And sexy female condoms
target to make available 30-million female condoms by March 2017,” he says.
“We are well aware that the supply does not meet the demand and we are working on practical ways to ensure that more South Africans — especially women and sex workers — can access female condoms at their local health facilities.”
Female and male condoms are equally effective i n preventing unwanted pregnancy and HIV infection, a 2012 study in Reproductive Health Matters has found.
Several studies have shown that female condoms give women more negotiating power in the bedroom.
Danke has been fortunate. “I have never had to negotiate using a condom with my current boyfriend. When we started dating, safe sex was a non-negotiable for us and we decide when and how it will happen,” she says.
But many heterosexual women find themselves in a very different position. They have little say in whether their partners use male condoms, even though condoms could protect them from sexually transmitted infections.
According to a 2015 study published in the Aids and Behaviour journal, female condoms are an important HIV and pregnancy prevention tool, especially in subSaharan Africa where HIV is mostly spread through sex between a man and a woman.
Female condoms, however, are more expensive than male condoms.
The NSP says the cost of making a male condom available was 25 cents in 2011, while a female condom was more than 300 times that: R8.72.
The NSP estimates that producing 22-million female condoms in the 2015-2016 financial year will cost R192- million while one billion male condoms will cost only R251-million.
Pillay says the health department has managed to decrease the cost of making a female condom available to just under R8.
“We have five different suppliers for the FC2 and Cupid, but the manufacturing costs are still relatively high.
We are looking into ways of cutting out the middleman so we can reduce the cost in order to distribute more,” he says.
Danke found the instructions on the packets of all three female condoms straightforward. There was initial discomfort, but soon thereafter she and Hadebe found their rhythm. “We just needed a bit of practise.”
Mofokeng says people often find female condoms difficult to use the first time around, but there are perks to getting it right.
“The great thing about female condoms is that you can insert one ahead of the sex. The material warms up to body temperature and the outer ring can provide clitoral stimulation, which enhances pleasure.”
A study published in the 2015 open access journal Contraception found that female condom users (men and women) often find sex more pleasurable than sex with male condoms because of clitoral stimulation by the external rings.
In its analysis of research conducted in 56 developing countries, including South Africa, the study also reported that participants were comfortable using female condoms during menstruation.
Danke took a liking to the Cupid female condom, which uses a circular sponge instead of an inner ring.
She found the Cupid easier to insert because it was better lubricated and the sponge created greater sensation for her and Hadebe.
Danke and Hadebe were also able to test out the V condom. Danke rates the V and the Cupid equally comfortable but liked the fact that she could lubricate the V herself — it comes with a separate packet of lubricant.
The couple said the V was the best of the three female condoms they tried out.
The condom was approved for use by the World Health Organisation but is not yet available in South Africa.
“The condoms didn’t make having sex bad; we just needed to get used to them,” said Danke.
“With more practice I can see us using them as much as we use the male condoms, but then they need to be available. ”
The health department has a plan to make female condoms available outside of health facilities, for instance at hair salons.