What The Experts Are Saying About Condoms
"Condom use is of little or no value in protecting patients from papilloma infection."
Thomas v. Sedlacek, M.D. The Colposcopist, Vol. XXIV, No. 4, Fall 1992. Dr. Sedlacek is past president of the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology.
"Condoms are useless in preventing HPV transmission, just because the virus is spread by cells that are shed onto the scrotum, which then comes into contact with vulvar skin."
Michael Campion, M.D., OB/GYN News, Vol., 26, No. 12, 1991. Dr. Campion is director of a cancer research and treatment center at the Graduate Hospital, Philadelphia.
"Human papillomavirus, thought of as the 'seed' or cervical cancer, is a regional rather than localized disease, and its infectivity is not contained by condoms."
John V. Dervin, M.D. Family Planning News, 22:12, June 1992.
"Because of the location of the virus, it can be transmitted from person to person, because of skin to skin contact, in which the vulva of the woman touches the male's skin and transmits the virus. The condom would have done nothing to protect against that transmission."
Reynolds W. Archer, M.D., from speech delivered at Prevention in Focus conference, 1994.
"Condoms are not of particular use for preventing the development of passage of the virus. Monogamy, that's the name of the game."
Alex Ferenczy, M.D., professor of pathology and obstetrics and gynecology at The Sir Mortimer B. Davis - Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Quebec.
"Condoms will not protect you against HPV."
Dr. Henry Buck, Chairman of the American College Health Association's Task Force on HPV and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
"It is more realistic to expect teens to be abstinent (which is 100% effective in preventing sexual transmission of HIV) than it is to expect them to use condoms 100% of the time (which has an HIV failure rate approaching 100% with life-long use)."
Dr. David G. Collart, "Condom Failure for Protection from Sexual Transmission of the HIV: A Review of the Medical Literature."
"What do I know about all this? I'm an infectious-diseases physician and an AIDs doctor to the poor... Unmarried people shouldn't be having sex. Few people have the courage to say this publicly. In the context of our culture, they sound like cranks. Doctors can't fix most of the things you can catch out there. There's no cure for AIDS. There's no cure for herpes or genital warts. Gonorrhea and chlamydial infection can ruin your changes of ever getting pregnant and can harm your baby if you do.. There is no safe sex."
Robert C. Noble, M.D., There Is No Safe Sex, Newsweek, April 1, 1991. Dr. Noble is a professor of medicine at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY.
Dr. W. David Hager, Professor of Infectious Diseases, University of Kentucky Medical School, Lexington, Kentucky, 1995.
"Condoms are constructed in a way in which they have layers... there are ports that are fifty (50) times larger than an HIV size virus. So if we blindfolded each one of you, and said that there is a hold in this room that is fifty (50) times larger than yourself, do you think you might be able to find that? I think the point is, that you can."
Reynolds W. Archer, M.D., from speech delivered at Prevention in Focus conference, 1994.
"Many physicians are now calling for condom advocates to reexamine their position. An interesting example shows that proponents of safe sex themselves are questioning how safe it is. Dr. Theresa Crenshaw, past president of the American Association of Sex Education, Counselors, and Therapists, recalls the way her colleagues responded to condom usage:
"On June 19, 1987, I gave a lecture on AIDS to 800 sexologists at the World Congress of Sexologie in Heidelberg. Most of them recommended condoms to their clients and students. I asked them if they had available the partner of their dreams, and knew that person carried the virus, would they have sex, depending on a condom for protection? No one raised their hand. After a long delay, one timid hand surfaced from the back of the room. I told them that it was irresponsible to give advise to others that they would not follow themselves. The point is, putting a mere balloon between a healthy body and a deadly disease is not safe."
As quoted by Dinah Richard, Ph.D., Has Sex Education Failed Our Teenagers?, 1990, p. 25.
See the Summary of NIH Report on Condom Effectiveness Chart
