Condoms and Adolescent HIV: A Medical Evaluation
The much publicized sexual revolution, as it is often the case, has involved unintended levels of society: carefree youngsters have become sexually active at younger and younger ages, with a cohort of promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, ectopic pregnancies and a several-fold increase in the number of pregnancies and out-of-wedlock babies, growing up in an environment of emotional deprivation. To this we have to add the risk that HIV / AIDS may become highly prevalent in this group, in spite of the political decision that AIDS is not a sexually transmitted disease. Condoms, virtually discarded as an eff~tive contraceptive, due to the high rate of failure, pleasure reduction and awkward deployment, have been resuscitated and chosen as the means to "safer sex", to shelter our youngsters from this plague. There are major flaws with this approach, which with a modicum of honesty and goodwill, does not claim to be "the 1 00% solution, only the best we can offer to those who will become sexually active." It is not only no solution at all, but it may be a multiplier of the problem. Dr. Noble, an infectious diseases specialist puts it this way: "Passing out condoms to teenagers is like issuing them squirt guns for a four alarm blaze."l