This Monday, February 13, is
International Condom Day
, and a survey conducted by the
AIDS Healthcare Foundation
showed that a large part of the population
does not use a condom during sexual intercourse
.
And that, in addition,
there is a strong stigmatization among adults over 50 years of age
, who refuse to answer on the subject.
In 2008, AHF created International Condom Day on Valentine's Eve.
In this way,
it was in charge of promoting its use in a more attractive way every February 13
, since 40 years after the first diagnosis of HIV, this method continues to be the most effective and accessible to combat sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies.
The latest AHF Argentina survey was carried out
on 6,814 people,
including
1,474 people over 50 years of age
.
The data that emerged from this survey showed that
38.8%
of those over 50 preferred not to answer the question about whether they use condoms in their sexual relations.
“I think that
it is still a taboo to touch on the subject of condom use
, and the subject of sexual relations.
In a population over 50 years of age, it is a difficult topic to address, and it is demonstrated when they do not want to answer a question as easy as whether or not they use condoms”, explains Miguel Pedrola, scientific director of AHF for Latin America and the
Caribbean
.
Asked about the reasons that govern this attitude or behavior of the elderly, Pedrola analyzes: "I think it has a lot to do with
the type of education we
received, there are people over 50 who were educated with the idea that Sex was not discussed in families, and on many
occasions sex was linked to sin
.
The director of AHF emphasizes that talking about condoms was not only referring to sex, but was talking about "
avoiding everything related to sexually transmitted infections
that, due to the same stigma and discrimination, were linked to certain populations and not to that anyone could have it."
Marisa Labovsky
, sexologist and member of the Argentine Medical Association of Contraception, assures that the condom "
continues to be linked to the fact that it is used to avoid getting pregnant, and since there is no such danger in people over 50, it is not used
. Men older than 50 often do not use a condom because they consider that since the erections are not like those of an 18-year-old, it is not necessary to use it”.
The statistics provided by the survey also revealed that there was a very low percentage of people over 50 who responded affirmatively to the question about condom use:
only 17% of the total
.
The rest of the respondents use it sometimes or never.
“Men use it little, or don't use it at all.
They may have a parallel sexual relationship with someone and then come and infect their stable partner.
That's why the important thing is that
women also have the condom on hand
, many tell you
'I didn't notice, she must have taken it off'
.
But this
is the only way to prevent pregnancy and a sexually transmitted disease.
”
This low use of the method
is the same in the sample analyzed in young people and adolescents
in the same period of time, data that supports that the non-use of condoms is a generalized problem in the population.
The survey shows that a large number of adults and young people do not use a condom in their sexual relations.
Photo: Shutterstock
“I think that in those under 50 it is not so much the problem to talk about condoms or not,
but rather that they don't use them either
.
They are different variables, what we do end up seeing is that
age does not matter
, because condoms are not used”, confirms Pedrola.
Labovsky differs from this vision and states that young people "
use more condoms than people over 50
, it is much more difficult for older people to incorporate it into their sexual relations. Therefore, our recommendation
is always the use of a double method
, and If they are going to stop using the double method, at least both people
, or all those involved,
have studies of sexually transmitted infections .”
Among those who never use condoms,
19.7%
mentioned in the survey that
if their partner proposed it, it would facilitate their use
, since wanting to incorporate condoms in a couple continues to be stigmatized and not seen as a possibility of protected and pleasant sexual health .
Among the causes that would help to use more condoms, one of the most frequently mentioned phrases is "having them on hand when I need them", yielding 40.8
% among those who responded never using them
.
“From the outset, what can be stated is that
there is no formal and broad implementation of the Comprehensive Sexual Education Law.
Everything that is information is not normally carried out in the ways that it should be: with education in schools, or through information campaigns -which are not there either, or there is very little- and which the national government has begun to have but Currently
, everything that has to do with condoms has lost its validity
, ”adds Pedrola in this regard.
And then he affirms that this is why they seek "these days to put the issue on the agenda and to talk about it again, because we take into account that we have been seeing a very
significant increase in sexually transmitted infections, while we continue with the HIV/AIDS pandemic" . On this last point, he added that "
testing
for early detection of the infection
is also key ".
“This issue is touched on less than one would like, although there are condoms in the City, there is a lack of visibility, the Comprehensive Sexual Education Law is still green, very green.
We cannot leave everything in the hands of the family, education is the leg that is still missing
.
We must talk about the condom, the prevention of infections.
Now the topic of threesomes, of sex toys, is fashionable, and sometimes they don't know that the condom
is also used to cover sex toys,
”warns Labovsky, who was also president of the Argentine Society of Child and Adolescent Gynecology.
What the results of the largest sexually transmitted infections in Argentina show
In Argentina,
the 39th Epidemiological Bulletin of the Directorate of Response to HIV, STIs, Viral Hepatitis and Tuberculosis of the Ministry of Health
disseminated at the end of 2022 several alarming data regarding the current situation of those who suffer from sexually transmitted infections.
Regarding syphilis, since 2010 the incidence rate of this infection at the national level has
grown steadily
, very markedly in the last five years, reaching its peak of
56.1 people per hundred thousand inhabitants for both sexes in 2019
.
In 2020 there was a pronounced drop, with a rate of 23.3 per hundred thousand inhabitants, but the drop could also be due to external factors such as the pandemic.
In 2021, a rise began to be marked
, reaching 26.5 people per hundred thousand inhabitants.
39th Epidemiological Bulletin of the Department of Response to HIV, STIs, Viral Hepatitis and Tuberculosis of the Ministry of Health.
According to the bulletin, in 2021 the notification of syphilis cases
was much higher in women (58.2%) than in men (41.8%)
;
This allows us to infer that the access to health services could have been higher among them.
The proportion of reported cases of unspecified syphilis is much higher than early syphilis in both sexes.
Regarding gonorrhea,
the rate in 2021 was 6.4 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants
.
In 2020, the report could have been affected by the health emergency, and registered a drop of 13.7% compared to the previous year.
41% of the reported cases are in young people between the ages of 15 and 24, followed by 29% in the 25-34 age group.
Gonorrhea.
39th Epidemiological Bulletin of the Department of Response to HIV, STIs, Viral Hepatitis and Tuberculosis of the Ministry of Health.
Regarding these latest data, “Unfortunately,
we have a health system that is focused on the disease and not on prevention
.
This means that other people are not used to it or that they can easily access prevention services and only arrive with the disease.
And the increase in the number of people with syphilis, the increase in the number of people with gonorrhea, is to continue looking at the problem when it has already passed.
We are not focusing on trying to prevent it from happening
”, concludes Pedrola.
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