This is how they're trying to promote condom use in India.
Voice over from African condom commercial
I have discovered a way to chop the AIDS quick-quick.
NARRATION
And this is how they do it in Africa. Around the world, everyone knows condoms are a hard sell.
Young man in Australian condom ad
Yeah, I'm just looking for a condom.
Pharmacy assistant in Australian condom ad
Why don't we just try one on? How does that one feel?
Young man in Australian condom ad
Yeah, it's good. Real comfortable.
NARRATION
And here in Australia, with sexually transmitted infections soaring amongst adolescents, it's clear condoms still aren't cutting it with those who matter most.
Dr Jonica Newby
Let's face it, the trouble with condoms is you're aware of them. But what if I were to tell you there was a condom that was invisible, imperceptible and felt just like real skin? Well, a group of scientists in Wollongong think they're on the verge of a breakthrough. A 21st-century condom that would be a pleasure, not a duty, to wear.
NARRATION
The search for the perfect condom goes back at least as far as the ancient Egyptians, who used linen sheaths to keep their members clean. In the 17th century, the linen sheath was replaced by this radical innovation - the sheep gut condom.
Dr Jonica Newby
So, Damian, what were these like?
Damian McDonald
I imagine that if they're an improvement on the linen one, I would hate to have seen a linen one.
NARRATION
The invention of vulcanised rubber was the next technological breakthrough.
Damian McDonald
We have an example here from the 1930s.
Dr Jonica Newby
Oh, goodness. That is thick. That looks worse than the sheep gut condom, I have to say.
Damian McDonald
It does indeed. Like the sheep's gut condom, it's reusable.
NARRATION
And this was gradually refined to the rubber latex condoms we know today. And while pregnancy prevention has always been important, the rise and fall of condom popularity has very much paralleled fear of disease.
Dr Jonica Newby
So this is the sort of condom that would have been used by soldiers in the Second World War.
Damian McDonald
And there was an awful lot of resource having to go into treat troops for gonorrhoea and syphilis.
NARRATION
Back then, syphilis killed more people every year than AIDS in its heyday. But then came penicillin, the pill, and condom use plummeted.
NARRATION
Until the '80s, and AIDS scared the pants and condoms back onto people.
NARRATION
Not only did condoms halt the AIDS trajectory, they were a major dampener of other STIs as well. But by the noughties, HIV was no longer fatal, fear dropped and STIs rebooted their inexorable rise.
Dr Jonica Newby
The one that worries a lot of health professionals these days is chlamydia. Its prevalence doubled in the last ten years. By age 25, 25% of women will have caught it. And the peak age for contracting chlamydia? 14 to 15 years of age.
NARRATION
And while there is one new condom material in the market, polyisoprene, which is noticeably stretchier and I'm told better feeling than latex...
(Condom pops)
Dr Jonica Newby
Oh!
John Gerofi
That was the latex one.
NARRATION
..even polyisoprene isn't the same as nothing at all. And then, in 2013, the University of Wollongong stumbled upon the problem by chance.
Dr Robert A Gorkin III
It was a random news article where it really came about, where it was just, yeah, Bill Gates wants safer sex.
NARRATION
The lab was working on a material called hydrogels, in a bid to develop better, more tissue-like, human prosthetics. But when Robert saw the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was offering grants to any research group who could develop a better-feeling condom, he wondered if some of their skin-like products would fit the bill.
Dr Robert A Gorkin III
So, it was a couple of days before the grant application was due. I ran into a sex shop and was looking at the range of dildos that were there, and there was a wide range, went back to the lab and we didn't know if this would work or not, but we just took a vat of this material and started dip-coating the dildo in this. It looked like a condom, like there was even some ribbing on it. So it really kind of showed us that, look, we may have a chance here.
NARRATION
So, what is this magical material?
Dr Robert A Gorkin III
So, now we're going to make a hydrogel.
NARRATION
Like the name implies, hydrogels are part water and part polymer and they form a sort of jelly.
Dr Jonica Newby
Oh, right. They form perfect little balls. So, I can pick one up?
Dr Robert A Gorkin III
Yeah.
NARRATION
By varying the basic ingredients, you can dramatically alter the properties of the material. And being part water, their texture is much more like human tissue. Some are soft, like you find in cosmetics... ..some are tough, like you find in contact lenses.
Dr Robert A Gorkin III
Tough hydrogels have only been around for the last ten years or so.
Dr Jonica Newby
Right.
Dr Robert A Gorkin III
A very new class of materials. But obviously having very exciting potential.
NARRATION
But was one tough yet flexible enough to replace latex? Surprisingly quickly, they identified three possible hydrogels. They then tested them to see if they would block viruses. Tick. It seems so. They tested whether they could be dip-coated and, therefore, mass-produced. They subjected them to physical testing, tensile testing, and then, just a month, for the first time, the all-important blow-up test.
Dr Robert A Gorkin III
And again, we're finding our materials actually come in the range of latex and polyisoprene.
NARRATION
So now, the all-important question - how does it feel?
Dr Jonica Newby
You know, I can actually feel the ridges of my fingerprint... underneath it.
Dr Robert A Gorkin III
There you go. So, that's probably actually going on something called tactile sensitivity. So this material is, if you look at the mechanical properties, more tactile sensitive than other rubbers.
NARRATION
If I compare it with the ultra-thin polyisoprene condom..
Dr Jonica Newby
Yeah. This is pretty good too, this one. Yeah, but this is slightly better.
Dr Robert A Gorkin III
So if you have something that is not impeding that sensation, potentially this could be enhanced pleasure during sex.
NARRATION
And that's the potential hydrogels offer. They may be better at transmitting the feeling of what's underneath.
Dr Robert A Gorkin III
Imagine of there was a condom out there that actually improved what sex was like, I mean, that would be amazing. I don't know if we'll ever get that far, but at least we're on the line of where we can make the existing condoms obsolete and make new condoms feel a lot better.
NARRATION
It is really promising. But as we all know, the leap between a promising material and a commercial product isn't always made. So while we're waiting for the 21st-century condom, don't forget to use the tried and tested ones we have.
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