A Brief History Of Safe Sex
It's been exactly 15 years since the FDA first approved "female condoms," but it still hasn't found its niche, except perhaps in the sex trade. In fact, while engineers at Apple have already released the next iteration of the 18-month-old iPhone, there hasn't even been a second-generation product of the lady-centric contraceptive.But the Chicago-based Female Health Company is hoping to change that. Its redesigned product, which contains a softer type of rubber called nitrile as well as adhesive foam, is being reviewed by the FDA and, if approved, could be available for sale in the U.S. sometime next year. As a "Class 3 Medical Device," female condoms are held to the same rigorous FDA standards as pacemakers, heart valves and silicone breast implants, with clinical trials costing as much as $6 million. Male condoms, which are Class 2 devices, are much cheaper to produce and need only pass breakage tests.
Complaints about female condoms are not so different from those about the male version: slippery, noisy, awkward, uncomfortable. "The yuck factor was a problem," Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, told the New York Times last year when explaining the device's failure to catch on. Then there's the stigma associated with buying condoms, a topic even the Golden Girls once addressed.
Of course, the history of protected sex, in the broadest sense, used to be a whole lot yuckier. Take the practice of women in ancient Egypt, who resorted to using crocodile dung as a spermicide. Modern research has shown that crocodile dung actually created optimum conditions for sperm because of its alkalinity, but the sheer grossness of the practice might have worked if only to completely ruin the mood.
In the 1540s, an Italian doctor named Gabriele Fallopius — the same man who discovered and subsequently named the fallopian tubes of the female anatomy — wrote about syphilis, advocating the use of layered linen during intercourse for more "adventurous" men. Legendary lover Casanova wrote about his pitfalls with medieval condoms made of dried sheep gut, referring to them as "dead skins" in his memoir. Even so, condoms made of animal intestine — known as "French letters" in England and la capote anglaise in France — remained popular for centuries, though always expensive and never easy to obtain, meaning the device was often re-used.
In 1844, Charles Goodyear patented the process of vulcanizing rubber, inadvertently ushering in an entirely new era in contraception — condoms as thick as bicycle tires and still considered re-usable. But getting one's hands on this new-fangled "technology" became a whole lot harder in 1873, when Congress passed the Comstock Law, prohibiting the transportation of obscene material like prophylactics and pornography.
The 1930s saw the invention of latex as well as the invention of the first-ever female condom in the U.S., the "Gee Bee Ring." In 1965, the Supreme Court ruled that married couples had the constitutionally protected right to contraception; in 1972 that same right was extended to unmarried couples. .
Condom use waned in the 1960s after the introduction of the birth control pill and remained stagnant until the arrival of the AIDS virus in the 1980s, when sales exploded, jumping 33% in the U.S. in 1987. Today, some 6 billion condoms are sold worldwide each year, though sales have plateaued in the past decade — policy experts blame "prevention fatigue" while condom-makers have responded by becoming increasingly creative, or perhaps ridiculous. What began as a simple choice between lubricated, ribbed or custom-fit now includes flavored, novelty and glow-in-the-dark. One can even purchase condom accessories like the $28 Condo-M, a plastic and aluminum bedside container. . Even the presidential campaign spawned Barack Obama and John McCain-themed condoms with corresponding slogans .
The origin of the word "condom" is unknown, though the story of a certain Dr. Condom in 19th century England remains one of the more persistent myths. The term at least trumps "intravaginal pouch," a phrase suggested in lieu of "female condom" by an FDA panel tasked in the early 1990s with reviewing an early prototype of the women's contraceptive.
性行为安全简史
FDA最初同意女用避孕套已有15年了， 但是，女用避孕套可能除了在性交易范围使用外，还未在市场占一席之地，当苹果公司向市场推出了问世仅1年半的下一代 iPhone电话之后， 市场仍未见到第2代女用避孕用具产品的身影．位于芝加哥的 Female Health Company 希望能变这一状况. 经过重新设计，该公司推出了1款女用避孕产品，该产品内含质地更柔软的丁腈橡胶和粘合泡沫．当前，FDA正在对该避孕产品进行检验, 检验如通过，该款避孕产品可望于明年在全美上市．女用避孕套作为第三类医疗器材范畴内的产品，与起搏器, 心瓣膜植入物和乳腺硅酮植入物一样，都必须按照FDA要求的高达6百万美元临床实验费的苛刻规定． 相比之下， 列入第二类医疗器材的男用避孕套的生产成本则较低廉多了，此外, 男用避孕套只须通过破裂测试即可．使用者普遍抱怨，女用避孕套与男用避孕套之间在使用上并没有多大的差别：２类避孕套使用时都有滑溜, 产生异声，感觉不便，不适的情况．美国艾滋病疫苗倡导联盟执行理事Mitchell Warren去年在接受New York Times 访谈中在解释避孕器材不受市场关注时说：＂反对因素是个问题＂．随之而来的是购买避孕套与受窘感有关，连电视剧[黄金女郎]中也探讨过这个话题．当然, 安全性行为在历史演绎中, 大体来说, 还是不受重视的. 拿古埃及妇女行房为例, 她们使用鳄鱼粪作为杀精剂. 但是现代研究表明, 鳄鱼粪呈碱性, 实际上却是为精液创造了最佳的环境, 但是, 如果个体心情不佳, 行房时粗俗野蛮, 或许会起到避孕的作用.
16世纪40 年代, 有一位名叫Gabriele Fallopius的意大利医生－女子解剖学输卵试管的发现者和命名者, 在其撰写的专门阐述梅毒的著作中称，＂胆大的＂男子在性交时可以使用叠层麻布避孕．连情圣Casanova 也曾撰书介绍使用风干后的羊盲肠－近代避孕套－作为避孕的方法，卡萨诺瓦以后还在其自传中称该类避孕套为＂死皮＂．尽管如此，使用动物肠制成的避孕套，在英国称作＂French letters＂，在法国叫做la capote anglaise （英国骑马套），虽然价格昂贵，且不易获取，但是仍然畅销了数个世纪，这说明该避孕用具具有可重复使用的特点．1844年，Charles Goodyear取得了硫化橡胶制造工艺的专利，不经意间开创了避孕法的新纪元，当时的避孕套有自行车轮胎那么厚，还可以重复使用．但是在1873年，国会通过了康斯托克法，该法案规定禁运避孕药和淫秽出版物之类的色情物品，该法通过后，为新品硫化橡胶取得＂技术＂支持也就变得越发艰难．20世纪30年代，胶乳和第一款女用避孕套--"Gee Bee Ring." 先后在美国问世．1965年，最高法院规定已婚夫妇享有受宪法保护的避孕权；1972年，未婚男女也获此权力．（1978年之前，爱尔兰还禁止销售避孕套，连公教会也纷纷指责避孕套）．20世纪60年代, 随着避孕丸的上市，避孕套逐渐在市场上销声匿迹，20世纪80年代爆发了艾滋病毒以后，避孕套又卷土重来，1987年，避孕套在美国的销量猛增33％．在过去的数十年，避孕套的销量始终欠佳，现如今，全球避孕套每年却创下约６百万的销量，在政策专家频频对＂预防疲劳＂倍加指责时，避孕套生产商（以男用避孕套为市场目标）却以不断创新或不可思议的方式积极应对．当前上市的避孕套产品可谓五花八门, 有润滑型, 棱纹型或定制型, 产品风格独到,有风情类, 创意类 和夜光型．大众还可以买到避孕配套产品, 例如售价28美元的 Condo-M--铝塑为材质的床头柜. ．即便在总统竞选中也出现了以巴拉克·奥巴马和约翰.麦凯恩为题的大幅标语 ．＂避孕套＂一词的起源无人知晓，即便流传着19世纪某位英国医生，Dr. Condom的说法，这也是诸多扑朔迷离的传说之一．不过，该术语至少着重体现了＂阴道内的小口袋＂这一概念，所以，FDA专家小组在20世纪90年代在检验前期一款女用避孕用具时建议使用该词来代替＂女用避孕套＂．
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