Friday 9 March 2012

Use condom properly or face the consequences - Medical experts

Tribune

Medical experts have expressed concern on the improper use of condom worldwide, such as not wearing it

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throughout sex or putting it on upside down. They warned that consistent and correct use of condoms remains the only available vaccine against HIV, reports Sade Oguntola.

Do condoms go hand in hand with safe sex?Only if they’re used correctly. But improper condom use, such as not wearing it throughout sex or putting it on upside down, has become a major concern of public health officials around the world.

A new study published in the Journal of Sexual Health, which provides a global picture of condom use, based on 50 articles representing 14 countries, noted many condom use problems and errors.

The unprecedented collection of condom use studies provided a global perspective on condom use problems and errors, along with new research on factors influencing correct condom use, how condom use programmes can be more effective, and the promotion of the female condom.

Many people make the effort to put a condom on at some point during a sex act, some fail to use the prophylactic correctly. The most common errors included not using condoms throughout sex, not leaving space or squeezing air from the tip of the condom, putting condoms on upside down, not using water-based lubricants, and incorrect withdrawal. Other problems included breakage, slippage, leakage, and difficulties with fit and feel.

Many studies have been done in the past about condom use and access around the world, but little attention is paid to whether people understand how to use condoms in the first place.

But in this new study that had more than 20 researchers from around the world who examine and discuss issues on condom use and safe-sex indicated that a big gap still exists in the ideal way condoms are used despite the importance of proper condom use in reducing unplanned pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted infections such as HIV.

Research shows that proper use of a condom can significantly reduce a person’s chances of becoming infected with a sexually transmitted disease (STD). In fact, it is inexpensive compared to costly HIV and AIDS medications, which often are inaccessible to the people most at risk.

Unfortunately, how complicated condom use can be is underestimated. It entails negotiating the condom use and sex with a partner all at the same time. There is a complex triad of the sex act, condom use and partner dynamics that must constantly be navigated by condom users.

Since about 1988, efforts to respond to the HIV epidemics have yielded positive results, however, the latest UNAIDS report on the global AIDS epidemics indicated that the epidemic is not yet over in any part of the world.

Needless to state, HIV is a complex development issue that affects individuals, families, communities and all human development sectors, while relentlessly eroding human capacity, productivity and prospects for the future of any nation.

Unfortunately, Mr Siji Ganiyu, Executive Secretary, Oyo State Agency for the Control of AIDS, stated that correct and consistent use of condoms can confer over 80 per cent protection against HIV.

However, condom use cannot provide absolute protection against any STD. The most reliable ways to avoid transmission of STDs are to abstain from sexual activity, or to be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with an uninfected partner.

Making condoms accessible to people who need them is important, but Mr Ganiyu stated that improved clinic-based counseling, public education and Internet-based education efforts are all key requirements to ensuring adequate, proper and consistent condom use.

Of course, talking openly about topics that many people find embarrassing, such as erections, semen, lubricant and other aspects of sex is also important.

According to Mr Ganiyu, even in Nigeria, condom errors, such as buying expired condoms, exposing condoms to heat from the sun and wrong way of wearing condoms, are still common in many communities aside the low usage of condoms among all age groups.

The finding that worldwide prevalence of proper condom use was high, Mrs Bolajoko Omotosho, the President, Family Health and Population Action Committee (FAPHAC), Ibadan, Oyo State, stated, should not be a surprise, considering the fact that many people in the community still do not want to accept its use.

Many people, she stated, would not want to walk up openly to buy condom for fear of being seen as promiscuous. “Some people when they go to buy condoms usually ask that it should be wrapped up with another paper or nylon before it is handed over to them by the shopkeeper,” Mrs Omotosho stated.

Mrs Omotosho, reiterating that myths on condom use were still prevalent in many communities, declared, that “some young people still feel that they do not enjoy sexual intercourse when using condoms. Some other women said their husbands would never take condom from them.”

However, she stated that condom use was higher among sex workers unlike the other members of the community because they had learnt condom negotiation skills.

Although more youths now use condoms, thanks to HIV interventions to educate on safer sex, she stated that many youths would never acknowledge its use just as married couples now turn to other contraceptive methods in planning their families.

But is it all bad news for condom? Not really, “men see sexual intercourse as neater wear condoms as well as those even some say that condoms help them to prolong the sexual act, thus making the act more enjoyable,” she stated.
Mrs Omotosho said further that “there is the need to find ways of emphasising the benefits of condom use, especially in all reproductive age groups, so that they understand and know that condom usage is not about being promiscuous.”

Condoms can be expected to provide different levels of protection for various STDs, depending on differences in how the diseases or infections are transmitted. Male condoms may not cover all infected areas or areas that could become infected.

Male condoms are likely to provide greater protection against STDs that are transmitted only by genital fluids (STDs such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomoniasis, and HIV infection) than against infections that are transmitted primarily by skin-to-skin contact, which may or may not infect areas covered by a condom (STDs such as genital herpes, human papillomavirus [HPV] infection, syphilis, and chancroid).

How to use a condom consistently and correctly:
•Use a new condom for every act of vaginal, anal and oral sex throughout the entire sex act (from start to finish).
•Before any genital contact, put the condom on the tip of the erect penis with the rolled side out.
•If the condom does not have a reservoir tip, pinch the tip enough to leave a half-inch space for semen to collect. Holding the tip, unroll the condom all the way to the base of the erect penis.
•After ejaculation and before the penis gets soft, grip the rim of the condom and carefully withdraw. Then gently pull the condom off the penis, making sure that semen doesn’t spill out.
•Wrap the condom in a tissue and throw it in the trash where others won’t handle it.
•If you feel the condom break at any point during sexual activity, stop immediately, withdraw, remove the broken condom, and put on a new condom.
•Ensure that adequate lubrication is used during vaginal and anal sex, which might require water-based lubricants. Oil-based lubricants such as petroleum jelly should not be used because they can weaken latex, causing breakage.

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