Female Condom Skills Training Reduces Unprotected Sex Acts Among Women

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 13 Aug 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Using a randomized trial with a sample of 409 U.S. women recruited from family planning clinics in northern California, researchers tested the hypothesis that female condom skills training would successfully lead to an increase in sustained use of female condoms and protected sex. Participants were randomly placed in the experimental four-session female condom skills training intervention or the comparison four-session women's general health promotion intervention and were followed for six months. Compared to the comparison group, women in the experimental group reported increased female condom use but no reduction in male condom use. Therefore, researchers concluded that skills training can increase female condom use and the overall level of protected sexual acts.

"These results suggest that our intervention has the potential to reduce HIV risk among women and can be an effective supplement to other HIV prevention strategies currently available for women and their sexual partners," the study's authors inferred.

From: "The Efficacy of Female Condom Skills Training in HIV Risk Reduction Among Women: A Randomized, Controlled Trial."

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