First Published in Northern Ireland Pharmacy in Focus, January 2007, see page 25.
Reproduced with permission

I recently attended a NICPPET (Northern Ireland Continuing Pharmaceutical Education and Training) pharmacist’s training day on the theme of Women’s Sexual Health and it gave me much food for thought. The presenters were clearly committed, dedicated, sincere and truly believed they were working for the good of their patients. Information delivery was high quality.

Over the course of the day, it became clear that indeed there is a definite role for pharmacy in the arena of sexual health. Whether or not one personally agreed with the lifestyle of patients or clients presenting with a particular sexually transmitted infection (STI), there is a clear role for pharmacy directly addressing and alleviating viral and bacterial infections, sores or other symptoms in a non-judgmental way. The idea of a proposed pilot chlamydia testing project for pharmacies to the at-risk section of the population is excellently pro-active and laudable.

However, deeply unsettling questions arose with the profession’s involvement both in the area of condom promotion and regarding emergency hormonal contraception (EHC).

Condom promotion fails in its clinical aims, the moral issues aside. Studies from family planning journals attest to the extensive failure of condoms to lessen abortion. In fact, between 50-70% of women electing for abortion report using some form of contraception at the time of conception (1,2,3). The so-called ‘safe-sex’ doesn’t actually exist if it means intercourse with condoms. The more subtly termed ‘safer-sex’ is not one iota better to users in practice. Studies report breakage / leakage rates of 8%-42% (4,5,6). Taking even the lowest 8% figure is a 1 in 12 statistical chance of exposure to disease with an infected partner.

How many of us would board an airline which had a 1 in 12 chance of crashing en route to our destination. Enough plane flights would effectively ensure our demise. Used long enough and frequently enough, condom use virtually assures STI/HIV transmission. In their stated aim of disease reduction, used frequently, condoms fail, plain and simple. Indeed, we even heard on the sexual health day that, in the experience of one Belfast pharmacy, condoms appear to split much more frequently than reported by the manufacturers. We also heard of a high EHC uptake among the same user profile as the condoms.

The abysmal failure of condom / contraception promotion to reduce STIs / unwanted abortion has not only led to a national and global sexual health pandemic, but has contributed enormously to the sheer scale of sexual licentiousness so patently obvious all around us. In response to the statistics of failure rates, incredibly, we hear calls for more contraception. The self-propagating monster feeds on its own failure.