Swapna Prabhakaran
Imagine a condom that can be washed after sex and hung out to dry with your stockings. Imagine being able to re-use that condom the next time you have sex, and the next. This is what the reproductive health research unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital is investigating.
They’re looking at the possibility of re- use of the female condom, and they’ve gone to some unusual lengths.
To test the condom’s integrity, they’ve washed it with various common South African detergents and soaps, putting it through 10 washes, to observe signs of wear. They’ve stretched it and rolled it and subjected it to pressure, looking for leaks after every wash.
Why are they doing this? The female condom is expensive – a pack of three costs around R30 – because it is not made of latex, like the male condom. And women are reluctant to spend that much if each one is to be thrown away after the first use. But as it’s made of a tough polyurethane, it has the capacity to be re-used, a factor that increases the condom’s value immensely.
“The cost can’t come down because it’s made of this expensive polyure- thane,” says Audrey Pettifor, a researcher at the unit. “But if women could re-use each condom three or four times, they might not mind paying so much for it.”
The researchers have not completed their tests, and Dr Helen Rees, the unit’s head, says: “The tests have not shown yet that re-use is safe.” So the female condom will remain a “one-time-use only” commodity for now.
Meanwhile, other tests are being done to discover what the niche market for the female condom is. The national barrier method task force, a group of health workers from all provinces and non- governmental organisations, co-ordinates the policy and distribution of condoms – male and female – in South Africa.
The task force has three objectives – to research the condom’s re-useability, to find out whether women are more interested in it for pregnancy prevention or disease control, and eventually to make the condoms available. One early study shows that women who are used to male condoms find the female condom relatively easy to adjust to.
The director of the Society for Family Health, Mitchell Warren, says the society – which is running the highly popular Lovers Plus male condom campaign – is looking at ways to educate men and women about the female condom. Already a leaflet and a flipchart have been designed to show women how the condom should be inserted.
“The female condom is not for every woman,” Warren says. “It is difficult to insert and it takes practice. For women who aren’t used to the diaphragm, it can be very difficult.” The campaign uses easy-to- follow diagrams to show the correct methods.
The society will also take responsibility for future social marketing of the product, which currently is only being manufactured by a British company which holds the patent rights. But Warren stresses more research is needed.