Buddy System

[reduxx]

Hey Scarleteen,

My girlfriend and I have recently began to have sexual intercourse. But of course I have done my research to understand how to stay safe. Therefore I referred to what you guys said about the buddy system and so I use a lyfestyle condom along with withdrawal. I was reading the percentages as it says about 99% effective with perfect use together and about 95% with typical use. However, I wanted to clarify what "typical use" means, for example if I do not withdrawal but my condom was on correctly or vice versa, does that count as the 95% effective with typical use?

And the past several times we had sex the condom fit really snug, but this time the condom after I unwrapped it seemed to be a little bit unrolled and felt looser or something which was different from the past times, it never slipped off though since I kept pulling it down. Would this count as improper use as the condom should have been thrown away? I even pulled out another condom but it turned out to be similar to the one I had taken off. I ended up using the second condom.

And lastly I read here that the water test is not accurate. Why is that so? I know that the companies go through a lot of testing to be able to put these condoms on the market but after seeing that maybe this condom was not like my previous ones I put water inside and there was not any leaks or anything. I checked the expiration date, did the pillow test, and checked for holes beforehand.

In the end I believe I pulled out and ejaculated in the condom as well. But thank you for your help and clarification!

[Sam W]

Hi Reduxx,

So, for perfect vs typical, I'm going to quote what Heather writes in BC bingo:
"Effectiveness rates of contraceptive methods are all figured based on one full year of use, not for each single incident of sex or use of a method. Perfect, or proper, use of a method means that in one year, that method was always used, and always used following the directions for that method to the letter. Perfect use of most methods in one full year is unusual, except for methods like the IUD or implant where a user does not have to do anything. Typical use means that in one year, sometimes a method has not been used according to the directions, or was not always used. Typical use is called that because that is most typically how methods are used in a full year, since people aren't perfect."

As for the water test, we don't recommend it because condoms are not water balloons, and doing the water test may create breakage that was not there during intercourse, causing you unnecessary stress.