Yes, You Can Still Get Pregnant — Even If You’re “Leaking” After Sex

Trying to conceive is a total mind-game. You can Google literally anything — a cold, feeling emotional, a headache — and find a piece of advice somewhere that says this means you’re either ovulating, an egg is implanting in your uterus, or you’re pregnant. And when you really, really want to be pregnant, all of those little “signs” and “symptoms” will leave you reeling. It’s why women spend hours with their hips up on pillows after sex, willing the sperm to go where it needs to go. If you can do everything you can to get pregnant, why wouldn’t you, right?

Trying to conceive message boards are especially fraught with old wives’ tales and ideas, and a recurring one is that you should lift your legs and hips up after sex so all the sperm doesn’t “leak out.” Sex can be messy, and if you’ve noticed something leaking from your vagina after your partner ejaculates in you, you’ve probably panicked that all the sperm just went to waste. Good news: sperm are way faster than you think.

What leaks out of your vagina after sex?

Dr. Jamil Abdur-Rahman, OB-GYN, says that the fluid that sometimes leaks out after sex is called "post-ejaculate or ‘cowper's fluid.’” It's made by the bulbourethral glands — the cowper's glands that lie behind the urethra — so the fluid itself isn't semen. However, sperm cells remain in the urethra for hours after a man has ejaculated.

“And since this cowper's fluid flows through the urethra before exiting the penis, it frequently will get mixed with and then contain sperm cells. In fact, a recent study found that four hours after ejaculation, viable sperm cells are found in the urethra and the urethral fluids of 70 percent of men. So, while post-ejaculate cowper's fluid isn't semen, in most men, it definitely will contain sperm," Abudr-Rahman explains to Romper.

Can sperm just leak out of your vagina?

However, don’t worry if it seems like a lot of fluid leaks out after you have sex, you still could get pregnant. “On average, 100 million or so swimming sperm cells are found in seminal fluid,” Abdur-Rahman says. And all it takes is one. When your partner ejaculates, Dr. Christopher Sipe of Fertility Centers of Illinois says, even if fluid leaks out, his ejaculation already pushed the sperm through your vaginal canal. An article in Human Reproduction Update reported, “In the uterus, muscular contractions may enhance passage of sperm through the uterine cavity. A few thousand sperm swim through the uterotubal junctions to reach the Fallopian tubes.”

If you’re still skeptical and want to make absolutely sure, I’ve heard some women use menstrual cups after intercourse to make sure nothing leaks out. I thought that could cause a UTI, so I asked Dr. Abdur-Rahman. He says it won’t necessarily cause a UTI because “menstrual cups sit in the vagina away from the urethra. So, they should have no effect on the urinary tract. That being said, all women should urinate immediately after having intercourse. Women tend to get UTIs after intercourse because the repetitive back-and-forth motion of intercourse causes the bacteria normally found in and around the vagina, and on the skin around the vagina, to enter and then move up the urethra and into the bladder."

What should you do to make sure sperm goes where it needs to go?

As far as the menstrual cup helping sperm get to where they need to go, Abdur-Rahman says he could see it potentially being effective in certain cases where there is male factor infertility issues. “About 33% of infertile couples suffer from ‘male factor’ infertility, meaning it's the man who has the fertility issue. Most male factor infertility results from semen problems like a low sperm count, low semen volume, or poor sperm motility. In cases where a man has poor sperm quality, there often times isn't a lot of viable sperm cells to swim toward and fertilize an egg, there isn't enough seminal fluid for the sperm cells to swim in, or there aren't a lot of healthy sperm cells that are swimming vigorously and in the proper direction. So, for lack of better terms, in cases like these, you don't want to waste any of the sperm/semen that has been ejaculated since what is there is already, in some way, compromised.”

But he has a more effective idea than using the menstrual cup — a cervical diaphragm. “Cervical diaphragms sit right against the cervix. Using a cervical diaphragm might help to ensure the semen in the vagina that collects in the diaphragm — which is placed immediately adjacent to the cervix — stays close to and even in contact with the cervix. Ultimately after all, if sperm cells are going to fertilize an egg, they need to be in close contact with the cervix so that they can attach to it, swim through it, and then make their way to the egg located in the fallopian tubes.”

So that stuff that leaks out of your vagina after sex isn’t necessarily all of your partner’s sperm coming out, rendering your romp in the sheets useless. The sheer force of ejaculation should get those swimmers where they need to go to fertilize your egg. If you’re really worried, you can insert a diaphragm right after intercourse to help if your partner has a low sperm or motility count, but it’s not necessary. Just make sure you always pee after sex and keep trying.

Experts:

Dr. Jamil Abdur-Rahman, OB-GYN, TwinDoctorsTV

Dr. Christopher Sipe, Fertility Centers of Illinois