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If you're sexually active, pregnancy is a possibility with some activities where sperm and the vagina come in close contact. Birth control can help lower the risk of pregnancy. But the only birth control method that is 100% effective is abstinence!
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To get pregnant, a male's sperm must make its way into your vagina and into the fallopian tubes. There, it must meet and penetrate the outer wall of an egg that is making its monthly trip down the tubes to the uterus--this is called fertilization. The fertilized egg then settles in the uterus to grow.
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Pregnancy happens most often through vaginal intercourse, when a man's ejaculation sends millions of sperm into the vagina. It can happen even if a man pulls out early, since semen is also present in pre-ejaculate fluid (the stuff that comes out of the penis before he comes).
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It is also possible to get pregnant if a man spills sperm near the opening of the vagina, either through ejaculation or pre-ejaculate fluid, and just one sperm makes its way into the vagina to an egg.
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You can get pregnant anytime there is a possibility that a sperm can fertilize one of your eggs. Eggs are available for fertilization during and right after ovulation, and sperm can live inside you for up to five or even seven days. So it's possible to get pregnant anytime during a window of about nine days. Hardly anyone has a completely regular cycle, and younger women usually have more irregular cycles, so it's tricky figuring out when you are the least fertile.
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Early pregnancy symptoms usually appear about two weeks after conception. They can include a missed period, tender breasts, bloating, nausea, fatigue, increased or decreased appetite, frequent urination and/or lightheadedness.
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While stress and other factors may cause a delayed period, if you have light spotting or no period AND other symptoms, take a pregnancy test ASAP--you may be pregnant. If the result is positive, or if you want to double-check a negative result, the next step is to head to the doctor for a definitive pregnancy test.
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If you find yourself pregnant, you've got a very serious situation on your hands and a few options to consider: keeping the baby, adoption or abortion. It is your body and your decision to make, based on your own personal circumstances.
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According to statistics provided by SIECUS (Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States), the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world. It is twice Great Britain's rate and 15 times the rate in Japan.
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Among teenagers, 85 percent of all pregnancies are unintended, and half of all first-time teen pregnancies occur within six months of a girl's first experience of intercourse.
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