What is the likelihood of pregnancy or infection in the unlikely event that the male condom breaks?
If in fact the condom does break on one occasion it is unlikely that pregnancy will result. One survey found only one pregnancy reported for every 23 condoms breaks. Although the risk of pregnancy after condom breakage is small all women should be offered emergency contraception. The Yuzpe method and Plan B can reduce the average risk of pregnancy from eight to less than four percent depending on the time between unprotected intercourse and treatment. All women should be educated about emergency contraception when receiving contraceptive counselling. It has been estimated that the probability of HIV infection from a single exposure (post-ejaculatory condom break) ranges from 10 percent to less than 0.1%, depending on the type of transmission (male-to-male, male-to-female, and female-to-male) and the presence of genital ulcers.
