Gender relations, sexual communication and the female condom

Expanding Safer Sex Options: Introducing the Female Condom into National Programmes

“…They incorporate information about anatomy, sexuality, communication and negotiation skills; they respect women and provide opportunities for them to develop a sense of self-efficacy and self-confidence in using female condoms and self-worth about protecting themselves and their partners. 1,36,37 The benefits of these initiatives go far beyond potential female condom use. In fact, they raise many of the same issues that will need to be addressed with the introduction of microbicides in future.…”

Pleasure and Prevention: When Good Sex Is Safer Sex

“…In addition, sex workers who were skilled in negotiating safer sex found the female condom to be a good alternative when male condoms were unpopular. 19 The pleasurable physical and psychological effects of female condom use can be crucial in negotiation for safer sex. The lubrication and thinness of the material makes sexual intercourse feel slippery, natural and fun.…”

The female condom: tool for women's empowerment

“…38,40,41,45,46 Studies of women's barrier methods can no longer afford to follow the bare style of the classical randomized clinical trial model; we lose valuable and urgently needed opportunities to learn from each other about what works and what does not and to make progress in integrating these lifesaving tools into safer sex practices. Indeed, in the 4-country female condom study cited earlier, 26 the investigators attributed the "empowerment" effect in large part to the intervention created around the device rather than to the device itself: a vision of the female condom as a "pretext" for inducing discourse and interaction.…”

“…Empirical studies have clearly shown that rather than adding to the burdens of what women normally need to negotiate with their partners and raising the risk of emotional or physical retribution, the female condom changes the dynamics of the dyad. 17,24,26 Previously, in the face of partner refusal to use a male condom, women's sole option for selfprotection was to refuse sex, and some succeeded. But for others this strategy was problematic; for example, it set up frank antagonism in the couple, with the possible outcome of violence.Women now have a negotiation tool that, in many circumstances, can be used in ways that are not threatening (and may indeed be soothing) to their partner.…”

“…[7][8][9]14,15,17,[24][25][26][27][28] When the female condom is introduced in the context of concurrent male condom availability, there is a synergistic or greater-than-additive effect. This consists of both a direct protection effect from women's use of the female condom and an indirect effect that increases male condom use owing to women's use of female condoms as a negotiation tool.…”