Picture shelves of condoms for sale don’t normally conjure up images of fruits and vegetables; perishables tend not to sit neatly next to prophylactics. But a new range of contraceptives, designed by relationship advice service Relate, opts for a much more green thumb for safe sex.
Following a spike in sexually transmitted disease transmission among the over-65s in the UK, the organization has designed a range of “Hornicultural Society” condoms in zucchini, plum, aubergine, onion and avocado seed varieties (the condom packaging actually looks out as garden center seeds, which could potentially be inconvenient).
Not only are the condoms intended to spark discussion among people who may think risky sex no longer concerns them, but they are also designed to be durable and able to biodegrade in a jar once you’re done with them. are with you. seed” forever.
We’ve certainly come a long way since women relied on mercury or lemon (which are believed to have acidic properties that kill sperm) for birth control in the 18th century, and since the earliest invention of the condoms 200 years before that. But innovation in birth control can also seem slow — trials for a male version of the birth control pill have stopped and started countless times.
But in the past month, in addition to launching garden-themed condoms, we’ve also seen the adoption in the US of a new type of underwear that helps protect users from STDs during oral sex. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has approved the “ultra-thin, super stretchy, vanilla flavor” pants.
It’s a first for underpants, but it’s not an entirely new concept — intended to replace the largely unpopular dental dam that’s primarily (but rarely) used by LGBTQ partners, and especially encouraged in same-sex relationships.
While the thinking isn’t entirely new, the condoms and underwear point to a reimagining of what birth control could be? Who should it rely on and work for? As well as exposing the gaping holes in education and access to contraception.
The Relate vegetable condoms were designed in response to research that showed that people in their 60s, in good health, wealthy in time, just starting out or just on the horizon – are having more sex than ever.
The survey found that 43 percent of over-65s now feel more confident and free when it comes to sex than at any other time in their lives — and more than half believe they are sexually adventurous (conversely, a 2020 survey found that millennials have sex only once a month or more).
But 80 percent of over-65s have not bought a condom in the past six months, and according to Age UK, the number of STDs in this age group has doubled in the past 10 years. Before the pandemic, Public Health England revealed that the number of syphilis cases had increased by 86 percent in the over-65s, yet 38 percent of over-65s avoid the topic of safe sex because it makes them uncomfortable.
Like older demographics, the LGBTQ community has also not always been well taken care of. Could we see an emerging new era of birth control?
dr. Chery Fitzgerald, a gynecologist consultant at Manchester University NHS Foundation Hospital, who is currently trialling new male contraception, says: “Many sexual health and awareness campaigns target younger generations. Young people are tested quite regularly, while older generations were not really educated about it.
“There are certainly some groups that are not being adequately catered for, although facilities for especially younger people have improved tremendously, as have many LGBTQ+ communities.
“As you get older, all the points where you might be asked about your sexual health — at family planning clinics or Pap smears and the like — disappear. If you’re over 65, you don’t just come across that kind of healthcare; you don’t really have much access. In addition, most older people would rather die than go to a GUM clinic.”
Is it really that embarrassing? Perhaps. But certainly less than confessing to your 70-year-old partner that you gave him chlamydia. “Most older people would associate going to a GUM clinic with having a sexually transmitted disease,” Fitzgerald says, “not as a regular health screening, it’s also about reframing it.”
Essentially, in the same way that we’ve been working to normalize getting tested regularly and talking about birth control options with younger generations, there must be a push to protect older, sexually active people as well.
And better protection of oral sex — a completely neglected part of sex education and safe sex devices — would serve more or less everyone. As the over-65s are discovering, there really isn’t any part of sex that’s completely risk-free, and oral sex is no exception.
Are eggplant-themed rubbers going to revolutionize safe sex? Maybe not. But if the latest update from Relate’s Hornicultural Society has something to offer, it may: The website is now sold out.
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