T O P I C R E V I E W
Destinee Carols
Member # 54626
posted 09-06-2012 04:23 PM
Condoms aren't 100% effective, but is the failure rate due to things such as a broken condom (which is fairly obvious and easy to tell afterwards...right?) or the condom not having been put on right or falling off? That is to say, a condom that goes on properly and stays on and doesn't appear to have torn should have had a 100% chance of being completely effective? I'm just giving myself pregnancy scares here...gonna take a test in a few days. -.-
Onionpie
Member # 41699
posted 09-06-2012 04:26 PM
Yep, that is correct!
Destinee Carols
Member # 54626
posted 09-06-2012 05:10 PM
Thanks!
Claire P.
Member # 96773
posted 09-06-2012 06:31 PM
Condom effectiveness numbers can be confusing because there is an important difference between “typical use failure” and “perfect use failure.” The failure rate with “typical” condom use is usually reported to be around 14-15%, meaning for every group of 100 sexually active women (having penetrative sex with a biologically male partner), 14-15 of them, on average, will become pregnant. That number may seem alarmingly high, but it has much to do with the users’ knowledge of ideal condom usage. For “perfect” condom use, the failure rate is typically reported to be around 2-3%. This 2-3% refers to women whose male partners use condoms correctly and consistently, and yet still become pregnant. The nurse practitioner who trained me in sex ed explained this surprising statistic by saying, “there are just some few women who are incredibly fertile.” It is a very small percentage, and if you yourself are experiencing some kind of worry regarding pregnancy, I suggest waiting and reading up on other possibilities before jumping to any conclusions about possibly being a part of this relatively rare phenomenon. [ 09-06-2012, 06:32 PM: Message edited by: Claire P. ]
Onionpie
Member # 41699
posted 09-06-2012 06:57 PM
To add onto what claire said -- those rates are also about effectiveness over a YEAR, not for every individual use of the condom. So if, looking at an individual case -- as in, one time you participated in sex using a condom -- the condom was used properly for all genital contact, didn't break/tear at all, and didn't come off inside the vagina, etc., you can typically consider the effectiveness of that particular condom for that particular incident as 100%. However, as claire said, there is that tiny percentile who still get pregnant while using condoms correctly in that year. That's why we suggest that people taking part in sex that involves a penis-and-a-vulva always consider that there will be some tiny risk, and that is something one has to accept to be comfortable with the reality of those kinds of sex [ 09-06-2012, 07:00 PM: Message edited by: Onionpie ]