The advantages

To you, using a condom may seem to be an obstacle. It can be difficult to bring up the subject with your partner, but he or she will certainly be relieved that you took the initiative. Remember that most young people use condoms. There are many advantages to using a condom. Here are a few of them:

For your health

• By protecting yourself against sexually transmissible infections (STI), you’re also protecting your sexual health and your fertility.
• Slipping on a condom only takes a few seconds. It’s nothing compared to what treatment for some STIs might entail or for the pain that could stop you from having sexual intercourse.
• The condom can spare you a lot of bother and even save your life.

For your pleasure during and after the act

• Using a condom helps delay ejaculation. It’s a good way to have pleasure last longer.
• The hygienic side of condoms will be appreciated when intercourse is over because the condom avoids spillage of semen.
• Lubricated, ridged, rounded... sizes, colours, flavours... There’s one for every taste! Something to spice up your sex life.

To share the responsibility for contraception

• For a girl, the condom is a way to protect herself both from STIs and from unwanted pregnancy. If you use a condom as well as the pill, you have double protection.
• For a boy, the condom is the only method of contraception that he can use and over which he has any control.
• For a couple, the condom is a joint responsibility in terms of protection and contraception.

For all sorts of other good reasons

• At the pharmacy, the grocery store, in public toilets or service stations, condoms can be found everywhere.
• They’re affordable and easy to carry around with you.
• Some places even offer them free of charge, places like the school or CLSC nurse’s office or the youth centre.
• No matter what the age, sex, ethnic origin or sexual orientation of its user, the condom doesn’t discriminate in protecting the entire population.
• Condoms don’t require a medical prescription and there’s no “legal age” to get them.