Condoms can reduce the risk of sexually-transmitted diseases, but they’re not as effective as some may think, warned women’s health expert, Dr. Judith Reichman today.
During her segment on NBC’s “Today Show” Monday, Reichman said that though some believe condoms provide nearly 100 percent protection against STDs, the truth is that even with perfect use, condoms offer protection against HIV by just 80 percent, while for Chlamydia, gonorrhea and herpes simplex virus, the figure is unknown, since no formal studies have been made on the subject.
When it comes to condom effectiveness against pregnancy, the figure is closer to 90 percent, Reichman said.
“If 100 women and their partners use condoms for a year in what is described as ‘perfect use,’ two will become pregnant. With “Typical use” (not used consistently or correctly), 15 women will become pregnant,” she said.
Moreover, a three-year study on condom effectiveness against the human papillomavirus or HPV, showed that women who used a condom were 70 percent less likely to become infected with the disease than those who used condoms less than 5 percent of the time.
“Even women whose partners used condoms just more than half of the time had a 50 percent reduction in the development of HPV,” Richman said.
About 80 percent of sexually active women tend to get genital HPV within five years of becoming sexually active, studies show.
Although a woman’s immune system generally kills the virus, those women whose immunity doesn’t protect them from the disease tend to get precancerous lesions in the cervix, vagina, vulva skin and anus as well as other warts. If these cancers are not discovered early on, survival rates for those who have them are about 60 percent.
But there is good news thanks to research scientists. A new HPV and cervical cancer drug is now available, called Gardasil, manufactured by Merck & Co. which targets four different kinds of HPV viruses which cause 70 percent of all cervical cancer cases. This vaccine is also effective in preventing cancers as well as active infections.
It is given in a series of three injections at a cost of $120 each over six months. Those who receive injections report that immunity is restored a month after the last injection. But doctors caution that the vaccine is to be given prior to infection and to young women before they become sexually active.
Still, Reichman says condoms should be used as a matter of good reproductive health.
