CONDOMS

How To Choose Condoms

T

here are many kinds of condoms latex, sheep gut, lubricated, unlubricated, long, short, wide, narrow, thick, thin, smooth, ribbed, ruffled, mushroom topped, receptacle tipped, round-ended, clear, opaque and brightly colored they also have different tastes and smells.

The main thing to remember when choosing the right condom for you is to EXPERIMENT.

Try out lots of different kinds using safer sexual activities such as masturbation, and rubbing between the thighs. Be sure to BREAK SOME while you practice so you know how much stress you can reasonably put on rubbers and what it feels like ⚫when one breaks. If you are jacking hard with a rubber on or playing other fun latex games, change rubbers before going on to higher risk activities especially if the end is becoming stretched like an old baloon!

Some users prefer condoms made from the appendix of sheep often called "natural" condoms. Both rubber and sheep intestines are highly impermeable, but several studies state that the animal fiber condoms have walls of unequal thickness and leak or break more easily. A study by a Canadian consumers group showed that Forex leaked more than any of the latex condoms

tested. Natural condoms should be used by those rare individuals who are allergic to rubber, insist on using oilbased lubricants or those who have such an aversion to latex that it's sheep guts or nothing.

There is evidence lubricated condoms do not break as easily as unlubricated ones. Lubricatred condoms also provide greater sensation to the wearer because they are a little more slippery.

Some condoms are lubricated with nonoxynol-9, an extremely mild soap which kills sperm, prevents common V.D. and kills the AIDS virus upon contact. Rubbers with nonoxynol-9 are advertised as containing a spermicidal lubricant. Nonoxynol-9 has an extremely enviable 35 year safety record for vaginal use but has not been tested for anal sex. The FDA has approved consumption of small quantities of nonoxynol-9 such as occurs in oral sex with women using spermicides.

Making Rubbers Sexier

Those wishing to use them for anal intercourse may wish to wipe off the outside of such condoms after putting them on so as to have added protection on the inIside of the rubber without using it on anal tissue. Since spermicides occasionally cause mild skin irritation people should try out spermicidal condoms using their fingers or a dildo during masturbation to find out how their bodies react before having sex with another person. This avoids taking a chance on irritating the mucosa under risky conditions and actually creating a possible route for infection. Fortunately, if a spermicide causes irritation, most users find that the problem can be eliminated by simply changing brands.

When it comes to size, pick a condom that rolls all the way down to the base of your penis and is snug enough not to slip excessively. A point you may wish to consider is that rubbers which fit snugly (especially at the bottom) create a slight tourniquet effect on the superficial veins. This makes for a harder erection and increases the power of orgasm much like a cock ring works. If you like this effect GO FOT IT. The researchers say it's safe fun!

How To Enjoy Condoms More

• Give yourself lots of permission to experiment and learn about rubbers. You don't have to like or not like them. Let yourself be inexperienced and clumsy if that's where you are; and let using condoms be easy and pleasurable for you if that's what happens. Everybody's different. Go as slowly as you want or need to. Don't sweat it if you start to put the rubber on inside out; just start over or open a new one if you've made a mess of the first one.

You can't make wearing condoms feel the exact same way as not wearing them. However, you can explore the many pleasurable sensations of latex. Once you do this, you will likely find that rubbers are as sexy as jock straps and as much fun as other toys.

Keep several types and sizes around so that you and

your partners will have a choice.

Some people complain that putting a rubber on interrupts sex. This is true if you don't have any condoms handy and treat the act as a chore. However, a little planning and imagination can make putting on condoms a very erotic part of lovemaking.

Many people make the mistake of thinking that once they've put a rubber on they have to cum or else. This is a sure way to fail. Use as many rubbers during sex as you like or need.

• Rubbers cut down slightly on friction and cause many people to last longer before they ejaculate. For guys who want to make sex last this feature of latex is wonderful, but for others it can be a problem. If you don't want to last longer and yet want to cum while having sex, use

other low risk options until you're close to shooting and then put on a rubber. In fact, you can do this as many times as you want.

Use additional water soluble lubricant. The lubricant which comes on condoms helps but usually is not enough. You can heighten enjoyment by using a water soluble lubricant during foreplay, (wait until it begins to get sticky before putting on a condom so the rubber will have a good grip). At this point, you might wet the head of the penis or pour just a little bit of lubricant into the reservoir tip before putting the condom on. The lubricant helps keep air out of the tip and then seeps around the glans greatly increasing sensation. It takes a little practice to get the right amount down, but is well worth the effort!

The Sexologists' Sexual Health Project

Clark Taylor is a sexologist, medical anthropologist and founder of The Sexologists' Sexual Health Project (the SSHP). The project is made up of sex educators, therapists, counselors and advisors who have the following goals:

1. To throughly research AIDS intervention strategies and risk reduction guidelines pertaining to sex;

2. Use the skills and techniques of sexology to make sexual health techniques fun, inviting and easy to incorporate into our sexlives; and

3. Make this body of information and techniques available to all sexually active people so that AIDS prevention education will be effective.

The project began two years ago when powerful members of the medical community and some gay leaders were insisting that the only way to stop AIDS was to use behavior modification techniques and aversion therapy to make us associate sex with death. Professionals in the sex field were not invited to take part in the high level policy decisions which resulted in a campaign of fear and homophobia in our community. Indeed, members of The Sexologists' Sexual Health Project were sometimes looked upon as enemies of public policy by members of the AIDS establishment when the group first appeared.

However, the project found friends and allies in the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and

How To Use Condoms

Do's

Wear Condoms EVERY time you have sex.

Open package carefully & remove condom.

tip.

Press air out of condom

Pull foreskin back unroll condom to cover entire erect penis.

Put extra water soluble lubricant on condom & partner.

After sex, hold condom around base & withdraw.

Throw used condom away & wash.

Don't's

NEVER test condoms by inflating or stretching them.

NEVER use oil based lubricants on condoms!

NEVER go from one person to another without changing rubbers.

has slowly begun to make an impact upon AIDS education. Indeed, the research on condoms presented here was primarily sponsored by the AIDS Foundation. The Sexologists' Sexual Health Project is best known for the workshops it puts on for the S.F. AIDS Foundation and the Institute For Advanced Study of Human Sexuality particularly its community forums on "Eroticizing Safe Sex". The group is scheduled to give three workshops this fall and is developing a powerful new process with the Sex Institute entitled "Personal Sexual Growth, Skills And Enrichment In The Age of AIDS." Look for the time and place of these activities in the Sentinel starting in September.

Members of the SSHP are proud of the progress they have made in the AIDS establishment over the last two years but are disappointed that their project has remained on the fringes of funded AIDS education priorities. The bulk of the monfor hot and healthy sex in the age of AIDS goes to people in the Health Department who have little or no training in sex therapy or sex education and who pat themselves on the back every time they think up. something sexologists have been doing for years. One member of the sexologists' group told the Sentinel:

"It is very disheartening to have the Public Health Department refuse to fund our programs one year only to turn around and fund somebody else less trained to carry out the very same ideas the next year. We are labeled too radical and penalized for having new ideas

ideas which in time become standard AIDS education. This has happened to us over and over again. It's ironic that we get more support from other parts of the United States than we do here in San Francisco. We are presently helping the Gay Mens' Health Crisis Center in New York City develop a program like our own only on a scale 1,000 times bigger than what we are doing here. And we are helping Miami, Florida set up a similar project. We even have been invited to give safe sex workshops in Omaha and Lincoln Nebraska. But here we're usually just too hot to handle!"

The most active members of the Sexologists' Sexual Health Group are Clark Taylor, Ph.D., Ed.D., David Lourea Ph.D., D.H.S., Maggie Rubenstein Ph.D., R.N., Margo Rila, Ed.D., A.C.S., Molly Hogan, R.N., Certified Sexologist, and Seth Prosterman, M.A., Certitled Sex Counselor. For further information, call 928-1133 or 626-9511. The mailing address is 1523 Franklin St., SF, CA 94109.

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