I just read that condoms (with perfect usage/no human error) are 98% effective and that 2% fail rate doesn’t have to do with faulty latex. How then? If the latex is blocking all the semen how could it fail unless there was some breakage or some coming out the top?
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Condoms rip. The 2% fail rate refers to chances of having your bag rip while carrying groceries. It’s not saying semen gets through an intact bag 2% of the time.
Keep in mind, that’s the ANNUAL fail rate. So, they prevent pregnancy in 98% of couples using exclusively condoms for a year.
Mistakes happen, things break or slip off. It’s still vastly better than any other non-hormonal method.
Edit: Yeah, I’m wrong about this second point. Condoms are great, but there are other great non-hormonal methods, too.
We usually define success rates for contraception as the number of women out of 100 who get pregnant in 1 year using that as their only form of contraception.
So by that metric, condoms are 82% effective. Compare that to pull-out (78% effective) and the pill (91% effective). [Source](https://www.acog.org/womens-health/infographics/effectiveness-of-birth-control-methods)
So why the low rate for condoms? Some is the condom breaking, most is putting it on wrong, taking it off wrong , or forgetting to us it completely.
The 2% is human mistakes. This includes putting it on wrong, putting it on after already having put the penis in the vagina, wrong sizing, storing it incorrectly, etc.
I don’t remember where I know this from but I’m positive it was a human sexuality course
Also keep in mind that when they say with perfect usage what they mean is that the people who had them fail *reported* perfect usage. A reasonable chunk of those people probably did make an error in usage it’s just that either they didn’t know they made a mistake or they were embarrassed about making a mistake so they said they did use it perfectly, therefore it must be the condoms fault. There were no researchers watching people shag to make sure they were using the condoms correctly.
On top of other answers, corporate lawyers will NEVER allow anyone to say 100% when marketing a product. Declaring a 2% failure rate provides for significant protection from lawsuits.
Because it has a chance of tearing or slipping off… I’ve heard many stories about the slipping off one so it seems fairly common.
*98% effective when used as the primary birth control method for a year by the typical sexually active person.
Damn i can’t remember the names
Basically it covers “failures in contraceptive” and “failures in the use of contraceptives” — there’s fancy names for these things that i can’t recall.
edit: oh, its perfect-use and typical-use.
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