Revamped Female Condom Gets Promotional Push

(March 10) -- More than 15 years after the first incarnation flopped in its American debut, a new version of the female condom is starting to gain some national respect.

Washington, D.C., will soon become the first U.S. city to distribute female condoms for free wherever it hands out male condoms. CVS branches in the capital are selling the condoms, making it the first pharmacy in the nation to carry the new product. In Chicago, a coalition of community-based HIV/AIDS-prevention organizations launched a publicity campaign this week called "Put a ring on it!" to promote the female prophylactics.

Leaders of social service organizations in both cities say the second-generation female condom made by the Chicago-based Female Health Co. provides an alternative for women -- and men -- that is softer, quieter and less expensive than the original.

"It's no longer a specialty item. It can now sit alongside male condoms as an equal partner," said Cyndee Clay, executive director of HIPS, an organization that aims to help those engaging in sex work in Washington lead healthy lives.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Female Health Co.'s first female condom in 1993. In the decade and a half following, the condom never became popular in the United States, though it was more widely used overseas.

"A lot of mythology came out around the original about how women wouldn't want it," said Dr. Shannon Hader, director of the District of Columbia's HIV/AIDS Administration, which will distribute half a million female condoms throughout the city in the coming weeks. But, she added, "don't assume what people don't want."

The FDA approved Female Health Co.'s FC2 female condom last year.

Hader said people aren't yet asking for the FC2 specifically because the product is still relatively unknown. The city's initiative, funded by a $500,000 grant from the MAC AIDS Fund, of MAC Cosmetics, hopes to spur demand by getting the new and improved condom to the public, according to Hader. "It's the answer to an issue as opposed to an answer to a request," she said.

The Washington program will be rolled out in the next two to three weeks, making the condom available in convenience stores as well as high schools and other locations. It will target five at-risk areas of the city.

The program represents an evolution in the way the city is fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS, by tackling the problem from as many angles as possible, Hader said.

The city is buying the female condoms from Female Health Co. at wholesale prices and partnering with organizations like Planned Parenthood and the Women's Collective to help with distribution.

The AIDS Foundation of Chicago's policy manager, Jessica Terlikowski, who leads the female condom campaign in which 20 organizations are participating, agreed that using multifront campaigns is the best method moving forward.

"For women and for many men, particularly gay men, it's important to have access to as many prevention options as possible," said Terlikowski, noting that the female condom is often used for anal sex.

The female condom has been distributed in Chicago and D.C., as well as New York City, for years, but mostly through social agencies targeting high-risk populations.

Health advocates hope adding the female condom to the roster of easily accessible prophylactics will increase condom use overall.

"They can use one one day and another another day," Hader said.