Senior Research Fellow , Glasgow Caledonian University
Doctoral Researcher, Class of Health Insurance And Lifetime Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University
Disclosure statement
Karen Lorimer gets give money from the principle Scientist workplace, Scottish Government.
Jen MacDonald is funded with a Glasgow Caledonian University PhD stipend.
Glasgow Caledonian University provides financing as a founding partner of this discussion British.
The discussion UK gets funding from the organisations
- Messenger
The proposition of a ultra-thin condom produced from graphene and latex brings design for the contraceptive to the twenty-first century. We now have yet to visit a model, nevertheless the designers during the University of Manchester stated the thinnest and condom that is strongest ever made would enhance feeling while having sex, that they wish will encourage more condom usage.
Graphene is a kind of carbon which has been touted a “miracle material”, could be one-atom dense the strongest ever measured and an upgraded for silicone. James Hone, an engineering teacher from Columbia University, stated it had been so strong that “it would simply take an elephant, balanced on a pencil, to split via a sheet of graphene the depth of Saran Wrap cling movie”|film” that is cling.
The master plan at Manchester is always to combine graphene with latex, presently the main product utilized in making condoms, in order to make their very own. But will enhancing sensation really make individuals use condoms more?
Locating the right fit
Despite condoms being one of the better how to avoid maternity and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as chlamydia and HIV, they’re nevertheless unpopular for a number of reasons.
There is a complete large amount of research completed into focusing on how usually condoms are increasingly being utilized, exactly just just what issues are connected with using them and people’s attitudes towards them. A range of social and factors that are psychological how much we utilize condoms, such as for example loss in pleasure, the scent (commonly from latex) and arguments which they result some males to reduce their erection.
Individuals have a tendency to consider the observed benefits and drawbacks of condoms and safer sex. There clearly was a spectrum of condom use from people perhaps not making use of them after all, to using them inconsistently or wanting to utilize them and failing. And an increasing human anatomy of scientific studies are telling us more about the mistakes and issues folks have when making use of condoms – including fit, breakages and spillages.
Cops and rubbers
There has been numerous tries to market condom usage around the world. In Thailand for instance, efforts had been made through the 1980s to boost condom used to reduce the country’s high birth rates so when section of an HIV prevention programme when you look at the 1990s. The federal government caused brothel owners to enforce condom usage, there clearly was an advertising campaign and cops distributed condoms through something called the “cops and rubbers initiative that is.
Thailand’s ‘Mr Condom’ at TEDx.
Despite some success, dilemmas stay with condom usage nevertheless lower in rural areas specially. This points to deficiencies in awareness and option of condoms as being a good cause for low use. But even in the western where condoms are widely accessible and education that is sexual raise understanding, high prices of STIs persist. http://www.prettybrides.net/indian-brides Therefore can it be actually constantly about deficiencies in accessibility?
Condoms when it comes to unclean?
Overview of 268 studies that are qualitative The Lancet discovered seven key themes reported by young adults about non-safe sex, including which they had been stigmatising or suggested deficiencies in trust. Another was at the perception of possible partners that are sexual “clean” or “unclean” – therefore if somebody had been considered the previous it absolutely was okay never to make use of condom. Other expectations that are social for instance the concern with appearing “easy” or otherwise not additionally arrived into play.
Offered social reasons influence intimate behaviour, brand new technology like the graphene condom (and another idea checking out “shape memory”) won’t fundamentally improve attitudes toward utilizing condoms. It’s there’s that are clear some approach to take right right here.
But pleasure that is emphasising be a brand new narrative that encourages some to think about the pros and cons a little differently. For the many part, tries to encourage young adults to utilize condoms employ scare strategies that emphasise the results of staying away from them. However some of our research has unearthed that teenagers really reject these fear narratives and want a different sort of tone in wellness communications. Therefore a condom that emphasises “enhanced pleasure” could possibly be effective for these teams. We have been additionally looking at the attitudes of older grownups towards condom usage, while they stay sexually active.
The social and social forces at play that influence exactly just exactly how young people operate when you look at the room means simply supplying information and condoms is not enough to result in alterations in intimate behavior. While medical improvements in intimate wellness such as for example graphene condoms could possibly be extremely important, getting visitors to put them on into the place that is first a much deeper comprehension of the social and social forces at your workplace.