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?

I agree, but I would blame 50% on user error. People very often buy wrong size, or don't store them properly. Personally, I don't think I could use a condom taken out from wallet, god knows how long it's been sitting there, but people do it anyway.

Any form of contraception that requires action at the moment of intercourse is doomed to a higher failure rate, because when you are sexually aroused, your brain chemistry changes and people are less moral, less cautious, less aware of longer-term risks or goals, and more likely to take risks.

Even if you are a conscientious, risk-averse person when you are at a baseline, when you're aroused you're more likely than usual to throw caution to the wind and prioritise short term pleasure over long term concerns. This directly contributes to lower usage of contraception. It's also behind a phenomenon where people will look at porn that normally disgusts them, apparently.

It's probably an evolutionary thing, as in when you're in a position to get pregnant, nature tries its best to make sure you get pregnant. I know that condoms aren't part of nature, but for example abstaining from sex or pulling out is a natural form of contraception and nature/evolution favours the humans that did not do those things.

I don't think it's true that the stats are untrue because people lie; they don't get those stats from polling people who are already pregnant, they are pretty robust studies where couples are randomly assigned a method.

People saying that the number of contraception fails on this site (or any) are unbelievable simply have a poor understanding of statistics. A 2% failure rate every year means 1 in 50. There are many, many, many times more than 50 people on this website and most people are sexually active for several years of their life, not just one year.

The amount of unplanned pregnancies is very high - I think it's something like 1 in 4? We don't notice the majority of them because if people are already coupled up/married and decide to go through with it, it is not always obvious whether the pregnancy was actively tried for or came along a little early in the plan or was an "oops, oh well, just one more!" and for somebody who it would be a disaster, thankfully we have fairly easy access to abortion in this country so she would not have to go through with it. Therefore, the amount of unplanned pregnancies we "see" is much lower and we assume that it is something rare, but it isn't really, it's very common. That is all unplanned pregnancies ranging from contraception failure with perfect use to contraception failure due to incomplete knowledge about how to use it, and from not using contraception at all or knowingly using it wrongly but thinking it won't matter.

my understanding is that the failure rate is extremely high among young peoepl using them in their first year of having sex, about 60% failiure rate or something.

So that will skew the stats.

I used them all through uni and had 2 break/fall off and had to have morning after pill. We were sensible and careful too.

No that's not what the stats say at all. It's not that you'd have to try for 50 years to get a pregnancy, it's that 2 couples out of 100 will get pregnant in that one year. That is cumulative, so after 10 years, you have about a 20% chance - 1 in 5 couples will have an unplanned pregnancy within that 10 year period of using condoms.

The rate slows down over time (because there is a smaller group left who have not yet had an accidental pregnancy) so it's about 37 years before you get to it being more likely than not (over 50% odds) of an accidental pregnancy. It tops out at about a 75% chance at 61 years because the rate is then increasing much more slowly - although, obviously, nobody is fertile for 61 years, so it's irrelevant.

I think this is a societal myth - younger people are more likely to be on less-reliable forms of contraception and the costs are higher of an unplanned pregnancy so these pregnancies are more "visible" but I'm not sure that the rate of failure is actually higher when these things are taken into account.

That's true of course - I was over-simplifying to make the true point that the posters who've used condoms for a couple decades with no unwanted pregnancies don't disprove the failure rate stats at all.

@SnakeOiler I’m with you. I’ve had condoms split many times. Blowing them up and filling them up with water doesn’t replicate friction, ffs! Ignore the idiots x

Thank you @LittleLegoWoman for acknowledging you mixed me up with another poster. I’ve done it myself, it can be hard to keep track of who said what. So no hard feelings.

I haven’t commented on or disagreed with you on the likelihood of which man is the father. Fwiw, I think your reasoning on that count is perfectly sound.

I suppose I should reply to you & others by saying briefly what I agree with in future, not just what I’m adding to or clarifying as it gave you the impression I disagreed with everything you said- when I actually agreed with 95%. I need to slow down sometimes.

I used condoms/and or pills for 16 years with various partners and never once had a problem. Then current partner we had one split early on, used a morning after pill, still got pregnant. Next used the pill, took consistently, got pregnant. Nothing but abstinence is going to completely prevent you from pregnancy.

One of my closest friends is like this. She got pregnant on the pill. So then she used the pill + condoms, and still got pregnant. She then went on the implant + condoms, and still got pregnant- three more times. The whole time she was blamed for not taking the pill/using condoms correctly or it was a ‘bad batch’ of implants.

I have read studies though where a minority of women are immune to hormonal contraception. Their bodies literally produce counter hormones to override the contraception. Like this study: www.discovermagazine.com/health/genetics-may-explain-why-birth-control-doesnt-always-work-for-some-women

Different women have sperm friendly to sperm hostile vaginas & cervical mucous as well. How easy it is for the sperm to swim and survive affects fertility too.

But how to explain condom failure three times? Unless she's chosen one and should try playing Jackpot with this amount of weird luck.

There’s no need to explain, 3 condom failures over thirty years of sex isn’t unbelievable at all.

I've got pregnant three times in my life while still using a condom (2 resulted in miscarriages unfortunately)
But the third (my beautiful DD) was conceived when I hadn't ovulated for months, used a condom that had a massive tear when he pulled out, I then went and got a morning after pill.
None of this worked and my daughter was born in the July. I wasn't happy to be pregnant because the guy was a knob but she is the most beautiful thing in my life so silver lining and all that lol

Thanks for sharing.

Did you know the condom had broken on all occasions?

And it was always broken in this short window of fertile days?

@SisterAct123 the first two no. Only realised when my period was late.

3rd time yes - the tear was really visible so I went that morning (the happy act happened at about 4am) to the chemist and got the MAP that's supposed to cover you for 72 hours.
Seriously didn't think I could be preggers because of no period for 3 months but took it anyway

Out of curiosity do you know the brand of condom? I'm wondering which ones have the highest accidents rate

@xogossipgirlxo hahaha well the ones that split with my daughter were supplied by the family planning clinic. It says XCS on the packet. I should actually bin them tbh lol

The other times were about 20 years so sorry can't remember those ones but the guy brought them both times

Wow, well done to family planning clinic😂Goal achieved. Just kidding. We always use Durex and honestly never had a problem with them. It would be interesting to see if i.e. those extra thin ones break more often etc. I need to do my research.

People don’t use them properly, especially when drunk or inexperienced. They try to take them off whilst still inside for example or just don’t fit it properly in the first place. They can also fall off on their own or tear although this isn’t as common.

@xogossipgirlxo I will add that would be the first out of the supply from the family planning pack that's ever failed on me.
However he didn't want to wear it and was having a strop when I insisted he wore it so he faffed around putting it on. So I guess he made it useless by doing that

Yeah, probably user error was incorporated. Unless it's done in strict scientific environment, it's hard to say who's being honest about using pill, condom etc. properly.

@xogossipgirlxo very true. We will never know lol

I'm fantastic at squeezing the damn things off. Four different partners, drunk or stone cold sober, they put it on or I do, I can only think of one occasion I was 100% confident it worked. I'm always agog at people who actually rely on them.

I didn’t put my friend on trial and impugn her honesty as that’s a stupid question unless you are implying one is lying. Of course she was fertile, she got pregnant and of course the condom malfunctioned, as they were using them. With 15 in 100 getting pregnant every year, your odds are not that good over thirty years.