Dio, the number is meaningless unless compared to actual nonuse of birth control. The average pregnancy rate with nothing is 85%. 85>19, no? Like, lots greater, not a percentage or two? Therefore, withdrawal “works”. And it “works” better than diaphragms (20%>19%), sponges and cervical caps (20 to 40%>19%), female condoms (21%>19%) or spermicides (28%>19%) - methods which people never claim “don’t work”. They sometimes (often) fail, of course, but they are recognized as legitimate contraceptive techniques
Look, I’m not trying to embarrass you or call you out. I absolutely agree with you that medical experts and sex ed teachers have been telling us for years that Withdrawal is useless. But they were either wrong or lying to sell contraceptives. I grew up believing Withdrawal was utterly ineffective, for the same reason you gave. Then, one day when I was perusing a similar chart, I had a “waitaminnit…” moment.
This is it: your chance to have a waitaminnit moment and look at the actual numbers in front of you, or to go on parroting what They taught you 20 years ago out of habit. Fight ignorance, man.
As long as you’re prepared to call condoms, diaphragms, cervical caps, sponges, spermicides and female condoms “imbecilic, immature and ineffective” as well, I guess we have no fight.
I trust other people are smart enough to tell the difference between 85 and 19, so I won’t waste my energy on that anymore.
ETA: Oh, and I’m not interested in defending anything. I am interested in people knowing the truth and empowering them to make their own, informed decisions.
Condoms are like 97% effective if used right, and the same professionals who advocate against withdrawal also advocate against things like sponges and spermicides as a sole means of birth control.
There is no meaningful difference between 85% and 19% effective when it comes to birth control. Withdrawal virtually guarantees pregnancy if used as the sole means of birth control. The goal of pregnancy is to prevent pregnancy, not just make it take a few more tries.
Just to be clear, I am a great proponent of condom use for disease prevention. For birth control, FAM is my choice, but I still use condoms with every partner (except for my husband - and he wears a condom with every partner besides me) because of the risk of disease. Two really different issues at stake: pregnancy prevention and disease prevention. Condoms are great at the later, and a little better than withdrawal for the former.
If you want to compare, use the same column. Comparing actual failure rate with theoretical or “perfect use” rates is dishonest. Withdrawal is 96% effective “if used right”.
This is just stupid, both mathematically and biologically.
Cite? With numbers, please.
Then, by that definition, truly, the only effective method of contraception is abstinence. The rest of us are just trying to lower our odds.
The cite that withdrawal will virtually always lead to pregnancy is in the numbers you already posted. Pulling out will succeed in causing a pregnancy every 5th time that you do do it. Do it for a week and you’re up the spout.
You are totally misunderstanding how all of these numbers are reported. They are based on annual numbers. That is 20% failure rate means 20% chance of pregnancy after a year of activity. For the pill, with a 1% failure rate, that’s not 1 pregnancy in 100 acts of intercourse. If it were, assuming twice per week, most women on the pill would be pregnant within a year.
Throwing in some support for the “real life” thing, too. Cheers for WhyNot. As a reproductive health professional, I never advocated withdrawal as a solo primary method for patients whom pregnancy would be a crisis situation, but with a mutually monogamous partner you could trust to have good timing and with a back-up method like spermicidal films if concern over potential pregnancy is high? Sure.
Withdrawal gets a bad rap, primarily because there’s no STD protection, and because it requires a fair degree of self-control in a… “heated” moment. If teenagers think they can get away with using something that is free and doesn’t require them to be seen buying condoms, they’ll use it. One in four test positive for Chlamydia and/or Gonorrhea as it is, we sure don’t want them getting the idea that condoms aren’t necessary.
More than one of my co-workers working in contraception and reproductive health were using withdrawal as a primary method of birth control happily and successfully for years. That’s because when used correctly as WhyNot illustrated, it can be just as effective as most other non-hormonal methods… so why all the hassle of fucking around* with a diaphragm or cervical cap if your partner is content with a money shot?
Of course, some guys aren’t, or have terrible timing, or can’t tell when they’re about to spew. You also need to be aware that you can only use it successfully in the first ejaculatory act of intercourse. If you have sex again in the same time frame, you need to be extremely careful to use a condom and to put it on before the penis comes into contact with the vagina–it is at this point that the pre-ejaculatory fluid will carry with it “leftover” sperm still remaining in the urethra.
Again, it’s not a method to use if there is any concern about potential STD transmission (and keep in mind that nothing but male or female condoms will protect you against STDs), and it’s not a method to use solo if a pregnancy would be a crisis situation. The same goes for 'most all non-hormonal methods.
To continue the withdrawal efficacy tangent, let me frame it another way. The difference between “perfect use” and “typical use” efficacy rates is user error or neglect. If you use a diaphragm perfectly and consistently, it’s really pretty effective, about 94%. If you get carried away and don’t put your diaphragm in, or you put it in incorrectly, there’s a potentially significant risk of pregnancy. As you can see from the typical use efficacy rates, this occurs with some frequency. Pregnancies that occur when a user forgets to put her diaphragm in will still be considered a pregnancy that resulted while the patient was using a diaphragm as her primary method of birth control.
I had always wondered why we wouldn’t list “no method” as the BCM (birth control method) in use when conception occurred in such a scenario, but the point is that if she had chosen method that was more convenient for her, she perhaps would have been more consistent in using it. This is considered in the medical world a failure of the diaphragm, instead of a conscious choice on the part of the patient.
Likewise, if you use withdrawal perfectly and consistently, it’s really pretty effective–even better than a diaphragm at 96% effective. If you get carried away and don’t pull out, or you pull out incorrectly (too late), there’s a potentially significant risk of pregnancy. As you can see from the typical use rates, this occurs with some frequency. Pregnancies that occur when a user’s partner forgets to withdraw in time will still be considered a pregnancy that resulted while the patient was relying on withdrawal as her primary method of birth control–even though at the moment her partner did not pull out in time, they were effectively using “no method”. It’s still considered a failure of the withdrawal method, instead of a conscious choice on the part of the couple to use no BCM at all.
Oh, and one last thing: according to Contraceptive Technology which is, in the medical world, the bible of contraception, couples who choose anal sex as their method of birth control experience a 4% “typical use” failure rate.
How in the world would researchers gauge this “perfect-imperfect” continuum of the withdrawal method? Is a woman with a man on the edge, plowing into her vagina like a train into a tunnel and ready to blow, ready going to be to do some Olympic type scoring a of how much semen got into her vs onto her skin?
…?
Either he pulls out clearly before he begins to ejaculate, or he doesn’t. If you can’t tell the difference between cumming and not cumming, then as I stated above, withdrawal isn’t the method for you.
Sure, so… again… as I stated above, if you don’t trust yourself to be able to feel the approach of orgasm and to be able to withdraw clearly prior to ejaculation, than withdrawal isn’t the method for you.
