not use anything at all. When counseling women on sexual practices and contraception, it is very important not to shame the woman you are trying to help. Thanks to this study, we now know that telling a woman who practices withdrawal that she might as well not use anything at all is inaccurate and also unhelpful to the woman and her sexual partner.

I can definitely see withdrawal being regarded as a viable method of contraception purely for lack of any other resources, it would at least give sexually active people something to fall back on when trying to prevent pregnancy, but there are other factors to take into consideration as well when counseling people, men or women, on methods of contraception they can rely on. Bottom line, if you have no other options, withdrawal is something that you can use as a method of contraception with impressive statistics on how effectively it has been shown to prevent pregnancy, but the sexually active male must have a great sense of self-control as well as a deep understanding of his own body. He must make sure that he can either delay orgasm until he can withdraw as well as know not to “get caught up in the moment.”