Until recent years, talking openly about sexual intercourse and the risks involved was not common practice. In fact, our neglect for sex education throughout the 20th century was one of the factors which contributed to the AIDs crisis in the 1980s, with most people teaching that the only way to have safe sex was to wait until marriage (and, of course, to abstain from
same-sex relationships).
However, now that our archaic views of sex are beginning to die out, it's more important than ever that we educate people on how to practice the act safely. And we do - or, at least, we try to. Sex education is available in most developed countries to children from a young age, and a great deal of those lessons focus on the necessity of using contraception.
So why has condom use begun to decline amongst men?
A recent study by the CDC has shown that, between 2002 and 2010, the percentage of teenage males who used a condom the first time they did the deed rose from 71 per cent to nearly 80 per cent - which is great. However, that figure then dropped to 78 per cent by 2013.
Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but more recent stats have shown that the figure is only set to fall lower.
This means that nearly one in four men is not using proper protection when engaging in sexual intercourse with a partner, leaving them at risk of contracting an STI and potentially impregnating their partner.
One theory as to why men - especially younger ones - are
getting down and dirty without a raincoat on is that they don't
realize they're at risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases because of improper sex education. They see condoms as a method of preventing unwanted pregnancies - something which can also be achieved through the contraceptive pill, or IUDs, or other hormonal treatments - and so they forego the rubber if their partner is already using one of those devices.
Another problem linked to this is the way in which condoms are marketed. In the 1990s and early 2000s, when the AIDs crisis was still fresh in people's memories, condoms were advertised as a way to prevent catching an STI. However, in more recent years, rubbers have been marketed primarily as a contraceptive.
However, most alarming is the theory that condom use has declined because of pornography. Not only is it uncommon to see people using rubbers in porn, it's also fairly standard for a guy to pull out before finishing. The combination of these things has suggested to young men that doing this is the norm, and so they put the habits into practice in their own sexual encounters.
Unfortunately, porn is far from real life - but the consequences of copying what you see in blue movies are very real indeed.
“If we had a way to test for it—which we don’t—40 to 60 percent of college-aged guys would test positive for HPV,” says Debby Herbenick, Ph.D., a sexual health researcher at Indiana University. She also mentioned that chlamydia is worringly high amongst men, but, as both STIs often have no symptoms, "guys don’t even realize they have them.”
In order to fix this problem, sex education for young people - not just men - must be improved universally. Abstinence isn't a practical solution for young people (sorry to break it to you, prudes), and skirting around the very real risks of sexual intercourse in order to push a message of "don't get pregnant!" will do more harm than good in the long run.
So, to all you should-be condom-users out there:
get wrapping!
