Chicago Female Condom Campaign

Exactly one week before the annual commemoration of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, the feminist blog Jezebel responded with intense skepticism to the USA Today headline claiming that female condoms (FCs) are gaining broader acceptance in U.S. cities. Citing the experience of one woman who did not enjoy using FCs and had difficulty locating them, the blogger casts them as nothing but a “sad sack of contraception options.”  Several readers’ comments belittled the safer sex tool as novelty or a joke and questioned why anyone would use it. While such mockery of the female condom is not uncommon, it is particularly disappointing when dismissed by those who purportedly support the reproductive health and rights of women and girls.

By Joyce C. Tang via The Daily Beast

The first version of the female condom made a weird noise, fell out, and was expensive, too. Now public health experts are pushing a new and improved version in American cities. Can it overcome stigma?

Until recently, Leslie Evans, a case manager at Vital Bridges, a nonprofit HIV/AIDS outreach program in Chicago, had never heard of the female condom. "I couldn't even picture one until I saw it," she says. Evans wondered how the female condom worked, who would want to use one, and whether the rings on each end would be uncomfortable. Though her job was to encourage safe sex to her clients, "I never really promoted it," Evans says of the female condom. "Just condoms, condoms, condoms"—and by condoms she means the male version.

A ubiquitous nugget of pop culture advice (“Put a ring on it!”) is the tagline of a new public awareness campaign launched today by a coalition of health organizations that aims to increase the use of a new-and-improved female condom among both women and men.

New Female Condom, FC2, Now Available at More Affordable Price:

Chicago Female Condom Campaign Invites Area Agencies to Participate in Pool Purchasing.

The Chicago Female Condom Campaign* is surveying area agencies to learn about their purchasing and distribution of female condoms. We are particularly looking for feedback from HIV/AIDS, sexual health, and family planning programs, clinics, and agencies.