History Main / ButWeUsedACondom

'''Rachel:''' I know, I know. But you know, condoms only work like… 97% of the time.\\

* In ''Fanfic/APrizeForThreeEmpires'', ComicBook/CarolDanvers can't believe it when she is said she is pregnant. She had been on the pill, her lover had used protection, and he has been dead for longer than she had been pregnant.

* And of course, heavy overuse of the LawOfInverseFertility, failing to take into account that even with no birth control at all, and with a perfectly fertile couple, the likelihood of a sexual encounter resulting in pregnancy is lesser than not resulting in it.

* ''Theatre/IfThen'': When [[spoiler:Liz]] tells [[spoiler:Josh]] that she's pregnant, he's shocked because they were very safe. She replies that using New York t condoms may not have been as safe.

* They might forget that people with uteruses [[note]]cisgender women and transgender men who have not (yet) transitioned[[/note]] can use contraception, too, and that many of those methods can be used in conjunction with a condom to even ''further'' lower the likelihood of a pregnancy -- even physical methods inserted into the cervix like contraceptive film or an interuterine device. That can bring the likelihood down to near-zero -- not nearly enough for the trope to work.

* ''Theatre/IfThen'': When [[spoiler:Liz]] tells [[spoiler:Josh]] that she's pregnant, he's shocked because they were very safe. She replies that using New York Transit condoms may not have been as safe.

* They might forget that people with uteruses [[note]]cisgender women and trans men who have not (yet) transitioned[[/note]] can use contraception, too, and that many of those methods can be used in conjunction with a condom to even ''further'' lower the likelihood of a pregnancy -- even physical methods inserted into the cervix like contraceptive film or an interuterine device. That can bring the likelihood down to near-zero -- not nearly enough for the trope to work.

* They might forget that people with uteruses can use contraception, too, and that many of those methods can be used in conjunction with a condom to even ''further'' lower the likelihood of a pregnancy -- even physical methods inserted into the cervix like contraceptive film or an interuterine device. That can bring the likelihood down to near-zero -- not nearly enough for the trope to work.

* ''FanFic/LoveCanSurpriseYouAtAnyTimeInYourLife'': Leela notes that Lars did use a condom on the only night they had sex. The fact this was the only time she got pregnant despite her former boyfriends having been far less savvy (Sean having reused condoms and Fry thinking her contraceptive pills were candy) has her wonder if she was "meant" to be pregnant from Lars specifically.

* They might throw around a statistic of condom failure rates, citing a "perfect" use failure rate of 2-3% and a "typical" use failure rate as high as 15-20%. This is generally misunderstood for a variety of reasons. First, this failure rate is not for a single sexual encounter, but for repeated use over the course of a whole ''year''. Second, some people freak out over the the term "perfect use" - because nobody's perfect, right? However, in this context, "perfect" just means correctly and consistently -- ''e.g.'' you know not to reuse condoms, you don't use oil-based lube with a latex condom, you don't use it if it's expired, and you don't use more than one at once. Most importantly, to be effective, condoms must be worn ''every time'', for the ''entire time''. The "typical use" stat includes couples who put one on partway through the act or even neglected to put one on at all. Of course, it's possible the couple [[MissConception never had proper sex ed]] (or are just plain stupid) and didn't know how to use a condom "perfectly" anyway, making it a bit more understandable how it would have failed.

* In ''Manga/MidnightSecretary'', both Kyouhei and Kaya are very careful on not getting Kaya pregnant. When Kaya thinks she is pregnant because she was missing her periods, she thinks this. [[spoiler:First time, she isn't. Second time, however, they forgot the condom]].

* In ''Fanfic/MGLNCrisis'': Amy mentioned that she was on birth control when she got pregnant. She suspects that [[IWantGrandkids Lindy]] might have swapped it out with sugar pills, since Midchildan birth control is explicitly magical and has 100% effectiveness.

* The Icelandlic movie ''101 Reykjavík'' features a scene, where protagonist Hlynur writes that sentence on a mirror at his pregnant girlfriend's parents' house. He is obviously not excited about the pregnancy (the parents had invited him over out of friendliness unbeknownst that their daughter is pregnant). [[spoiler:He and the girl split very soon and it turns out that he might not have been the father. She also aborts and ends up with his best friend.]]

* ''Film/CabinFever'': Inverted. In the midst of a deadly disease outbreak, one of the main characters flees into the forest alone, abandoning his girlfriend, leaving her and his best friend as the last two healthy people left in the cabin. Within minutes, the aforementioned sexpot girlfriend is locked in an unbridled sexual fling with the friend. Mid-coitus, he makes a point of expressing his unease that they aren't using a condom and the woman dismissively claims that it's okay because she's healthy. Meanwhile, as the man embraces her, his hands bring out telltale rashes on her back, revealing that she is indeed infected with the disease. Sure enough, we later discover she passed it onto her bareback lover.

* ''Film/LookBothWays2022'': fter Natalie reveals that Gabe knocked her up, both of them note that they used protection.

* A young Native American lad came home from school one day in tears. When his father asked what was wrong, the young lad lashed out against his father for giving him [[EmbarrassingFirstName such a horrible name]]. His father explained that it was the tradition of their tribe to name ones children [[MeaningfulName after the circumstances in which they were conceived]]. "For example, your sister was conceived during an autumn sunrise, so we named her Autumn Sunrise. Your brother was conceived during a raging thunderstorm, so we named him Raging Thunderstorm. "Ah," said the young lad, "So that's how it's done." His father replied, "Yes, Broken Rubber, that's how it's done."

* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'': A high tech variant of the concept is what causes the conception of Raoul Alexander-Harrington. Female members of the Royal Manticoran Navy have contraceptive implants since health and safety laws preclude pregnant woman serving in orbital and space based positions. They're supposed to be replaced regularly but Honor's wasn't due to a paperwork error caused when she was presumed dead for a period.

* ''Literature/TheFifthElephant'' by Creator/TerryPratchett: The trope is subverted; Reg Shoe investigates the murder of a man who made condoms and while talking with one of the employees, the employee says, "The Watch gets free ones, Mr Sonky was happy to have less coppers." (paraphrase). What happens to Sam Vimes towards the end of this very book makes this sub-plot even more amusing in retrospect.

* ''[[Literature/AliceSeries Almost Alice]]'' has Pamela reveal to her friends that she might be pregnant, due to her period being two weeks late. Funnily enough, it's ''Elizabeth'' who spouts the "But you said you were using condoms!" lines. Turns out that Pamela, being very busy with practices for their highschool performance, had appeased her feeling-left-out boyfriend by [[IdiotBall sleeping with him without any protection, but says that it was 'still five days before the middle of her period']]. [[spoiler: She ends up having a ConvenientMiscarriage a few weeks later, before she could really decide what to do.]]
* Played with in the first ''Starship Troupers'' novel by Christopher Stasheff. The main character is escaping a ShotgunWedding, and notes that the would-be-bride must not only have deliberately not taken a guaranteed birth-control pill (or taken the I Changed My Mind Pill), but must have been taking something that counteracted ''his'' pill as well.

** In one episode, Ross gets Rachel pregnant and they provide the page quotes at the top. They were both drinking the night of conception, and Monica later claims they used a "five year old" condom, making it definitely ''not'' a case of "perfect use."

** Snake and Spike were "taking precautions" while they dated and Spike still ended up pregnant (her second unplanned pregnancy to boot). In this one there was no explanation beyond "well, birth control isn't 100% effective."

--> '''Roz:''' The best birth control in the world's only effective 99 times out of 100... [[ReallyGetsAround I can't beat those odds!]]

** Overplayed for laughs in another situation with Elliot wanting to [[KinkyRolePlaying roleplay]] that they were trying to get a baby. Unfortunately for her, her boyfriend isn't into the idea at all, and uses ''three'' condoms PlayedForLaughs. In reality, using multiple condoms actually ''reduces'' the safety!

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' had a futuristic equivalent, where Kasidy Yates' conception was blamed on Sisko "forgetting to get his injection", though technically they both forgot despite the doctor reminding Sisko about it. It leads to some FridgeLogic that there wouldn't be a more sure-fire reliably method of birth-control in the 24th Century...

* Hilariously used in a season 3 episode of ''Series/QueerAsFolkUS'', in which [[spoiler:Hunter, a teenaged former prostitute, has sex with a former police officer to get his DNA and prove that he killed another prostitute]].

** Dodge's birth is the result of failed birth control. Joy keeps changing her story throughout the series: one episode she says it's because of a broken condom, another she says it's because she hadn't quite gotten the hang of using her diaphragm properly, yet another says it's because she didn't use any protection at all. She was a bit hazy on the details because she was drunk when it happened, and also because she's afraid of the father. She thinks the father of her child is [[AxCrazy Li'l Chubby]], because he was wearing a skeleton costume at a Halloween party, as was the man she slept with that night... who turns out to be [[spoiler: Earl]].
** In another episode, Earl (then about 12-14 years old) had a crush on his babysitter, and then found out she had a boyfriend. While the babysitter and the boyfriend had sex on the couch, Earl reached into the boyfriend's discarded pants to steal money... and then found a condom and poked several holes in it. The babysitter became pregnant, had a ShotgunWedding to her boyfriend, and gave birth right at the wedding reception. Surprisingly, they were still together some 20-odd years later, and Earl helped their ManChild son grow up. Or rather, ''Randy'' did.

* ''{{Series/Catastrophe}}'': {{Subverted|Trope}}. According to Sharon they had sex around twenty five times, while only using a condom maybe twice. Sharon chides Rob for thinking this wouldn't happen.

* In the Brazilian soap opera ''Um Anjo Caiu do Céu", an angel named Rafael has sex with three girls and all of them became pregnant as a result. When he complains that he used condoms, his superiors berate him for forgetting angel sperm is too powerful for them.

* ''Series/AFrenchVillage'': Kurt expresses surprise when Lucienne gets pregnant, because he says they'd been so careful about things.

* There is a mod for ''VideoGame/TheSims4'' called Wicked Whims which adds explicit sex to the game (rather then the base game's PG-13 version). It also tries to create a fairly realistic pregnancy system and actually handles this trope fairly well: All types of birth control have a very small chance of failing, but since this mod also simulates the menstrual cycle with a Sims pregnancy chance going up and down across the duration this doesn't actually mean a Sims is guaranteed to get pregnant if something does go wrong.

* In ''WebComic/KevinAndKell'' Lindesfarne and Fenton are surprised to find out they're expecting (with Turvy), since they've been using protection. Then they remembered something: Lindesfarne's a ''hedgehog''. A puncture was bound to happen sooner or later. The look on Lindesfarne's face when she realizes that makes the scene.
** Averted with Leona and Carl in regards to the conception of their first child, Savanna. While Lindesfarne said in her FourthWallMailSlot that it was unexpected, there's no evidence that they were trying ''not'' to. Being [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic in lockdown]] immediately after their honeymoon, they pretty much treated it as an extended honeymoon.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'', Amber finds out she's pregnant with Mike's child. And is confused since she's been taking her birth controls pills faithfully. Turns out Robin thought they were mints, and had been sneaking them and replacing them with actual mints. [[MST3KMantra Best not to think too much on the logic of that scenario.]]

* While ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' has its fair share of pregnant characters, only one actually invokes this trope. Elsie Darroch was shocked to discover she was pregnant after having had sex with her boyfriend, Matt Vreeland, because they had used a condom, both of them unaware that it had broken. When she brought it up to Matt, he had the cliché response of denying it, calling her a whore, and breaking up with her. She's also a rare "pregnant" character in that she's the only one so far that's been abducted early in the pregnancy, before they've started "showing".

* ''WesternAnimation/FIsForFamily'': Season 2 ends with a shot of Smokey poking holes in random condoms before he refills the dispensers just for laughs, which directly results in Sue getting pregnant since she and Frank had been using that condom brand while he was working for Smokey. In season 3 and 4, there are several scenes showing a large increase in pregnancies in Smokey's neighborhood as well.

* They might throw around a statistic of condom failure rates, citing a "perfect" use failure rate of 2-3% and a "typical" use failure rate as high as 15-20%. This is generally misunderstood for a variety of reasons. First, this failure rate is not for a single sexual encounter, but for repeated use over the course of a whole ''year''. Second, some people freak out over the the term "perfect use" - because nobody's perfect, right? However, in this context, "perfect" just means correctly and consistently -- ''e.g.'' you know not to reuse condoms, you don't use oil-based lube with a latex condom, you don't use it if it's expired, and you don't use more than one at once. Most importantly, to be effective, condoms must be worn ''every time'', for the ''entire time''. The "typical use" stat includes couples who put one on partway through the act or even neglected to put one on at all.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Former Music/HelloProject and Morning Musume member Tsuji Nozomi invoked this trope when announcing her pregnancy and subsequent engagement to Sugiura Taiyo (a.k.a. the actor who played Haruno Musashi/Ultraman Cosmos in ''Series/UltramanCosmos'').
[[/folder]]

* In ''Webcomic/DocRat'', Daniella got pregnant shortly after she and Ben got married. [[WeddingEnhancedFertility Even though she was on the Pill]].

* Hilariously used in a season 3 episode of ''Series/QueerAsFolk'', in which [[spoiler:Hunter, a teenaged former prostitute, has sex with a former police officer to get his DNA and prove that he killed another prostitute]].

* ''Manga/DomesticGirlfriend'': [[spoiler: Natsuo visits Rui in New York]] and they have sex using condoms that later turn out to have been defective afer she ends up getting pregnant.

* They might throw around a statistic of condom failure rates, citing a "perfect" use failure rate of 3% and a "typical" use failure rate as high as 15-20%. This is generally misunderstood for a variety of reasons. First, this failure rate is not for a single sexual encounter, but for repeated use over the course of a whole ''year''. Second, "perfect" just means "[[ReadTheFreakingManual follows directions]]" -- ''e.g.'' you know not to reuse condoms, you don't use oil-based lube with a latex condom, you don't use it if it's expired, and you don't use more than one at once. Most importantly, "perfect" means "uses it ''the whole time''"; "typical" usage takes into account people who put it on incorrectly or forget to do it to begin with. "Perfect" implies that you have to be an expert at sex, and nobody's perfect, so people freak out about that.
* They might forget that women can use contraception, too, and that many of those methods can be used in conjunction with a condom to even ''further'' lower the likelihood of a pregnancy -- even physical methods inserted into the cervix like contraceptive film or an interuterine device. That can bring the likelihood down to near-zero -- not nearly enough for the trope to work.

* ''Film/CabinFever'': Inverted. In the midst of a deadly disease outbreak, one of the main characters flees into the forest alone, abandoning his girlfriend, leaving her and his best friend as the last two healthy people left in the cabin. Within minutes, the aforementioned sexpot girlfriend is locked in an unbridled sexual fling with the friend. Mid-coitus, he makes a point of expressing his unease that they aren't using a condom and the woman dismissively claims that it's okay because she's healthy. Meanwhile, as the man embraces her, his hands bring out telltale rashes on her back, revealing that she is indeed infected with the disease. Sure enough, we later discover she [[DeathBySex passed it onto her bareback lover]].

The bottom line: not everybody is careful in using this trope; when overused, it feels like the characters CantGetAwayWithNuthin and just aren't allowed to have a little fun. And the PopCulturalOsmosis from it leads to a greater mistrust of contraception from the general public than is warranted, which unfortunately plays right into the hands of the abstinence-only crowd -- after all, the only 100% guaranteed method not to get pregnant (well, outside of the MysticalPregnancy) is not to have sex at all.

* A ''ComicBook/{{Chick Tract|s}}'' on the dangers of premarital sex had a character use birth control and a condom, which she obtained from a neighbor (prescription? what prescription?) but worry nevertheless that she was pregnant. She turned out not to be, but she managed to pick up both a case of the clap and HIV. Also a case of ArtisticLicenseBiology, since it pushes the spurious claim that HIV can pass right through latex. [[note]]It also conflates AIDS and HIV (AIDS is caused by HIV but does not set in until some time, often years, after the infection has wreaked havoc on the patient's immune system). At the time of its writing, HIV could not be diagnosed until almost three months after exposure; ScienceMarchesOn and diagnosis within four weeks is now possible.[[/note]]

** Overplayed for laughs in another situation with Elliot wanting to roleplay that they were trying to get a baby. Unfortunately for her, her boyfriend isn't into the idea at all, and uses ''three'' condoms PlayedForLaughs. In reality, using multiple condoms actually ''reduces'' the safety!

* Invoked with Rose Walker in ''ComicBook/TheSandman''. While in England, she has a one-night stand with her family's new solicitor. She mentions a few issues later that she's pregnant, and when her friend asks if she didn't use a condom, Rose says they ''did''; actually, they used several, but she didn't use any spermicide and one of them broke.