Building the next generation condom, easier to use and more sensitive, will hopefully lead to safer sex.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation took a step in that direction by setting up a design competition hopefully leading to a better condom that “significantly preserves or enhances pleasure, in order to improve uptake and regular use.”
The 11 winners of the competition’s first round, recently chosen from 812 applicants, will get $100,000 each to further develop their ideas. And, the final winner could get $1,000,000.
The 11 winners’ designs ranged from incorporating pull-on tabs or origami-like folds (vs rolled up) for speedier applications to using new materials that’re stronger and more sensitive than the traditional latex for “reducing the loving distance between partners.”
It’s strange how little attention is given to overpopulation which is the source of many of our current problems. Maybe a new generation of condoms will encourage more widespread use of the humble condom to prevent disease and unplanned pregnancies which might chip away at the big problem of overpopulation.