Hi everyone. I'm a medical doctor and I wanted to comment on a very common misconception that I see on reddit.

I've seen a lot of posts from women (or from men about women) who believe that they are infertile and thus don't need to use any form of birth control. I've encountered women with PCOS, other hormone disorders, chronic endometritis, salpingitis, surgical adhesions, large fibroids, etc, etc who claim that "their doctor told them they can't get pregnant" so they don't need to use birth control.

Without getting into too many details, let me just bottom line this for everyone: IF A WOMAN HAS A UTERUS AND AT LEAST ONE OVARY, SHE CAN GET PREGNANT.

I don't want to assume dishonesty on the part of every single woman who claims "I don't need birth control because of my PCOS" but, as a physician, I can guarantee you that her doctor never told her that. She may have been advised that getting pregnant would be difficult, unlikely, or probably would need medical intervention, she may have been told that getting pregnant would be a very bad idea becaus it would entail additional risk. But no physician would tell a woman with a functioning ovary and uterus not to worry about birth control. Unless the woman in question has had a hysterectomy, bilateral oopherectomy, or bilateral tubal ligation - she needs to be on birth control if she's sexually active and not trying to have a baby.

Don't let an unwanted pregnancy happen to you. Contraception is the responsibility of both partners. Use a condom every time and make sure that your partner is also using effective contraception. If she's telling you "I don't need it because of my PCOS, leiomyomas, chronic endometritis" etc then she's either being dishonest with you or she didn't understand what her doctor told her. In either case, if you can't have a conversation with her about using effective contraception, then it's probably best to avoid having sex with that person.