No Ones Wearing Condoms Anymore And It’s A Huge Problem
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Why are condom use rates at their lowest since 1992?
This is a Triple J podcast. Currently yes we can cure you of these bacterial STIs, but maybe in the near future we won't be able to to cure you.
Hello, my friend D with you for the Hook Up Podcast, where we talk more things, love, sex, dating, and relationships. And we have a national emergency. According to sexual health professionals, the SDI rates in Australia are continuously rising and at the point where some are becoming resistant. So we need to have a really serious chat about condoms. According to a national study by La Trobe University, they found that condom use was at its lowest record since 1992, with one in ten sexually active teens now using the withdrawal method as a form of contraception, and only half using a condom, despite more than 80% having access to condoms in the last time that they had sex. And we actually have heard this from you.
We've had some DMs recently. From people who have said they've been shamed for wearing a condom or that it feels better without it. So we ha we need to have a really serious conversation about this. And here to tell us all about these alarming new stats is Jason Ong. He's the professor director at Melbourne Sexual Health Center. And we're gonna find out everything we need to know right now about condoms. Jason, thank you so much for coming on the hookup. Yeah, pleasure. So I spoke about it just a little bit earlier. Um, the latest research when it comes to condoms. Talk us through this. What are we what have you found? What are we looking at here?
Yeah, so we know that condoms are highly effective at reducing transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, transmitted predominantly through genital fluids. So things like gonorrhea and chlamydia, that's really good protection. In general, what we tell people is about 90% plus effective. But we also know that it's less protective against skin to skin contact ones. So things like herpes or human papillomavirus and syphilis. Because condoms don't cover the genital skin. So I guess our concern is that condoms it's not that it doesn't work, it's just that people are not using it. So last year there was a big study done by La Trobe University of over 4,000 young people, 14 to 18 year olds, and they found that even though they had 80% of these young people had access to condoms, only half of them actually used a condom.
condom at their most recent sexual encounter. And also we know internationally, this is not just an Australian phenomenon, that the WHO has also noticed plummeting use of condoms globally as well.
Why do you think that is? said
So it's multiple causes. So in some sense, having better contraception, people might perceive that, oh, condoms are no longer necessary, so people are using things like implanon or kind of m modern contraceptions. But one major change recently has been something called PrEP or pre exposure prophylaxis for for HIV, um, particularly amongst gay and bisexual men.
What does the latest La Trobe study reveal about teen condom use?
So this means that um People are well, it's a 99% effective uh prevention against HIV. So people are less scared about HIV, and so people kind of uh wave condoms uh away. And so there's I think generally just less fear about STIs, which I don't think is is good because STIs are not great. I mean if someone gets an STI that there are uh consequences to to their body as well. And actually many STIs are asymptomatic, so people don't actually know they they have something unless they they test for it. And I think another major driver, unfortunately, is like a vicious cycle is that social norms. If you're seeing less people use condoms out there, you yourself are less likely to use condoms. And so we we see this vicious cycle of what's happening in society.
Yeah, I wanna chat about the STIs uh in a second, talk about those rates because they are increasing. Let's go to the role that sex education plays because I feel like when I was in high school, the main sex education that we had was like putting a condom onto a banana, right? And it was like the only sex education basically that we had and it was seen like the it was almost like a s a fear-mongering uh education around pregnancy.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
Why are condom use rates at their lowest since 1992?
0:00–3:06
2
What does the latest La Trobe study reveal about teen condom use?
3:06–12:57
3
Which factors (PrEP, modern contraception, social norms) are driving the drop in condom use?
12:57–17:24
4
How are rising STI rates linked to reduced condom use in Australia?
17:24–21:43