Only about 12 million female condoms are delivered each year in poor countries, compared with about 6 billion male condoms. Couples complained that the female version was awkward, unsightly, noisy and slippery — or, as Mitchell Warren, who was one of its earliest champions, now says, ‘the yuck factor was a problem.’ Many women tried it, but in the end, it was adopted mainly by prostitutes. Now scientists are trying again. A new design — much the same at one end, different at the other — has been developed, and its makers hope it will succeed where its predecessor failed.

Furthermore, 32 rubber condom samples collected in 2004 from the German market were surveyed for nitrosamines by determining the amount migrating into an artificial sweat test solution. The levels released from condoms varied from < 10 to 660 mug per kg material (i. e., up to 1.4 mug nitrosamines per condom). In a model calculation, not considering the differences that may exist in the resorption rate, we have calculated that the exposure from condoms may exceed the exposure from food 1.5-3 fold.