I don’t want to step on any toes and I try to avoid making proclamations, but every time I read a post in which somebody mentions or suggests or relates a story involving anal sex as a form of birth control, it makes me uncomfortable.
Of course, in many societies anal sex IS a form of birth control and may be the only form of birth control available to some people other than abstinence.
There is a special name for the practitioners of anal sex as birth control. They are called “parents”.
Anal sex is not an effective form of birth control. It is sort of like playing a reverse lottery – most of the time you won’t get a winning ticket or get pregnant, but every now and then you will “win” (or “lose”).
Of course, a woman is tremendously less likely to become pregnant through anal sex compared to vaginal sex, but it can still happen.
In fact, in porn, it is not uncommon for a man to penetrate anally, but then orgasm outside (probably for the benefit of the cameras) and onto the woman’s vaginal area – and then also possibly insert vaginally . Such demonstrations may be training younger men and women (i.e. those with less life experience and less understanding that what they see in porn is not always what it seems to be) that anal sex is a way to not become pregnant.
There have to be lots (probably millions over some period of time, worldwide) of babies conceived as a “side effect” of anal sex. One load of ejaculate contains millions of “swimmers” and it only takes one “swimmer” to get somewhere it was not intended to be. That can happen easily in many ways. For example, after orgasm in the ass, the man could penetrate vaginally – another bad idea without a thorough washing – and carry some sperm deep into the vagina. It only takes ONE!
My point is that responsible AO folks, such as the great people that hang out here, should probably avoid saying anything that could be interpreted (especially by young people who may not be so bright) to suggest that anal sex is an “appropriate” form of birth control. Because it is only an appropriate form of birth control if the couple does not mind getting pregnant.
I fully understand that nobody here is outright suggesting that anal sex should be a form of birth control (even though that is practiced / has been the practice in many times and places). However, I think we should temper what we choose to say, or if the subject does come up, we should qualify what we say to recognize (with the inexperienced reader in mind) that we don’t recommend anal sex as a form of birth control.
I hope I have not stirred up a hornets nest. I avoided commenting on this for a while, but it kept weighing on my mind.
Fortunately, my wife is older (as am I) and thus we don’t have to be concerned about pregnancy. However, I don’t know how I would have handled the situation if many years ago I had been with a woman, of child-bearing age, who liked anal sex… A condom wrecks the anal experience for me, but a great way to have had ED would have been to be worried about getting my partner pregnant.
Speaking of “many years ago”, I just wished that I had understood back then what I understand now about men, women, sex, and relationships. I would have been a much better person for having that knowledge and I would have had a whole lot more sex! If travel back in time is ever invented, that just might be the inventor’s motivation.
Thank you to the creators of this site and the kind folks that populate it. When are going to have our first annual convention?