Is it possible for a girl to become pregnant before her first period?

Last updated on August 18, 2020

Question:

Hi!

I was wondering if it is possible for a girl to become pregnant before menarche (before she has her first period). My friend and I were fooling around and I fingered her, but I am curious. I realized that she has really minimal pubic hair and underarm hair. What are the symptoms of pre-teen pregnancy? Is it even possible?

Thank you so much. It is really nice of you to answer questions.

Answer:

A foolish woman is clamorous; she is simple, and knows nothing. For she sits at the door of her house, on a seat by the highest places of the city, to call to those who pass by, who go straight on their way: “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here”; and as for him who lacks understanding, she says to him, “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of hell” (Proverbs 9:13-18).

I am glad that you wrote for an answer, and I will answer, but this is one of those questions where I wish you and I were talking face to face because there seems to be so many things you don’t seem to understand. I’ll do the best that I can, but if something is unclear, please write back.

I’m going to be very blunt. What you did to this girl is a sin. In the older versions, it is called “fornication” but in newer translations, it is usually called “sexual immorality” or sometimes simply “immorality.” Fornication is engaging in sexual acts without being married. Even though you didn’t put your penis into her vagina, you were still engaged in an act of sex. It is called “foreplay” where touching or caressing another person’s body causes the body to prepare itself for sexual intercourse. Foreplay is an essential part of sexual relations, but it is supposed to be reserved for married couples. “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4). The reference to “bed” is a reference to a sexual act. Fornicators, such as yourself, will face the judgment of God. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).

Fornication will keep you out of heaven if you don’t stop the sin and starting living righteously. “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (I Corinthians 6:9-11). I’m praying that you seriously consider this, stop this sin, and become a true follower of Christ before it is eternally too late.

In regards to your question, two things must come about for a girl to become pregnant: your sperm must reach her vagina in some way and she must produce an egg within six days.

A girl can become pregnant before her first period because her first period comes two weeks after she releases her first egg. It is possible for a girl to become pregnant with her very first release of an egg, so long as there is sperm present when that event happens. The problem is that neither you nor she knows when that first release will take place.

Pregnancy for a girl just reaching her first menarche is dangerous. Her body has not completed all the changes needed to carry a child to term. Girls getting pregnant before the age of sixteen have a 400% higher chance of dying during childbirth and are much more likely to give birth prematurely.

A boy can father a child so long as one of his sperm reaches the egg on the day it is released. A man’s sperm can survive up to six days inside a woman. Therefore, so long as the sperm was placed anywhere within the six days prior to a woman’s egg release, she can potentially become pregnant. Most of your sperm is present in your semen. Each time you ejaculate the semen you release contains about a half-billion sperm. That semen doesn’t have to be delivered directly into the vagina to cause pregnancy; a little bit on your fingers or hers while you’re putting your finger in her vagina would be sufficient. In addition, the fluid that drips out of your penis prior to orgasm (what is called in slang “pre-cum”) can contain some sperm. That fluid place in or near the vagina has the potential to cause pregnancy, though at a far less probability.

As far as symptoms go, she probably won’t know until she starts to show, which is generally about half-way through a pregnancy. Most women realize they are pregnant because they missed their regular period. Since she hasn’t had one yet, there is none to miss.

Then we could also discuss sexually transmitted diseases. These are diseases passed along during sex because your penis and her vagina have only a thin layer of skin. Diseases are easily passed because the skin is unable to block them. Most of the diseases are passed by fluid contact — such as the fluid in her vagina or the fluids from your penis. A person willing to play around with sex without the commitment of marriage is highly likely to have multiple partners. Multiple partners makes the passing of diseases very rapid. Fingering is not a guarantee that a disease will not be passed along.