Kevin Conley doesn’t ask women if they have a condom.
“The trade-off between pleasure and the risks — I automatically go for not using the condom,” said the 20-year-old sports management junior. “It feels better.”
However, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is offering a startup grant of $100,000 to whoever can create the “next generation condom.”
The foundation lists in its challenge it is looking for the next condom that “significantly preserves or enhances pleasure, in order to improve uptake and regular use.”
“If the technology’s there to where I don’t have to risk getting an STD or getting somebody pregnant, and I could still have that same level of pleasure – that would be amazing,” Conley said.
A company called Origami and the University of Washington accepted the foundation’s challenge. They have made advancements toward a new condom. Rather than a latex condom, Origami has a silicon male, female and anal condom. Each of these condoms is lubricated on the inside.
“[A new condom] can only mean good things for the health promotion field because it gives people more options,” said Samantha Evans, health educator at GatorWell Health Promotion Services.
The University of Washington’s discovery is more of a contraceptive and guard against HIV for women. Two first-year graduate students created a gooey solution that can be inserted into a syringe.
Victoria Joyal, vice president of VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood at UF, said the next generation of condoms and sex education need to be intertwined.
“This can only be effective if it is presented alongside quality sex education to show potential users why they need protection during sex and that it should be used for all sex acts,” said the 22-year-old computer engineering senior.
Conley said not using a condom worries him, but “the pleasure outweighs the risk every single time.”
