Female Condom
- What is the Female Condom?
- Effectiveness
- Advantages
- Possible Side Effects
- Possible Warning Signs
- Important Warning
- To Learn More
What Is the Female Condom?
The female condom is made of a thin, but very strong, plastic called polyurethane. It prevents sperm from meeting with the egg.
Female condoms can help prevent pregnancy and STDs, including HIV. Female condoms can be used to help protect against STDs when you have vaginal, anal and oral sex.
Effectiveness
Perfect user: A person who uses their method of pregnancy prevention correctly all of the time.
Typical user: A person who does not use their method of pregnancy prevention correctly.
With perfect use, the female condom is 95% effective.
That means that if 100 couples use the female condom exactly the right way every time they have sex, 5 of the women may get pregnant in a year.
With typical use, the female condom is 79% effective.
For couples who don't use the female condom the right way every time, 21 women out of 100 may get pregnant in a year.
Advantages
- Female condoms help prevent HIV and other STDs.
- Female condoms do not cause any serious health problems.
- Female condoms almost never break or tear during sex.
- The female condom is easy to carry around.
- You only need to use the female condom when you have sex.
- Female condoms can be put in up to 8 hours before having sex.
- Female condoms can be purchased at local clinics and drug stores.
Possible Side Effects
There are no side effects to using the female condom.
Possible Warning Signs
The condom for women causes no serious health problems.
Important Warning
Some things to remember about the female condom:
-
Make sure the condom stays in the right place during sex.
- During sex, the condom may move from side to side. Or it may move up and down on the penis. To prevent this, put lubricant inside the condom or on the penis before sex.
-
If either of these things happens, take the condom out and put in a new one:
- You feel the outer ring of the condom start to go into the vagina.
- You feel the penis start to go in the vagina outside of the condom.
-
Never use the female condom and the male condom at the same time.
- They will rub together. This can make them break or move out of place.
To Learn More
To learn how to use the female condom, go to:
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Additional money has been provided by the California Endowment and the American Civil Liberties Union.
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