An article on the BBC News website yesterday caught my eye. It was titled ”The return of the Female Condom.”
Some interesting pictures of female condoms on the site have been included here. I can feel some of our ladies cringing at the look of these objects 😀
They don’t look very sexy, these objects. But if they do the job, who cares?
You can read all about them here
With women constituting 60% of people living with HIV in Sub-Sahara Africa, drastic measures are needed and that may have to include female condoms, no matter how ugly they look.
Of course our men can save us the trouble by simply using male condoms…..
On a lighter note, the rings found at the outer end of some female condoms have now turned into fashion assessories with some women using the rings as bangles!! I hope they wash them first…ew!
I think where the emphasis should be placed most should be on the effectiveness of these toys, do they do the job? Are they capable of protecting the woman from unwanted pregnancies, contracting the HIV virus and other STDs, without reducing the fun and intimacy of sex? How much does it affect the users psychologically? Is it acceptable to both man and woman? These questions, to my own understanding, are more important than the looks of the toy, after all, once they are inserted in place, you only feel and never see them until the act is over and done with. If this is the case, I will encourage our women to please heavily arm themselves with it at all times, since prevention is better than cure.
Thanks for your comments, Ilouno. As usual, you have touched on key issues these raise and we are grateful for your insight.
I ‘m not sure labelling female condoms ‘toys’ will help the case for female condoms as some find the concept of ‘sex toys’ offensive.
Condoms (both male and female ones) are actually, in my mind, on the same platform as medicines.
Something powerful enough to prevent transmission of HIV/Hepatitis should not be trivialised as a toy.
The effectiveness, acceptability for both partners and ability not to reduce the fun and intimacy of sex are key issues as you have pointed. It will be interesting to hear from any of our friends out there what their experience of using female condoms have been.
Thanks for writing in 🙂