Will the Female Condom Ever Catch On?

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.

Since its 1993 debut, the female condom has suffered from a bad reputation. A larger, baggier version of the male condom, the female condom has a ring at each end, one to secure it inside the body, and another that dangles weirdly outside the body. Google “female condom” and “YouTube” and you can watch a collection of dated and awkward instructional videos, harking back to squeamish sex-ed classes. READ MORE.