Female Condoms: A Disruptive Weapon in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS
March 16th, 2010
Washington D.C. leads the nation with the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the country– 3% of all adults and adolescents in the District live with HIV/AIDS (any percentage over 1% is considered a severe epidemic by the World Health Organization).
Officials have created an innovative partnership with a number of organizations and celebrities to distribute female condoms in HIV hotspots — and if you want to try them yourself, they’re now on sale at all the CVS’s in the District.
Disruptive Women’s Wendy Grossman spoke for a few minutes with Mary Ann Leeper, senior strategic advisor for the Female Health Company — about the D.C. initiative that started this week.
Q: Tell me about the DC initiative.
A: The initiative is just the coming together of the five different
groups: The MAC Foundation, the CDC, the Department of Health, the Female Health Company and CVS — coming together to bring the female condom to women in the D.C. area.
DC has the highest rate of HIV and STI’s in the country. The Department of Health has initiated a strong prevention outreach program. They’re also tying in the some of the key, community based organizations into the programs.
Q: The FDA approved the female condom almost 20 years ago, right?
A: Yes. The FDA approved the first female condom in 1993. The second
FC2 female condom — this is what it’s all about. It’s the reintroduction of the female condom into the U.S. It was approved about a year ago. Late last summer, we brought it into the US. To the cities that have the highest rates of STI’s and HIV — to work with them and reintroduce the female condom.
Q: What’s different about the new condom?
A: It’s a new material. We switched from a polyurethane material to a synthetic latex material called Nitrile that allowed us to move from a welding process — very intensive, expensive process — to a dipping process that’s very similar to what’s used for male condoms.
So it allows us to reduce the cost of the product to make it. It increases the donors and these NGOs they can better afford it.
Q: They’re crazy expensive, right?
A: They’re at least 30 percent less. The higher the order, the lower the cost.
Q: What about over the counter?
A: It’s only available right now in CVS in the District of Columbia.
Q: Isn’t the argument against condoms for dudes partly because it ruins the spontaneity? How long would it take to put that in? Just looking at it makes me think it could take me an hour?









