To address the “Why withdrawal?” question, we asked the Glow community to weigh in.

In a poll that garnered 94,607 votes, the Glow Community opined that they believe people choose withdrawal because of how good it feels, in addition to the fact that it’s considered an “easy” birth control method (though it can be hard to do correctly!). Most medical professionals advise against using withdrawal for women who strongly want to avoid pregnancy, and Glow also recommends that women consider a more reliable birth control method. Also important to note that the withdrawal method does not prevent the spread of STIs.

For those who do choose withdrawal…

For women who do choose to use withdrawal as their primary birth control method, there are ways to maximize the method’s chances of preventing pregnancy, to make withdrawal both smarter and safer. Here are a few:

Scope Out Your Guy

Before you and your partner decide on withdrawal, there are a few important things to suss out.

How well does he know his body?

A guy’s gotta know his body real well if withdrawal’s gonna work. He needs to be able to pull out at exactly the right moment every. single. time. That’s tough! Especially for younger guys and those who don’t have a ton of sexual experience.

2. Does he have an STI?

Withdrawal can prevent pregnancy when done effectively, but it doesn’t prevent the spread of STIs. That said, a lot of methods without a hood don’t. Make sure your guy can produce a clean STI test before giving withdrawal a whirl.

3. Has he had sex since the last time he peed?

Some of the withdrawal skeptics are justified in their worry that precum can contain sperm…and thus, get you pregnant, even if withdrawal happens at the right time. Yes, precum can contain sperm. But the reality is that it’s unlikely. Sperm can get caught in the tip of a man’s penis after sex. Then once he pees, the sperm washes. So, your man’s precum will contain sperm if and only if he has had sex very recently and has not peed since then. Take that as you will…

4. Do you trust him?

A question to ask before you have sex with anyone!

And This One’s For The Girls

It’s not just on the guy’s shoulders to make withdrawal as safe as possible. There are things we can do to increase the method’s safety. The biggest tip? Get to know your own fertility.

Fertility fluctuates throughout the menstrual cycle; there are some days when likelihood of pregnancy is much higher than other days. If you know when those days are and take precautions (avoiding sex altogether, playing it safe with spermicide, having condoms and maybe even emergency contraception on hand, etc.), you can drastically reduce the risk of pregnancy. Sounds easy, right?

Ehh…not so much. The reality is that most women don’t actually know very much about their menstrual cycle and fertility. Our Glow data shows that a third of women are 6+ days off in estimating the length of their cycle; half of women are 4+ days off in estimating their cycle.

These mis-estimations can have major consequences. If we don’t have a good sense of when we’re ovulating (which is harder to tell than knowing when your period is, mind you!) then we don’t know when to take extra precautions during sex.

Knowing about your cycle is an important part of being empowered in any birth control situation, not just withdrawal. Take condoms, for example. The failure rate of condoms is ~17% for regular use — just one percentage point lower than the failure rate of withdrawal. So incorporating knowledge of one’s cycle into a birth control regimen, whether that is condom use, withdrawal, or some other form of contraception, can help you be confident that you’ll stay pregnancy-free.

Cycle tracker apps are one helpful way to gain awareness and stay diligent about one’s cycle. Many cycle tracker apps are available for free! We recommend using the Glow app or the Eve By Glow app ;)

The Takeaway

Choosing a birth control method is a complicated choice, dependent on a variety of factors specific to each woman at each stage in her life. Knowledge of our bodies is changing and evolving daily, and that which seems risky can become less so now with the use of technology.

For those opting for birth control methods like withdrawal or even condoms, apps that track your cycle can be great tools. More importantly, however, pairing technology with personal health tracking opens up new opportunities for women, and new security. That’s an advancement we certainly don’t want to pull out on.