Can you be in a relationship if you’re not on birth control?
I’m 21 years old and just entered my first relationship with a 23 year old guy. We’ve been together for about 5 months and things are going great. We’re currently doing long distance during the school year (I’m in college and he graduated last year), but we see each other at least twice a month for a few days.
We’re going on vacation soon once the semester ends and I was telling my friends about it last night. One of my friends joked that I better not get pregnant, to which I laughed. Soon after, another friend asked if I was on birth control. I replied no, and everyone gasped. Personally, because this is a new relationship and we don’t even have sex nearly as often as other couples might due to the distance, I wasn’t exactly in a rush to go on birth control. Additionally, due to previous health issues, I’m a bit reluctant to go on birth control unless I absolutely have to (for menstrual reasons).
But their reactions made me think: is it really abnormal to be in a relationship and NOT be on birth control? My boyfriend and I always practice safe sex, and he’s never had any issue wearing a condom. In some occasions, we apply an additional layer of safety by pulling out even when wearing the condom (before he ejaculates of course). PIV is not the only form of pleasure in our sex life, and for a while early on in the relationship, we did a lot of other things and were left satisfied without intercourse. I also track my cycle aggressively and we’ve never had intercourse during the ovulation period. But is it enough? Are there any women out there who don’t use birth control or got off of it and have still experience a great sex life without scares?
EDIT: When I say “on birth control”, I mean the hormonal/non-hormonal methods of BC used by AFAB people (the pill, the IUD, the implant, etc). I have never heard someone say that they’re not on birth control referring to condoms 🤓