Hi there,
There’s always a chance you could get pregnant any time you have sex. Contraceptives like condoms can really help reduce the chance, but there's still a small chance those things fail.
Pulling out - where his penis is not inside your vagina when he ejaculates - isn't a form of contraception and can't be relied on to stop pregnancy at all. If you think you might be pregnant, the best thing to do is to take a test.
There are lots of different types of pregnancy tests which can be a bit confusing, but they all work in mostly the same way. When you're pregnant there are some changes to the chemistry of your urine which can be detected by the tests. When you get the test you pee on it and if it detects these changes, you're pregnant.
Some tests work in the first few weeks of getting pregnant, but a lot aren't accurate until a month after you had sex. The best time to take a test is after you have missed a period.
You can get pregnancy tests free at your GP or sexual health clinics. The results will be confidential, unless the doctor thinks you're not able to understand what you're being told – but this is quite rare.
You can also buy pregnancy tests at most supermarkets or chemists. There’s no age limit to buy them and they usually cost from about £5 - but can cost as much as £15 or £20, especially if they are detecting the pregnancy earlier.
Pregnancy tests can sometimes give what's called a "false negative", which means it tells you you're not pregnant when you actually are. That’s why you should also take another test a few weeks later, just to make sure. Many tests come in packs of two so that you can do this.
It's quite rare for a test to give a false positive - where it says you are pregnant when you're not. Some tests show a positive result after a while no matter what, so make sure you read the instructions carefully and check the result at the right time.
If you are pregnant then you've got some decisions to make of whether you want to continue the pregnancy, or consider other options such as adoption or abortion.
If you have a trusted adult you could speak to, they could offer you support and advice. Or you can speak to a Childline counsellor confidentially - they won't judge or tell you what to do, but they can help you make the right decision for yourself. You can also speak to other young people on the Childline message boards too.
I hope this has helped, thanks for sharing.
Sam
