SEX AND PREGNANCY: “IT CAN’T HAPPEN TO ME” SYNDROM
There is a popular myth that if you have an unplanned pregnancy it is the result of irresponsible or illicit sexual activity, or a lack of planning. It’s estimated that in up to a half of terminations, the pregnancy was the result of misunderstanding of the contraceptive method or that method’s failure to work even when it was used properly. Having said that, there is a group of people who don’t make the practical link between heterosexual intercourse and pregnancy, even though they know their biology. The ‘it can’t happen to me’ syndrome is well at work here. There are other women who don’t take their fertility seriously until they have an unplanned pregnancy — the ‘I have done it without protection before and I didn’t get pregnant’ school of thought. It’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of security.
The trouble with withdrawal is that it doesn’t account for the estimated seventy percent of men who produce some fluid before they orgasm, the so-called ‘pre-ejaculate’, and the fact that this fluid can contain enough sperm to result in a pregnancy. Nor does it account for accidental loss of control in the heat of the moment.
*52/17/9*
