Condoms are sometimes a tool not solution

Although condoms have played a big role in the fight against the spread of HIV, it should be noted that there are often slips that are beyond condom control.

As a political scientist not a doctor or qualified medical expert, I thought it prudent to create information sources for people who want to know more about condoms. That said, think of the last time you had full on sex, complete with foreplay and bathing in the afterglow.

Imagine you, or your partner already had a sexually transmitted disease, can you see how the various permutations can play a part in passing that on?

Yes, a condom will reduce your chances of passing on or contracting a disease but is far from the full story or the full protection that we are so often led to believe.
Condoms will only reduce your risk of contracting or passing on an STI but as mentioned earlier with regard to oral sex more especially everything you do with your mouth and fingers, they are only a tool and not a final solution.

The problem with the publicity surrounding condoms both now and in the past is that people are taught that if you use them, you are pretty much protected against everything. Unfortunately, you are not but that is the popular belief and a success measure of decades of publicity.

The point I’m making is that most sexual encounters involve a mixture of activities and although the condom will give you better odds of avoiding infection, it is by no means a universal protection.

Someone with gonorrhea or syphilis, for example, can pass that on to their partner through kissing, finger exploration and not only penile penetration.

Risk factors
It is also true that if you contract an STI from oral sex, it doesn’t mean that you have it in other locations. The point being that you are at risk whether you use a condom or not. A condom will limit the chances again but only in certain areas and it is by no means full-proof.

Condoms still have a major part to play if you are HIV-negative and not on a strict daily Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) treatment.

They are also important for HIV-positive people who do not have an undetectable viral load and a healthy immune system.

If, for instance, you meet someone and start off with heavy kissing then touching and exploring with fingers and various fluids being excreted in the process, you are going to come in contact with an STI presence if it exists.

Yet, that behaviour is nothing short of normal, wouldn’t you say? And we haven’t even touched upon oral sex and penile penetration yet none of the above require a condom.
I must emphasise that although condoms help to prevent certain infections, there also has to be behaviour shift because condoms alone are clearly not enough.

We are complex human beings whose sexual activity is varied and involves multi-tasking using the body parts that we have at our disposal.

All those body parts are potential disease spreaders so we can’t be expected to cover mouth, hands, fingers, genitals with a thin coating of rubber.

Condoms can help block disease in a limited way but for the rest we have to be aware and try to minimise those risks as best as we can.
Condoms were always a great invention but maybe we need to use them as part of an overall strategy and not just depend on them to save us from the sex bugs that haunt us.