February 16, 2010

This Week Is National Condom Week

February 14 through 21 is National Condom Week, an annual celebration honoring the importance of prophylactics in preventing unplanned pregnancies as well as the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

First organized in 1978 by students at the University of California in Berkeley, National Condom Week has become a popular post-Valentine’s Day event on college campuses nationwide. In addition, Planned Parenthood is supporting National Condom Week through a social networking campaign on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace that includes e-cards, facts and informative links.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, latex condoms, if used consistently and correctly, “provide an essentially impermeable barrier to particles the size of HIV.”

In a related Huffington Post blog entry titled “A (Modified) Ode to Condoms: How I Love Thee,” sexologist and POZ contributor Logan Levkoff, PhD, writes that neither men nor women should be afraid of buying, carrying or using condoms.

“Yes, women should be using condoms,” Levkoff writes. “Women should be carrying condoms. You’re not a slut—ugh, I hate that word—if you have condoms in your pocketbook. And quite frankly, if someone thinks you are, why would you want to have sex with that person anyway? Why would you ever want to be friends with someone who mistakes responsibility for ‘promiscuity’? (I don’t like that word, either.)”

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Previous Comments:

Ted, , 2010-02-20 10:46:50
If condoms were so effective against pregnancy, then why did women take matters into their own hands in the 60's and 70's and come up with the pill? BECAUSE CONDOMS DON'T WORK. Now were supposed to believe that they help with STD's. Since the use of condoms in every major country, STD's did not go down, instead they went up. Even this site reports a rise and not a decline. Let's stop the false info. "Condoms don't save lives, stop STD's or prevent pregnancy". Only Abstinence Does.

Harvett, East Cleveland, 2010-02-16 16:29:30
I agree with the whole article; It seems to me the goody to shoes are the most "promiscious" if they want to go there.