By Fr. Kelvin Ugwu, MSP
Is it possible for a virgin to conceive without sexual intercourse?
Of course, the answer is yes.
But let us speak with facts, not emotions.
When a woman is ovulating, usually around the middle of a regular twenty eight day cycle, she releases an egg from the ovary. During this fertile window, the cervix produces what is called cervical mucus. This mucus is clear, slippery and elastic. Biologically, it is designed for two major purposes.
First, it helps sperm swim easily through the cervix toward the fallopian tube where fertilization takes place.
Second, it nourishes and protects sperm cells, allowing them to survive inside the female reproductive tract for up to four days. Yes, four days. That means sperm deposited on a Monday can still fertilize an egg released on Thursday or even on Friday.
Now here is the important part.
An average ejaculation contains between two hundred million and three hundred million sperm cells. You cannot see them with the naked eye. Only one is needed to fertilize an egg.
Penetration increases the likelihood of pregnancy, but pregnancy does not absolutely require penetration. If semen is deposited near the vaginal opening during a woman’s fertile period, sperm can swim through the cervical mucus into the reproductive tract. That is biology.
This is why doctors warn that “outercourse” or genital contact without penetration can still result in pregnancy if semen is present near the vulva. Some men have denied being responsible for a pregnancy because according to them, they did not put it inside. Well, sorry sir, you don’t need to put it in for it to go in.
There have also been documented cases of pregnancy without physical sexual contact between the two parties.
In 2014, a court case in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, drew attention when DNA testing confirmed a businessman as the father of a child born to a hotel worker. According to reports at the time, the woman claimed she retrieved semen from a used condom after the guest checked out and inserted it into herself. The court ordered a DNA test and the result reportedly showed a probability of paternity above 99.9 percent, which is the standard threshold used in modern DNA testing. Whether one agrees with the morality of the act or not, biologically it is possible. The man and woman did not have sexual intercourse in the conventional sense, they did not even meet each other, yet a pregnancy occurred.
In the next part, we shall look at IVF. Call your neighbors. We are heading somewhere. Don’t miss any part.
#PurestPurity
