Put the Condom On Early

Sex can be a beautiful thing, and safe sex is that much more beautiful.  No matter what your partner tells you about his or her health, there is always the chance that something was missed or even, though no one wants to think so, that your partner is lying.  Emotions and hormones run high when you’re starting to get romantic with someone new.  That is why it is important to wear a condom from first contact through, not just for the final act. 

Foreplay is an important part of the sexual experience for most people, involving actions like kissing, touching, stroking, and petting.  It can be a danger to those who do not wear condoms from the beginning to the end.  During the arousal process it is fine to remain bare, but as soon as there is any contact whatsoever between the genital areas of partners, a condom should be involved as a safe barrier against disease and pregnancy. 

It is unlikely that a woman can get pregnant through the first moments of contact, however without a condom properly in place, it is not impossible, and is unsafe.  The more aroused a woman is, the more prepared her body is to carry a man’s sperm as far as it needs to go to get to the egg, and that can include sperm that is deposited just outside the vagina.  Besides, putting the condom on during the beginning of your foreplay saves you from having to interrupt yourself later on to go put it on, when things are hot and heavy.  During those moments right before intercourse, the temptation to forego condom use is greater, because you don’t want to ‘kill the mood’. Putting a condom on early on thus can be very helpful.

If you are thinking that this is irrelevant because the condom has been put on by the time that the man ejaculates, you are dead wrong.  Pre-cum, the little droplet of liquid at the tip of a man’s penis when he becomes aroused, can contain as many as 300,000 sperm per drop.  It only takes one to fertilize an egg, and even a brief contact between genitals can provide your reproductive systems with the chances that they need.  It may not be a huge chance, but it can happen.  Even worse is when a man enters the vagina before putting the condom on, pulling out to put it on before he actually achieves orgasm.  This is not safe. 

Not only is there a very real chance of pregnancy when a man enters a woman or makes contact with her vagina without a condom in place, there is also the risk of disease.  A partner might tell you that they are clean, and they might even fully believe it to be true, but even an STD screen can be inaccurate in that it takes some time for certain diseases to manifest and become testable.  It is also unlikely that your partner gets screened after each and every sexual contact, so a recent encounter that they thought was harmless could impact your life dramatically.

There is also the terrible chance that whoever you are with is lying about having been tested.  It is not unheard of for a man to say whatever he needs to say in the heat of the moment.  You should never have sex without actually seeing the STD screen results (and the date on those results), and even then, you should not have sexual contact of any kind without a condom in place.