By: Lakshmi PS
Senior Research Fellow , Glasgow Caledonian University
Doctoral Researcher, Class of Health Insurance And Lifetime Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University
Karen Lorimer gets grant financing from the main Scientist workplace, Scottish Government.
Jen MacDonald is funded by a Glasgow Caledonian University PhD stipend.
Glasgow Caledonian University provides capital as a founding partner of this Conversation British.
The discussion UK gets funding from all of these organisations
The proposition of a ultra-thin condom created from graphene and latex brings design of this contraceptive in to the twenty-first century. We now have yet to experience a model, however the designers during the University of Manchester stated the thinnest and strongest condom ever made would enhance feeling during intercourse, that they hope 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 calculated and an alternative for silicone. James Hone, an engineering teacher from Columbia University, stated it had been so strong that “it would just just take an elephant, balanced for a pencil, to split via a sheet of graphene the depth of Saran Wrap cling movie”|film” that is cling.
The program at Manchester is always to combine graphene with latex, presently the primary product utilized in making condoms, to help make their very own. But will enhancing sensation really make individuals use condoms more?
Despite condoms being one of the better how to avoid maternity and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as for instance chlamydia and HIV, they’re nevertheless unpopular for a number of reasons.
There’s been great deal of research completed into focusing on how usually condoms are increasingly being utilized, exactly exactly what dilemmas are related to using them and people’s attitudes towards them. A myriad of social and factors that are psychological how much we utilize condoms, such as for example lack of pleasure, the scent (commonly from latex) and arguments which they cause some guys to reduce their erection.
Individuals have a tendency to think about the observed advantages and disadvantages of condoms and safer intercourse. There clearly was a spectrum of condom usage from individuals staying away from them at all, to with them inconsistently or wanting to utilize them and failing. And an evergrowing human body of scientific studies are telling us more info on the mistakes and dilemmas folks have when making use of condoms – including fit, breakages and spillages.
There were attempts that are many promote condom usage around the world. In Thailand as an example, efforts had been made through the 1980s to improve condom used to reduce the country’s high birth prices so that as element of an HIV prevention programme within the 1990s. The us government caused brothel owners to enforce condom usage, there clearly was a media campaign and cops distributed condoms through something called the “cops and rubbers” initiative.
Thailand’s ‘Mr Condom’ at TEDx.
Despite some success, issues stay with condom usage nevertheless lower in rural areas particularly. This points to deficiencies in understanding and accessibility to condoms as being reason behind low use. But even yet in the western where condoms are widely accessible and intimate training programmes raise understanding, high prices of STIs persist. Therefore can it be actually constantly about deficiencies in supply?
Overview of 268 qualitative studies in The Lancet found seven key themes reported by young adults about unprotected sex, including they had been stigmatising or suggested too little trust. Another was at the perception of potential partners that are sexual “clean” or “unclean” – therefore if someone was deemed the previous it had been okay not to ever work with a condom. Other social objectives, including the anxiety about appearing “easy” or otherwise not also arrived into play.
Provided social reasons influence intimate behaviour, new technology for instance the graphene condom (and another idea exploring “shape memory”) won’t fundamentally improve attitudes toward making use of condoms. It’s clear there’s nevertheless some path to take right right here.
But emphasising pleasure could be a brand new narrative that encourages some to think about the pros and cons a bit differently. When it comes to part that is most, tries to encourage young adults to utilize condoms employ scare strategies that emphasise the effects of staying away from them. Many of our research has unearthed that teenage boys really reject these fear narratives and would like yet another tone in wellness communications. Therefore a condom that emphasises “enhanced pleasure” might be effective for those teams. We have been additionally looking at the attitudes of older grownups towards condom usage, because they stay intimately active.
The social and social forces at play that influence exactly exactly exactly how teenagers operate when you look at the room means information that is merely providing condoms is not adequate to result indian dating sites in alterations in sexual behavior. While medical advances in intimate wellness such as for example graphene condoms might be extremely important, getting individuals to put them on within the beginning calls for a much much deeper knowledge of the social and social forces at the job.
