VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS GENERATED USING AN AUTOMATED SERVICE SO WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY TYPOS AND SPELLING ERRORS.

Female condoms: Yes it is!

[00:00:00] I just found out that February is National Condom Awareness Month or National Condom Month. Um, and I don't feel like I talk enough about condoms, and we should. So let me talk first about condoms and then we're gonna talk about this. The female condom. Um, okay, so condoms in theory should be used every single time you have sex. 

And what I say to my patients is, you should use them every single time and the whole time. I know that sounds dumb and funny, but a lot of young women or older women will say, well, I used the condom like most of the time, but like not always. Or I use the condom after he put the tip. That is the recipe for pregnancy and STDs, ladies, meaning there's a little bit of semen that can come out beforehand. 

You've probably heard of it, and we don't really know how much sperm can be in that semen, but in theory it can. More importantly, the longer you kind of avoid putting that condom on, the less likely you are to use it. You absolutely can get STDs if you don't use the condom the entire time. Many young women will say to me, I'll say, [00:01:00] okay, so you're using condoms, and they'll say like, um, uh uh, Uhhuh. 

Kind of like that. And I joke like, okay, like a thousand percent of the time. And they're like, well, I mean most of the time, and you know, they seem hesitant to tell me. And I always joke like, listen, it's not my vagina, it's your vagina. Don't promise me you're gonna use condoms. You should use condoms because you want to avoid STDs. 

Well, but the guy doesn't really like to, I get it. I don't blame him. Who likes condoms? Nobody does. But nobody likes an STD either. So, Perennially trying to encourage my young women to take charge themselves and say, listen, I get that you don't like a condom. It's not ideal, but listen, you're not the one who's gonna deal with it afterwards. 

I am. What I hear a lot from young women as well is he put on the condom even at the right time, but halfway through sex I noticed he took it off. First of all, let's not even get into the fact that if he took off a condom without letting you, young ladies, he's not right for you. That is a sign that he does not respect you. 

You need to leave that relationship or that one night stand or whatever it was [00:02:00] you were doing. That man is not right for you. No man should take off a condom halfway through without telling you, period. There is like no experience on Earth where I would tell you that that. All right. I actually really wanna talk more about the female condom because I think it's gonna gain a notoriety. 

Um, I've just started learning about it because I, I prescribe for a simple health, which is a great organization for people who don't have access to their physician directly either because they're living in a place where they don't have access to doctors or they're traveling and they can't get in to see their doctor, and they need to see their doctor typically at least once a year for blood pressure checks, things like that. 

They can do birth control. , it's a great organization. Um, and so now they've been prescribing the female condom. I can't get into why I think you need a prescription because it's actually an over-the-counter product, but in a nutshell, this is what happens. It's over the counter, but if you've get a prescription, then in theory your insurance should cover it. 

So it would be free, but don't feel like you have to buy it through a prescription. If you go to their [00:03:00] website, you actually can order these again. I don't know why they limit it, but it's boxes. I think of 12. For $28 or two boxes, which is what? 24 for? 40 something dollars. Um, I don't know why they limit it. 

I don't know why. You just can't just walk into the store and buy a thousand of them. It's, it befuddles me. Maybe the company can let us know, because I don't work for the company. I'm not a spokesperson. I'm just talking about it because I'm actually here cleaning out my office and my, and I found one and I thought, this is perfect. 

I need to learn and I'm gonna educate. So we're doing this all together. This is the package. This one's very old. You should always make sure it's not expired. This one happens to be uber expired from 2013, but that's actually important. The other important and great thing about this, a couple things I love. 

This really puts control in the woman's hands because the woman is wearing the female condom, f C two female condom, and it's their second iteration. So, This is the woman's ability to control it. He cannot take this off. You put it in ladies and you put it in [00:04:00] yourselves, and you put it in before you have sex. 

Second part that I really like about it is that it actually probably makes it. Um, less uncomfortable than wearing a condom because this is inside the woman where she won't feel it in her vagina. Um, and the fact that she can purchase it herself so she doesn't have to rely on him for any of these things. 

Fourth, which is really interesting is it's non latex. That's nice for people who have a latex allergy. That's also nice because it is still, it's what's called night trial, which is what a lot of our gloves are made out of in the operating room, and it's just as effective against STDs and against. Um, pregnancy and really important. 

You can use oil based lubricants with nitro, whereas you cannot with latex, if you use coconut oil, which is a great lubricant with a condom, that is latex, it can break down the latex. If you use coconut oil or any oil with these, it will not. Okay. Now, how does it work? For any of you who've used the Nuva ring birth control, this would be easy because it looks much like the nuva ring. 

For any of you who have used a diaphragm, which I assume is a very small. , we just don't use [00:05:00] 'em as much anymore though. I think that might be something we should think about using more and more in the future if we wanna, um, avoid hormones, which some people do. Um, or if you've ever used a menstrual cup, which if you don't, I would highly, highly recommend it. 

I promise you I would do a video. I have not yet done one, but I will do a video on menstrual cup. Cause I think it's actually a great thing for the environment and for safety and for, um, cost. So for anyone who's used any of those, this will be easy for anyone who hasn. I don't think it's a big learning curve. 

There's actually a video on their website, but this is what it looks like. It looks like a big condom, and it's not open-ended. You see it comes pre lubricated and it has a blind ended PA part. So this is the part that goes into the vagina, right? So you squeeze that and you put it into the vagina. And then I know it sounds funny, but this kind of sticks out out of the vagina, but if you can picture it, it would be kind of collapsed. 

Um, if anything, I would imagine that this pushing up against the clitoris might even provide some pleasure. They did not say that, but I'm just saying that on my own. Um, when you are [00:06:00] going to have sex, you put this in. When you are done having sex, you pull on this, you twist it once so that nothing spills out. 

You pull it out, you throw it in the garbage. You should only use it once. You can use it when you have your period. I know that sounds funny, but many women still have sex even with their period, and this is a nice way to kind of avoid some of the messier aspects of having sex with your period. Um, the woman can buy it herself, which puts the control in her hands. 

Avoids s t d, very effective against pregnancy. Not latex, like a lot of great things about it. So ladies, I think that we have a lot of talking to do about sex. I'm gonna start talking more about sex and about sexual health and about sexuality because I think we talk a lot about condoms and s STIs and pregnancy and not enough about sexuality. 

And it's something that's been coming up in my practice a lot lately and I'm increasingly distraught about the way young women are dealing and facing sexuality. Um, so I am gonna get more comfort. Talking about it, and I want you guys to get more comfortable hearing about it because it's a fact of [00:07:00] everyday life. 

And if we don't, then our world is really gonna change. And I know I sound dramatic, but sex and sexuality, whether or not we want to be open about it, affects almost everything in our lives. It affects. Relationships between families, that affects relationships between men and women in the workplace everywhere. 

And again, we are very puristic about it in America and a really weird duality. We don't like to talk about it openly. And yet, sex is pervasive and everywhere in our videos for our kids in the fact that. Kids are seeing it in the news, in the media. They're certainly seeing it on the internet, which they're very exposed to. 

So we have to be open about it, ladies. So anyone who's watching this, ladies or Men, please know I will be talking about it more. I need to talk about it more. You need to be comfortable hearing about it more. Please send me your questions if you have them for me to address them. Um, and this is just a little starting point, female condom. 

Putting more control in your hands, ladies. So anytime you say to me, but he took off the condom, I might come back with, have you heard of the female condom? Okay. All right, hope that helps. [00:08:00] Bye.