Condoms have made
front page news again this month. They have been tested. They have
been ranked. They have been inflated and burst and charted, from
high risk to low risk.
Once again, our
discussion of condoms is boiled down to a statistical “failure rate”
expressed as a measure of “strength and reliability.” These tests
by Consumers Union will be reported February in Consumer
Reports.
But buyer
beware. It’s not the condom we must worry about. More important
than the statistical reports of failure is the report of how…and
where…these tests are conducted. Context counts.
In a well-lit
laboratory, one by one, a laboratory tech unwraps each condom and
follows a well-rehearsed, methodical, and uniform procedure to place
the condom on sterile lab equipment and inflate it with air until it
bursts. No STDs are present. No sperm, no emotions, no shadows,
and no youthful inexperience will cloud the results.
Using the context
of controlled laboratory “perfection,” some educators want us to
believe we can rest assured that condoms will save our children from
the consequences of sex. Touting statistics from laboratory tests,
they say condoms “only fail” three percent of the time to prevent
pregnancy.
If our children
were stainless steel robots living in a germ-free laboratory, they
might have a point. But they aren’t…and they don’t.
In the context of
real life, measuring the failure of condoms in the shadows, in the
heat of the moment, to prevent pregnancy, the statistics demonstrate
time and again that context counts. Condoms fail to prevent
pregnancy 13-15% percent of the time for real people outside of
laboratories. And if the real people are teenagers, the failure
rate can be as high as 22%.
In the context of
germs…bacteria…and viral infections without cure…condoms are a
veritable catastrophe waiting to happen. In the context of the real
world, there are now over 25 different STDs, each with its own
peculiar way of attacking the human body.
Speaking of only
one of the 25 STDs, the virus that causes genital herpes lives on
the body outside of areas covered by the condom. It can be present
on the body even when no symptoms of the disease are present. This
may help to explain why a disease largely unknown to the general
population in the 1960s today infects one out of five people over
the age of 12.
The context for
condoms, considering genital herpes…and each of the other 25 STDs,
is not mentioned by Consumer Reports. It’s not their fault.
Real life doesn’t happen in a lab under bright lights with reliable
machines and technicians.
The context for
Consumers Union’s chart on condoms…in a magazine generally devoted to
toasters, automobile radiator caps, and power drills…clouds the
truth about condoms and why they fail. Condoms are not mechanical
devices submitted to uniform stress. And when they fail, you don’t
get to return the toaster for a refund.
The context for
condom failure is magnified because it is the context of our life,
here and now, and into the future. Twenty percent of our adult
population now lives with genital herpes. Infertility now prevents
couples from having the babies they desperately want, the result of
STDs attacking the reproductive system. And each year, in numbers
equal to death from AIDS, women die of cervical cancer which is
linked to an STD at least 97% of the time.
The context for
condom failure is magnified because it is the context of human hopes
and dreams. Toasters don’t rejoice when they make perfect toast.
And they don’t care if they explode and burn up. They are things.
Their failure rates are cold numbers without feeling.
Failure rates for
condoms touch the human heart. The context for condom failure, most
especially for teens, is a crash and burn world where relationships
last for months, weeks, days…or minutes. If love was never present,
we have taught them sex is sport. And if love was present, it was
the fleeting passion of youth that vanishes at the first sign of
trouble or boredom.
When February
comes and Consumer Reports hits the stands, step back a
moment and remember. Condoms that fail in the lab are one thing.
Condoms that fail in real life…that’s another thing. Context
counts.
