Encare Contraceptive Insert!!

[TownHall]

Hey Scarleteen, I bought some Encare contraceptive inserts last month and i barely used one today. I didn’t think to check the expiration date because I had barely bought them last month but my bf checked it. They had expired 08/18!!!! Fortunately we double up on protection so he wore a condom and I used that spermicide insert but would it have still worked even 4 months past expiration?? I feel a bit nervous about it not working and more so putting something expired in such a sensitive part of my body

[Heather]

Well, spermicide can only even get a chance to work if it can have contact with sperm cells, so unless the condom wasn't on the whole time, or it broke or slipped off, it wouldn't even had the chance to work or not. In other words, it wouldn't matter, because the condom did the whole job by itself, make sense?

That said, that's a relatively recent expiration date, so while we can't make any promises, chances are goof the efficacy hadn't radically changed already. Per ingredients going funky, I'd be more concerned about it irritating your skin than not killing sperm, personally.

Just FYI, spermicide isn't that effective, period, and again, if and when condoms are used properly, there's really nothing for it to do. A lot of people also find it irritates their genitals or causes dryness. If just having this as a backup makes you feel better, and you don't have anything you don't like about using it, that's totally understandable, just wanted to pass that on.