Everywhere I find on the internet says that condoms, when used properly and don’t break, are only 98% effective.
That means if you have sex once a week you’re just as well off as having no protection once a year.
Are 2% of condoms randomly selected to have holes poked in them?
What’s going on?
In: Biology
Used properly.
Did the guy possibly get his erection anywhere near his partner’s vagina before putting on the condom? Maybe? Was some pre-ejaculate going on down there, that got spread onto the outside of the condom white putting it on and adjusting? It happens.
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Often condoms fail due to user error. At times it’s using an oil lubricant that’s not compatible with latex. To see this you can blow up a condom then rub some baby oil on it. In other cases, it’s people failing to stop when there’s clearly too much friction. Some of the biggest user errors come in the forms of men wanting to wear condoms that are too large or someone not rolling the condom all the way down.
Obviously there’s also the possibility of a manufacturing defect as well.
It’s important to realize that a 98% success rate doesn’t mean you’ll have 2 breaks for every 100 times you use one.
Even 98% seems low. If I am reading correctly then out of 100 female/ fertile sex workers, two will fall pregnant each year.
That is a lot of semen getting where it shouldn’t. This implies (to me) a much higher than acceptable risk.
Is there anyone here know more sex workers than I do, and can speak to this?
Or do these statistics deliberately exclude professionals?
You can use them right, that doesn’t change It can still slide off especially if you fuck hard, happened to me once or twice, that is why I always check when I’m getting close if it’s still on. No, you won’t feel it. Many more things that can happen e.g. drunk people too drunk to handle it, but they don’t have to break it.. And what is the most important here, which is legal reasons. they cannot claim 100% safe, they would be piled up with lawsuits instantly. 98% effectiveness does NOT mean that it will fail twice out of 100 times for you.
Of all the couples who use condoms properly (as in: unexpired condoms stored at the right conditions, chosen in the right size, put it on at the right time in the right way using compatible lube and changing between rounds), 2% of those couples who do that every time will get pregnant in any given year.
That 2% includes failure of the method, including condoms that break due to manufacturing error and condoms that work their way off during sex. Manufacturing error is rare. Working its way off during sex is less likely if it’s sized correctly, but it can happen. I suspect that sometimes the whole “get a new condom” piece gets missed and isn’t realized missing in couples who are trying their best for “correct use.”
Condoms are a very effective method of birth control when used correctly. And really the only method of birth control to also protect against STIs. Also, they sort of stink to use. They change the feel of sex for a lot of people, and they take a certain amount of both regular maintenance (making sure you have one in the right place in the right time that never got to the wrong temperature), and the kind of rational self-restraint that is especially difficult when you’re especially fertile, so I have deep compassion to those who find it tempting to forgo them or who find they’ve used an expired one or who accidentally pair latex with oil lubricant or something like that. I’m grateful for condoms but holding out hope in the future for a friendlier, more fool-proof form of birth control that is equitable like condoms (men can lead in responsibility with condoms!) and also helps protect against STIs like condoms.
There’s a lot of people saying “they’re a barrier so logically they must be 100% effective if you do it right” and presenting as evidence that they personally were never in the 2%. It turns out that non-latex condoms (some people are allergic to latex and have to use them) are less effective when perfectly used. This surely gives some insight into the fact that they’re not perfect barriers.
But still, the question remains. From those 2% of people who get pregnant why is that happen? Remember, they used condoms correctly. Can sperm penetrate the condom or what?
Even if this were true, your math is off there. If people are having sex weekly with a 2% failrate for the condom, only 65% of the people would have at least 1 failed condom after one year.
Condom breakage, someone who used it the wrong way around and proceeds to just flip it and use it again. You just can’t write 100% otherwise they might be liable
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