Female Condoms Remain Structurally Sound After
Being Washed and Reused as Many as Seven Times
The female condom can be washed and reused several times and still
meet structural standards set by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), according to a study conducted in South Africa.1 When a sample
of women washed, dried and relubricated female condoms up to seven
times, the devices continued to meet FDA requirements with respect
to the amount of pressure they could withstand and the strength
of their seams. Five holes were detected in the 295 condoms used,
but these were not associated with the number of times the condom
was used.
A sample of 50 women--predominantly commercial sex workers and
clients at an inner-city sexually transmitted disease clinic--were
enrolled in the study and instructed in how to clean a female condom
for reuse. (The procedure consisted of rinsing the condom; washing
it for 60 seconds with liquid detergent; rinsing it; patting it
dry with clean tissues or towels, or air-drying; and relubricating
it with vegetable oil just before reusing.) Participants were given
a condom and asked to use, wash and reuse it, and return it to the
study site for laboratory testing. If the condom was found to be
structurally sound, the women were asked to repeat the cycle with
a new condom, reusing it twice; the cycle was repeated until the
women washed a single condom seven times (i.e., used it a total
of eight times).
Laboratory analyses of the used condoms tested the devices' water
leakage, the maximum pressure they could withstand before bursting
and the tensile strength of the seams. Results were compared both
with FDA standards for new condoms and with results for a sample
of 20 unused condoms from the same production batch from which the
study condoms were drawn.
Three-quarters of the women used liquid detergent to wash the condoms,
as they had been instructed to do; the rest used bar soap or, in
one instance, soap powder. Three in five women air-dried the condoms,
and 99% relubricated the devices before reuse, primarily with baby
oil, sunflower oil or petroleum jelly.
Five holes were detected in the 295 condoms used, for a breakage
rate of 2%. In three cases, the women had noticed the holes and
told clinic staff about them when they returned the condoms for
testing; the other two holes were found during the water leakage
test. The holes were detected after various numbers of reuses, with
no clear trend related to the number of times a condom was washed.
Moreover, the investigators note that four of the holes were in
the part of the condom that lies outside the vagina and that is
twisted during removal of the device.
Regardless of the number of times a condom was washed, test values
for burst and seam strength were above minimum FDA standards. Comparisons
of reused and new condoms showed no differences in results for seam
strength and minor variations for pressure.
The researchers comment that "although occasional holes result
from the repeated handling of the condom, these are not sufficiently
common to make the practice [of washing and reusing female condoms]
unacceptable." Their overall conclusion is that "while
it is preferable to use a new female condom or male condom, a reused
female condom may be an acceptable next choice in situations where
this is not possible."--D. Hollander
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