Birth Control: Methods for People with Penises

Often when conversations are had about birth control, they tend to focus on the person with the uterus. You’ll hear discussions about pills, IUDs, Plan B, or even the sexual behaviours of a person with a uterus before the conversation includes what people with penises can do to prevent pregnancy. While it is important for everyone to know what pregnancy prevention options are available regardless of what reproductive organs they have, this topic will explore what options are available to folks with penises specifically.

Physical Barriers – physical barriers like condoms already exist and are pretty commonly used as a pregnancy prevention option. We’ve talked about them in other topics already, but if you need a refresher check out our External Condom info page. For a bit more detail on how these work, check out our guide How To Use External Condoms.

Withdrawal – withdrawal is an option we’ve mentioned in other birth control topics too. It involves taking your penis out of someone’s vagina prior to ejaculation. There’s more info on our withdrawal info page, and we answer some frequently asked questions about withdrawal here.

Surgical Intervention – surgery is another option for pregnancy prevention. The operation for people with testicles is called a vasectomy. Essentially it stops sperm coming out with semen during ejaculation. Learn more about them here on our sterilization methods info page.

Communication – communication is something that comes up throughout this course with good reason. Any sexual activity should have at least some communication before it happens to ensure everyone’s comfort and safety, and that includes talking about what pregnancy preventions everyone is comfortable with.

While this is a short list of what’s out there, we’ve written about a lot more that’s in the works on our blog post: Where’s All The Birth Control for People with Penises? Check it out!