Is Pregnancy without Penetration Possible? 6 Sex Myths, Debunked

The age-old question: “Is pregnancy without penetration possible?”

The answer is yes, but the chances are very low. 

To get pregnant, the egg needs to be fertilized by the sperm. Normally, this happens when the semen is ejaculated into the vagina. A man’s semen contains over millions of sperm but only one of them will get to fertilize the egg.

There are a lot of myths surrounding whether or not is it possible to have a pregnancy without penetration. Let’s go through them one by one.

Pregnancy without penetration – Myth 1: You can get pregnant from pre-ejaculatory fluid (pre-cum)

Before men ejaculates, the penis excretes a clear fluid called pre-cum (pre-ejaculatory fluid). Men have no way to control this fluid production. Pre-cum does not contain living, healthy sperms. Instead, it has dead sperms or no sperm at all. Of course, this means you are not likely to get pregnant from pre-ejaculate.

However, this myth can be possible, but the chances are less . What can happen is the pre-cum pick up some of the living sperms that still stay in the urethra from the previous ejaculation.

Pregnancy without penetration – Myth 2: You can get pregnant from grinding or dry sex

Dry sex refers to two partners rubbing their body against each other with their clothes on. In this type of sex, there’s no exchange of fluids between the couple. There’s no risk of pregnancy as there are fewer chances that ejaculate could get through the vaginal area through the layers of clothing.

As mentioned, pregnancy is when the sperm meets the egg. This is unlikely to happen if the grinding happens when both partners are clothed. 

If you grind nude, the chances are still slim. For sperm to reach the egg, it will have to travel all the way up the vagina, through the cervix, past the uterus, to the fallopian tube where reaches the egg released by the ovary.

The fastest sperm can take up to 45 minutes to complete this journey. When the sperm is placed outside or near the vagina, the hope for it to complete this journey is unlikely.

Myth 3: You can get pregnant from masturbation

This is not possible, if you are masturbating by yourself. However, the chance of pregnancy is possible during mutual masturbation where the sperm might land on one partner’s hand and then transfer to the vagina during masturbation. Again, this is rare but still possible. 

Myth 4: You can get pregnant from sperm in a hot tub or pool

Another common misconception about pregnancy without penetration is this. The answer is no, the environment for sperm to survive is in alkaline mucus (the vagina is an acidic environment but in a woman’s monthly cycle she produces a fluid called cervical mucus that will change the chemical nature of the vagina and is necessary for sperm survival).

Without the mucus, sperm dies within hours. So if men ejaculate in the pool or hot tube, the chemicals and hot temperature will kill them off long before they can reach the vagina.

Myth 5: You can get pregnant from getting fingered

The answer is no. But it completely depends on your partner’s fingers. If the fingers are clean without any semen, there’s no risk of pregnancy. However, if the fingers have traces of semen, pregnancy is possible.

Myth 6: You can get pregnant from a toilet seat

This is another misconception about pregnancy without penetration that has been doing the rounds for a long time. To get straight to the point, semen cannot survive on a toilet seat; it needs a moist environment to persist. This means you cannot get pregnant by having contact with a toilet seat.