Condom Facts and Statistics

Condoms are considered one of the best birth control methods out in the market today.  Unlike other contraceptives, they’ve been proven to be effective in the use of STD and HIV/AIDS prevention.  Latex condoms, however, are the most effective when compared to lambskin condoms. While protective against pregnancy, lambskin condoms do not offer the same protection against STDs as latex; there has not been enough resource done on polyurethane condoms to determine their effectiveness \against STDs.  The main concerns when it comes to using condoms are of course prevention of pregnancy and transmission of STDs.

Breakage is not the primary cause of condom failure; in fact, many studies say that the breakage rate for condoms is 2% at most.  The main problem instead is how consistently and correctly people use condoms.  Most unwanted pregnancies stemming are due to people either not using condoms every single time and/or not using them correctly.  When used correctly and consistently every single time, condoms are about 98% preventive against pregnancy.  However, the effectiveness rate for first-year condom users is about 86%, as an estimated only 3% of these users use condoms correctly and consistently during that time.  After that milestone, the prevention rate increases, and with typical consistent use the pregnancy rate is 2-4 out of 100 women per year. 

Concerning STDs, there are different prevention rates depending on the disease, and there is still some research needed for some of them.  However, studies have shown condoms protect against chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, genital herpes, HPV, and trichomoniasis; they may also reduce the risk of HPV-related diseases such as cervical cancer.  However, it’s to be understood that while condoms do greatly reduce the risk of STD transmission, they don’t prevent it every single time.  Condoms are very effective, though, when it comes to HIV/AIDS prevention.  In studies done on couples where one partner was HIV-positive and the other wasn’t, the infection rate was less than 1% per year for couples who used condoms correctly and consistently; for couples who either used condoms inconsistently or not at all, the infection rates were 10-14% instead.  These studies demonstrate that condoms are very effective not only in preventing pregnancy and STDs, but HIV as well.