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Question
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I read a previous answer you wrote, that says using condoms and foam together is just as effective as the Pill.
I was blown away by that! I had never seen any charts or percentages about the effectiveness of the combination.
I heard that if you are on the Pill, there is only a one out of 1,000 chance you could get pregnant. Is this the
case also with condoms and foam? If so, I would certainly be able to sleep better at night!
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Answer
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Although there have been few studies that looked directly at the combination of spermicide and condoms, using
simple statistics, we can deduce the rate of effectiveness. All you need to do is multiply the effectiveness
rates of the two forms of birth control together. Thus, if you combine a condom (12 percent typical failure rate)
with spermicidal foam (21 percent typical failure rate), the failure rate plummets to 2.5 percent (.12 multiplied
by .21 is equal to .025).
You are correct that under ideal circumstances -- meaning no human error -- a woman taking the Combination Pill
(including both estrogen and progesterone hormones) has only a one in 1,000 chance of getting pregnant in a
given year. However, in real-world use, approximately three percent of women taking the Combination Pill get pregnant
each year. Given that the failure rates I quoted above are for typical use and not ideal, the combination of condoms
with foam is actually slightly more effective than the Pill alone!
Sleep well!
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Best,
Dr. Sandor Gardos
MyPleasure provides up-to-date and useful sexual education materials in combination
with a store that allows people to buy, try, and learn about new aspects of
sexuality. We believe everybody deserves a great sex life.
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