The big lie of the condom industry is just what we have most believed
Who will talk bad about condoms? In the popular imagination, condoms are something like the Night Watch of contraception; courageous soldiers guarding the Wall and preventing, even with their lives, white walkers from entering the fertile lands of the south.
And, hey, how it bothers me. I do not say that condoms are not a revolutionary invention: if we have been inserting penises in cases since 1855, it is for very good reasons. What I'm saying is that drawing the condom as the great contraceptive method is a mistake . Among other things, because they are not.
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Put it on, put it on him
Not knowing how the condom is going is not something of millennials. It is something inherent to sex education campaigns of recent decades. There is a very famous scene in Friends in which, finally, Ross discovers that condoms are not 100% effective .
I imagine a lot of people saying "What? 97% percent?" while they watched the chapter in their house. And worst of all, the really bad thing is that it's not true either. No, condoms are not effective 97 percent of the time .
Do you know why? Because we who practice sex are, until proven otherwise, human beings. And human beings (especially when we go to the eyebrows of dopamine, oxytocin and adrenaline) make mistakes . Errors the size of a grand piano, many times.
Therefore, when we look at contraceptive methods we have to study, we always work with two numbers: the one of the 'effectiveness' perfect and the one of the 'effectiveness' of habitual use . When we talk about the fact that the condom has an effectiveness of 97 or 98% we are talking about its effectiveness of perfect use. That is, if we did everything with the precision and reliability of a Swiss watch, in 2 of every 100 uses there would be a pregnancy.
The terrible (and very comforting) truth of the condom
The problem is that ideal use only occurs in the house of the jelly, street of the lollipop . We know this in good faith: systematic evaluations of contraceptive methods are carried out every so often. Basically, a hundred women are taken at random and monitored while using a particular contraceptive method for one year.
The result is that the condom, in its actual use, has a Pearl Index between 15 and 18 . That is, between 15 and 18 out of every 100 women who opt for this contraceptive method will become pregnant.
Condoms
Condoms that slip off the penis after the ejaculate; condoms that are broken by misuse or damage when removed from the package; prophylactic in poor conditions after languishing for months in a portfolio or that are easily degraded by undesirable products. The failure of this contraceptive method, such as being in Aristotle , "is said in many ways." But the result is the same, the normal use of condoms in an industrialized society shows rates close to 20 percent .
I go further. Although we are tired of repeating that the 'reverse' is a bad contraceptive method their rates are not as bad as we might expect : the perfect use is at an index of 4 (only two more than the condom) and the usual use is between 22 and 27. Much closer to the condom indices than the rates of not using any contraceptive method (which is around 85).
When fears make us wrong
Do you know what happens? I know this is unpopular, but the truth is that condoms are not a great contraceptive method . You only have to see other methods to prove it: Progestogen implants have a usual Pearl Index of 0.05 and the IUD, although it can fall, has a 0.8. The condom is so popular because it is quite effective, it is cheap, it is easy to use, it does not usually have side effects and, above all, because it is a barrier method.
That is, well used, it is essential to prevent sexually transmitted diseases . In fact, by eliminating abstinence, it is probably the most effective method against STDs. And we say little. When you work with young people , you usually come across the idea that the condom is good for not getting pregnant and that is a very big problem.
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That idea is what makes women pressured to consume the contraceptive pill or the one that has historically homosexual relationships have had higher than average risk rates. When we face sex, we focus on reducing the risk of pregnancy while we completely pass the risk of disease.
That is to say, the fucking reality is that we are more afraid of getting pregnant than of catching a sexually transmitted disease . And that, consciously or unconsciously, is causing us to use strategies to promote safe sex that over time turn against us.
The "without-condom", the "is-not-sorry-the-same", the "for-a-time-no-happens-nothing" live from that confusion: that the important thing is pregnancy. And not. So yes, put it on, put it on. But let it be for the right reason.
How does a male condom work?
Condoms create a physical barrier, stop the sperm from reaching the egg to prevent fertilization. If used correctly it has a 98% effectiveness. This means that only two out of every 100 women will get pregnant in a year. A condom should not be used more than once. The couple must use a new one every time they have sex.
It is important to know that lubricants can make latex condoms less effective, but it is safe to use them with condoms made of polyurethane or polyisoprene. Water-based lubricants are the safest, are available in pharmacies and sexual health clinics, can be used with all condoms, including latex.
Some male condoms come with spermicide. Spermicide is a chemical that kills sperm in the vagina and prevents sperm from entering the cervix. These condoms with spermicide have been slowly eliminating, research has found that a spermicide called Nonoxynol 9 does not protect against STIs like Chlamydia and HIV, and may even increase the risk of infection. Nonoxynol 9 can also cause vaginal irritation for some women, which can increase susceptibility to infections. may also cause vaginal irritation for some women, which can increase their susceptibility to infections. It is best to avoid the use of condoms lubricated with spermicides, or spermicide as an additional lubricant.