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Home › Forums › Sexual Health › Internal (or female) condoms
Tagged: Condoms, sti-prevention, WomensHealth
Why do we just teach young people about external (male) condoms and not internal (female) condoms? Is there a sigma attached to using them or is it just not common practice? What is your opinion on using internal condoms? Would/do you use them?
I heard from a friend of mine that it is difficult to use
I’ve never actually seen a female condom..should probably do a google search..
They are hard to use and the older ones use to sound like a plastic bag.
They are also about $4 each. So cost is an issue.
But i like them because they cover more of the labia, can be used when a guy doesn’t have an erection or like condoms. Some penis shapes are also difficult to keep a condom on. So they do have some good points.
To me, the lack of teaching about it comes from a history of viewing women as passive sexual partners. I’m thinking it relates to stereotypes like it’s a man’s ‘job’ to get condoms. I can’t remember having much discussion on diaphragms or dental dams, and I heard nothing at all about female condoms in my sex ed. Even though they’re all quiet effective methods of contraception. I wouldn’t use them personally, but I do think we should learn about alllll the choices there are re: contraception!
In Cambodia, I think some NGOs that works in the reproductive health fields used to introduced female condoms to sexual workers. They found that it was different for the sexual worker to ask their male clients to wear a condom. However, the project was not successful due to many reasons.
It looks like there are some really clever folk out there reinventing the female condom- e.g. http://www.path.org/projects/womans_condom.php . Doesn’t look like it’ll be on the market anytime soon, but if you’re like me and love geeking out about all this innovative stuff its worth a look. I’ve also read that female condoms can be inserted up to 8 hours before sex- anyone know if that’s true?
I remember being shown female condoms in sex ed, and we all found the rustling noise super strange! Although, I remember reading about (I think) a village in Africa where the rustling is now thought to be erotic!
@Zah That’s actually really cool that some people have taken to reinventing the female condom. I don’t know if I would use it though, but it is definitely a step in the right direction for providing women with more choice.