Extra Wetness Eases Condom Breakage
Extra lubrication
with spermicide reduces condom breakage and the risk of infection with
sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, a British researcher said
Friday at the 14th International AIDS Conference.
Furthermore,
said Mark Gabbay of the University of Liverpool, the extra wetness significantly
increases pleasure for both men and women.
"Acceptable
and effective additional lubrication will boost condom popularity," Gabbay
told conference attendees, which in turn will help to reduce HIV transmission
because more people will use condoms. He said condom failures potentially
expose couples around the world to more than 255 million pregnancies and
sexually transmitted diseases every year.
The researchers
followed 145 heterosexual couples, who used 12,530 condoms during the study,
Gabbay said. Very few of the condoms in the study broke, Gabbay said, but
more than twice as many failed in the group that did not use extra lubrication.
Physician Ronald
Valdiserri, of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, said the idea
extra lubrication reduces condom breakage is "not unknown in the health
field, but it's great we have a study to show it." He added most studies
on condom failure show the users -- not the product -- failed. "They didn't
put it on, or they had sex for a while and then put it on, or it came off,"
Valdiserri said.
In the study,
couples were switched from one group to another so they were able to rate
the difference between condoms with and without extra lubrication. Gabbay
said some couples found the extra lubrication messy or an unwanted interruption.
However, a "significant proportion considered sex with additional spermicide
to be more pleasurable," he said.
"It's great
the scientists asked that question," Valdiserri said. "It's a hint for
the marketers: If people like it more, people are going to buy it more."
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