Challenges to female condom integration into condom programming

How to use a female condom.

This article briefly discusses the female condom and presents step-by-step instructions on how to use it. Although the female condom costs much more than the male condom, many women who have learned how to use it properly like it. The female condom is made of a durable material called polythene and can be inserted anytime, from several hours before sex to immediately before the penis comes in...

The female condom and AIDS

The Female Condom is Safe and Effective

The Female Condom Is Safe and Effective On March 10, 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the second generation of the female condom (FC2). Made of nitrile (synthetic latex), the design and appearance of the FC2 are essentially the same as the first generation of the female condom (FC1), which was approved in 1993 and distributed under the brand names Reality and Femidom. ...

Female condom uptake and acceptability in Zimbabwe.

As the first phase of a two-phase prospective cohort study to assess the acceptability of the diaphragm as a potential HIV/STI prevention method, we conducted a 2-month prospective study and examined the effect of a male and female condom intervention on female condom (FC) use among 379 sexually active women in Harare, Zimbabwe. Reported use of FC increased from 1.1% at baseline to 70.6% at 2-m...

What is a female (internal) condom?

A female condom (commonly referred to as an internal condom) is a method of contraception that's inserted inside of the user?s vagina before sex. Made of soft nitrile (a synthetic rubber), it's shaped like a long tube or sheath ? with one closed end and one open end ? creating a barrier between the penis and the vaginal canal. Similar to the male condom (commonly referred to as an external cond...