photo: ryan.berry
Although condoms have been around for a very long time, some countries, even first world ones, are lagging behind in its use, which has prompted computer magnate Bill Gates to propose an initiative to discover a condom that would enhance pleasure in order to get more people to use them.
Unfortunately condoms are not a tool for pleasure enhancement, they are a measure of prevention, and that it seems, is not sufficient to make people want to wear them.
In fact statistics show that the pleasure damping factor is the reason why 60% of teenagers do not use them. In addition, many people in the older age bracket do not wear them at all, since they do not fear becoming pregnant, which has caused a spike in HIV numbers in the middle aged and older.
But in Africa condoms are downright shunned. And that is why Bill Gates has decided to do something about it.
There is also to be said that the simple contraceptive has not had a change of design for the last 50 years, although there is ample reason to believe that improvements could be made.
The Bill Gates foundation has placed 100,000 dollars in a grant for the person who comes up with a modification of the traditional condom that enhances pleasure.
This, Gates believes, could go a long way to stem the spread of Aids and other diseases.
Another factor that makes most people shun condoms is that they believe they must be worn at the very beginning of intercourse, because for decades women were warned of the dangers of impregnation from body fluids, which research has found is not the case, since there is not enough sperm in the pre-ejaculate fluid to cause pregnancy. That factor alone, if taught, could make some consider the use of the contraceptive.
However, that should not be the only way to get around the pleasure reducing effect of the condom, since waiting until later in the act, could preclude the effect of blocking transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. An honest discussion then, on how to get a larger slice of the population to use condoms, must be initiated, and Bill Gates should be praised for trying to do so. Hiding behind stereotypes and taboos is what is getting Africa and the rest of the world into the HIV quandary they are in.
Another problem with the spread of HIV is that homosexual men only wear condoms in 50% of the cases, although they still account for 63% of new cases, which has caused a resurgence of HIV numbers among gays. They too contend that the use of condoms is a nuisance that robs them of the pleasure of sex.
Notwithstanding the predictable criticism, Bill Gates is opening a discussion that had long needed opening. And if he succeeds, his honest effort could significantly improve the chances of reducing HIV and other disease in the world.
Source: The Atlantic. 4.29.13
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