There is a question I get quite often, “When is it safe to have sex without contraception to avoid pregnancy?“. The simple answer is ‘when there are no eggs to fertilize or when there are no viable sperm to fertilize the egg’.
If you are relying on a natural way to prevent pregnancy after sex, unfortunately, there is no absolute period to have unprotected sex without getting pregnant. What this means is that we cannot be fully certain of any means of preventing pregnancy other than using contraceptives of any type.
To further answer the question of when it is safe to have sex without getting pregnant, we would first need to learn more about the physiology of pregnancy and menstruation, which is what I will be discussing in this post.
Without further ado, let’s hop right in.
What is the Physiology of Pregnancy
Pregnancy is a physiological state following the fertilization of a female egg, otherwise referred to as ovum, but sperm from a man. This process requires active transport of sperm after ejaculation from the vagina, through the uterus, and into a special tube called the fallopian tube, connecting the uterus (womb) to the ovaries.
On getting to the fallopian tube, sperm meets with an ovum released from the ovaries after ovulation in the woman and fuses with it to form the early embryo which is the beginning of pregnancy.
Understanding the process of sperm migration, fertilization, and how long it takes for these to occur can help you time sexual intercourse to control when you get pregnant or increase your likelihood of achieving pregnancy after intercourse. This is usually in relation to the menstrual cycle as you would see next.
The Menstrual Cycle
The menstrual cycle is a cyclical event in every woman’s life which starts around the age of puberty. It is also a physiological event which means it is normal and not related to any disease or pathology.
The menstrual cycle involves periodic building and shedding of the endometrial lining of a woman’s uterus (womb) with accompanying changes in the ovaries and development of the ovum which is released at ovulation. The menstrual period or menstruation marks the beginning of the menstrual cycle.[1]Your menstrual cycle | Office on Women’s Health
The significance of these is that menstrual cycle events are accurately timed for every woman with minor variations from woman to woman, which also means that by carefully understanding these events, one can understand which phase of the cycle is considered safe or fertile for pregnancy.
Most women have a menstrual cycle of 28 ± 7 days, with a flow duration of about 2-7 days and a flow volume of 20-70ml of menstrual blood through the period duration. In a woman with an already established menstrual cycle, any deviation from these or what she normally experiences can be considered a sign of disease or abnormality.
When Is It Safe to Have Sex Without Getting Pregnant?
Again, there is no absolute time to have sex without getting pregnant but you may be able to have your way with the safe periods. The safe periods are arbitrary times in a woman’s menstrual cycle when she is least likely to conceive if she engages in sexual intercourse. But they are not foolproof in preventing pregnancy after sexual intercourse.
The safe period is based on the assumption that periods away from the ovulation period, (which occurs around day 12-16 of the menstrual cycle) are relatively safe to prevent pregnancy. This includes the menstrual period itself, from day 1 to day 7. During this period, no mature ovum has been released for fertilization but it is worth noting that sperm can stay viable for up to 7 days within the woman’s reproductive tract.
Day 8-11 is also considered relatively safe to avoid pregnancy because ovulation has likely not occurred by then. However, the risk of getting pregnant is higher as sperm can stay viable for an average of 7 days within the woman’s genital tract.
Between days 17 to 28 (which marks the end of the cycle) are considered the safest period to have sex without getting pregnant. This is because the egg may have become non-viable if not fertilized within 12 to 24 hours after ovulation.[2]Ovulation and conception | The Royal Women’s Hospital
Despite these, none of these can guarantee that you will not get pregnant without contraception. Even contraceptives have their failure rates too.
Safer Way to Prevent Pregnancy After Sex
If you are unable to abstain from sex with your partner, here are safer ways to prevent pregnancy after sex with your partner.
- Use a contraceptive: Options include barrier (condom, IUCDs, etc), hormonal (injectables, oral pills, and implants), and so on.[3]Family planning/contraception methods
- If you didn’t use a contraceptive before engaging in sex with your partner, emergency contraceptive options can help prevent pregnancy.
The emergency contractive options include the emergency contraceptive pill, popularly branded as Postinor, and Intra-uterine contraceptive devices (IUDs).
The emergency contraceptive pill, Levonorgestrel (Postinor®), is a progestogen hormonal pill that can prevent pregnancy when taken within 72 hours after sex. It acts by inhibiting sperm movement towards the released ovum, thus preventing fertilization and pregnancy.[4]How to take POSTINOR? – Postinor It has an effectiveness rate of Postinor has an effectiveness rate of 85%.
Postinor comes as single or two-tablet dosing pills. For the one-tablet pill, you take it within 72 hours after sex, while for the two-tablet variant, you take the second tablet exactly 12 hours after the first. For effectiveness, Postinor should be used as early as possible after sex. It is not intended as a regular method of contraception.
On the other hand, IUDs e.g., Mirena®, when inserted into the woman’s uterus within 5 days of unprotected sexual intercourse can lower your chances of getting pregnant by over 99.9%, thus making it the most effective method of emergency contraceptive currently available.
Preparing for the Worst
If you are trying to get pregnant, pregnancy becomes the desired outcome but if you are trying to prevent it, it becomes the worst. While looking for when it is safe to have sex without getting pregnant, or considering options of contraception, it is also necessary to prepare for the worst in case pregnancy comes.
Each method of contraception has its failure rate even when used correctly. Postinor has an effectiveness rate of 85% and this may also be affected by how long after sex it was taken.
This means that if you must engage in sex, it is only a sign of responsibility that you prepare your mind for the outcome of sex, which is pregnancy. This is also not to mention that you also need to protect yourself against sexually transmitted diseases like HIV and Gonorrhea.
The concept of Safe sex or Safer sex, emphasizes protecting yourself and your partner from sexually transmitted diseases, and it includes being faithful and having a faithful sexual partner, as well as getting tested for STIs before engaging in sex with a new partner.
Final words
Again, there is no absolute safe period in a woman’s menstrual cycle to avoid pregnancy after sex. However, some periods (commonly referred to as safe periods) confer relatively lower chances of achieving pregnancy.
If you want to prevent pregnancy after sex, you should first consider pre-exposure contraceptive options (barrier, pills, injectables, as discussed above). If you missed your pre-exposure contraceptive, the emergency contraceptive pill or the IUCDs can help prevent pregnancy after sex.
