Condoms and rate of failure

[SisterAct123]

Condoms are also 98% effective at preventing pregnancy. This means that 2 out of 100 women using male condoms as contraception will become pregnant in a year. In real world use, about 15 in every 100 women a year who use condoms as contraception become pregnant (85% effective).

This is from the nhs website. How can they be so ineffective?

They can fall off, tear, if they are out of date I imagine the failure rate is potentially high too

Because the real world figure includes people who intend to use condoms as contraception, but don't actually do it in the heat of the moment.

I use condoms with my husband. But we use with the knowledge that if there is a failure then so be it. We've been married 7 years and I've never fallen pregnant unintentionally. Only had two mishaps in that time

I’ve had two split on me. Needed morning after for both, and despite that, still resulted in an unwanted pregnancy and subsequent termination. It gave me huge issues around sex and I could never relax and enjoy it again because of the trauma from that.

i was not a candidate for hormonal contraception.

thankfully in ltr now with partner having had a vasectomy means I no longer have the fear.

I imagine idiots like me don’t help with the stats. When I had my booking appt for DC2 the midwife asked what contraception I used and I said condoms - but on the occasion DC2 was conceived we hadn’t used one (total miscalculation on my part about whether it was a fertile day or not).

Many men wear an incorrect sized condom. This can lead to it leaking, falling off or bursting. Some also don't realise that oil based lubricants shouldn't be used with them.

If someone was to use a condom correctly would there be no chance of pregnancy?

I'm talking to a pub friend who is telling me has been dating two guys and had sex with both. One bareback and other condom, (condom guy was first).

She's stating she's worried she won't know who the farther is..... The non condom guy came in the condom and he lasted a few minutes, bareback came inside her twice.

She's very vulnerable and I've told her to seek assistance and everything.

Horrible phrase...

Only abstinence is completely effective.

In my uni experience, condoms are also often put on when drunk (or with teeth) which again lowers the odds of them being on correctly (and not tearing).

No, perfect use is 98% effective. No form of contraception is 100% apart from abstinence.

The failure rate is so high because there are so many numpties out there that don't know how to use them properly.

Just to add, in 10 years of using condoms I've never had one fail either. Talking atleast 2000 I would have thought.

Well this seems very very likely that it is the second guy. Condoms are pretty effective when used properly. Presuming they had no mishaps using the condom, I think its safe to bet on the other guy.

A friend of mine had one fall off the guy when they were having sex. As people said also some lubricants can degrade them. Also, they can split or pop. But this, it is real-world data, so some of those in the failure rate might have lied about using one due to being embarrassment. People often lie in surveys

We've used condoms as our sole form of contraception for 15 years with zero mishaps.

I fell pregnant on the pill that is more effective than condoms - yet never fallen pregnant using condoms.

A lot of people do not use them properly, obviously making them less effective.

I don’t mean this in a funny way but if you have sex you know there’s always a chance and I think some are naive thinking otherwise. (I was the naive 18 year old who fell pregnant using the pill that I thought would be 100%, by the way)

In your pregnant friend’s case the father will be the man she did not use a condom with.
The 2% failure stat (for perfect use) is over a year of having sex, not the failure rate of a one off use where nothing went wrong.
It’s not an absolute certainty that the father will be the man she didn’t use a condom with but it’s so much more likely that it isn’t worth worrying about much in my opinion.
The obvious solution t gain further peace of mind is to do a DNA test with the probable father.

Ineffective because of drunk people putting them on inside out 😂

For her sake she can't get over it all.

Then she should do a DNA test. Is there a reason that’s not an option?

My suspicion is that a fair percentage of the failures are people who didn't actually use one but claimed they did to their gp so they didn't have to admit it

She's just an anxious person. Doesn't believe in abortion etc. i guess it's just the unknown and stigma of single mum etc.

Was it supposed to be an exclusive relationship and she’s worried no condom man will find out she cheated on him?
Or she doesn’t want to tell either guy that there’s a possibility of them being the father of her baby if it leans admitting she was dating multiple men at once?
She only needs to rule in/on one of the men, so she doesn’t need to tell both about the DNA test.

No it doesn’t. It only includes those who use them properly and those who use them improperly. A big issue is men buying size XXL condoms when their penis is actually a size M. If the condom is too big, it will leak.

Yes the 2% failure is measured over a year, but it can happen at any time during the year. It’s not like it takes a year for condoms to fail.