Doctor’s Advice: Can she get pregnant without an orgasm? – Jamaica Gleaner

Q: Doc, my friends at school (all of whom are female, like me) have been arguing and debating about a subject concerned with sex.

Is it true that if a girl does not have an orgasm, then she cannot get pregnant?

Some of us believe this, but others do not.

A: Well, a surprising number of young women (and young men) have this belief that if a female does not climax, she will not conceive, but it is totally untrue.

This matter is of some importance because it does sometimes happen that young couples accidentally start a pregnancy as a result of believing that if the girl did not ‘discharge’, then everything would be OK.

The mistaken belief is not confined to young persons. Last year, a foolish minor American politician repeated it, claiming that women who had been raped could ‘prevent’ themselves from getting pregnant. It appears that he thought that if they did not orgasm, they would not conceive.

So I assure you that it is very easy to get pregnant, even though you do not climax. I urge you and your school friends to be wary of having sex with boys. Try to postpone doing it for as long as you can, and if you eventually decide to do it, then please use an effective method of contraception.

Do not rely on foolish old tales about preventing conception through avoiding orgasm.

Q: I am a guy of 18. Doc, could I catch HIV through ‘finger petting’?

A: Fortunately, it is nearly impossible to catch HIV through sexual activity with the fingers. There are rare exceptions to this rule. For instance, if you had a cut or an area of broken skin on your fingers, it would technically be possible for the virus to get in that way.

However, the only ways in which HIV is commonly spread between people are:

– Sexual intercourse (i.e. ‘boy-girl’ sex);

– Rectal intercourse;

– Sharing injection needles with a person who is infected;

– In the case of a baby, catching the virus from an HIV-positive mother.

There are less common causes of HIV transmission. For instance, oral sex can pass it on. In some countries, the virus can be acquired from

transfused blood or from other blood products.

But if all you have been doing with your partner is some sort of fooling around with the fingers, then the chance that you have caught anything is low.

Q: Unfortunately, I have just become pregnant by a guy who promptly left the island and has not replied to my texts and emails.

Doc, what I want to know is this. How do I work out when the baby will be due?

A: There is a simple formula which works pretty well. It is this:

Take the date of the first day of your last menses. Add nine months and one week. That gives you the likeliest date when the child will be born.

So, if your last period started on December 1, 2015, your probable date of delivery would be around September 8, 2016. But when you get to see a midwife, which you should do fairly soon, she will be able to give you a more accurate estimate.

Q: I am a guy of 20, and my mother is keen on me marrying my childhood sweetheart. Doc, she is quite a pleasant girl and she thinks she loves me.

She would like to get married next year, but there is a problem. I find that, in a sexual way, I think mainly about guys rather than girls. At nights, I dream about male film stars.

I have had sex with my fiancÈe just once. To be honest, I did not like it much, though I did eventually discharge. She did not like it much either.

In contrast, I recently did a little kissing with another young guy. Frankly, it was a lot more enjoyable.

What would you advise me to do?

A: Well, it is pretty clear that you are gay. You seem to have practically no heterosexual impulses at all.

So at the moment, the most important thing is that you should break off what seems to be a sort of ‘engagement’ between you and this poor girl. Fortunately, it doesn’t sound like a very firm arrangement. You state that she ‘thinks’ she loves you, which is not saying very much, and clearly, you don’t love her.

To go ahead with a marriage under these circumstances would be absolutely crazy. I urge you to talk to the young lady at once and explain to her that you cannot marry her. You should also tell your mother that you are not the marrying kind.

Q: I am a female teenager and I know very little about sex, Doc. I have, however, been fooling around with a boy of my own age.

Now I am fretting. Can getting man-fluid on my breasts make me pregnant or give me a sexually transmitted infection (STI)?

A: Wow! You really need some good advice from a knowledgeable lady as soon as possible.

If your mother isn’t around, talk to a teacher, a nurse, a midwife or a youth counsellor.

I don’t know what you have been doing with this boy, but I think you should stop it totally. You shouldn’t be having any sort of relationship until you know a lot more about sex.

Turning to your queries: No! Getting seminal fluid on your breasts cannot make you pregnant, and it would be incredibly unlikely that you could catch an STI in that way.

Please take great care of yourself. I must warn you that when a young man has managed to get his seminal fluid onto a girl’s breasts, he will very soon be planning to get it into somewhere else!

Q: I am a college girl of 18. Am I too young for the Shot?

A: Not at all. A great many young women of your age rely on the Shot (a.k.a ‘the Jab’).

But please be aware that it can have side effects, particularly on the menses. In fact, it often disrupts the periods quite a lot! Discuss these possible unwanted effects with the doctor before you go ahead with it.

Also, recent research indicates that quite a few young women forget that the effect of the Shot is only temporary. The most common type lasts for just 12 weeks, and then you have to have another one.

Some girls don’t get themselves the next injection and then find themselves pregnant. Don’t let that happen to you.

Q: I have to confess to you, Doc, that I am a guy who has masturbated quite a lot, over the last six years, since I was 13.

Will this harm me? I found an old medical book which said that masturbation makes it ‘difficult or impossible’ for a guy to have sex with women. Is that true?

A: No! It is foolishness – like a lot of the advice found in very old medical books.

Please forget your fears. You have not done your health any harm, so you can quit fretting.

– Email questions to Doc at saturdaylife@gleanerjm.com and read more in the Outlook Magazine tomorrow.