Condom Facts #1

• IF YOU ARE SEXUALLY ACTIVE, under 24 and don't use a condom, you have a one-in-four chance of getting a Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD). There is a one-in-ten chance of pregnancy each time you have sex without a condom.
  
  
• CONDOMS ARE NOT NEW, cave paintings in France show they were used as long ago as 15,000 BC. The Chinese used oiled silk paper 2000 years ago and, according to Greek legend, King Minos of Crete used a goat bladder. In primitive times penis sheaths were used to protect the wearer during combat and against insect bites or tropical diseases. Colours denoted level of rank.
  
  
• THERE ARE NO RECORDS of the use of condoms during the Middle Ages, when powerful ideology from the Church dictated against contraception. Condoms re-emerged in the 17th century when syphilis reached epidemic proportions.
  
  
• THE WORD "CONDOM" came from either a Dr Condom, physician to King Charles II, or a Colonel Quondam, who made a version for Royalist soldiers around 1645. Condoms are also known as English raincoats, French letters, Jonnys, frangers, rubbers and frenchies.
  
  
• UNTIL THE DEVELOPMENT of strengthened rubber in 1833, condoms were made from sheep gut by a laborious method of soaking, scraping, "brimstoning", blowing up, drying, scenting with essences and polishing with a glass mould. Little wonder that only upper class men could afford them, and they were fitted to size before being bought.
  
  
• OVER THE YEARS, condoms have become much thinner and more sensitive. Today they are between 0.03mm and 0.08mm thick. They cannot be penetrated by sperm, which have a diameter of 0.003mm.
  
  
• IN RESPONSE TO DEMANDS FOR VARIETY, condoms are now made available in many different types, colours and sizes. You can now buy: spermicidal and non-spermicidal, ribbed or smooth, flavoured with peppermint or strawberry, lubricated and non-lubricated, straight sided or contoured, extra stength or extra thin. With so may different brands and types to choose from, why don't you try a different one?
  
  
• IN THE PAST, in some countries, condoms are not allowed by law to be displayed in shops, nor were they allowed to be sold to people under sixteen. Now anyone can buy condoms and they are freely displayed in shops. Selling condoms from convenience stores, gas stations and supermarkets makes them more available and less embarrassing to purchase. Vending machines, mail and internet order are more discreet ways you can purchase your condoms.