intercourse, condomsBack in high school, I had a sex education class and one of the things the teacher kept repeating is something along those lines:
Never ever re-use a condom! Always take it off and throw it away; otherwise it’s as if you never had one to begin with.
Naturally, I just accepted that as a fact and didn’t put much thought into it, until long years later.
So, I wonder: if a condom is not torn, and the semen is not overflowing, why can’t the male penetrate a second time with the same condom after ejaculation? Of course, while carefully making sure no semen leaked and touched the outer side of the condom.
Have I been misled all along, or are there facts and risks that I am missing?
Note: I’m not talking about reusing for masturbation or other activities, only reusing for intercourse.
The main reason for that advice goes back into dim history. There was research done in the 30s and 40s on condom failures, and reuse was one of the main culprits identified at the time. Particularly during the depression, the cost of condoms was non-trivial, especially for the poor, and reuse was common, so the "don't reuse" meme became embedded in the condom use literature. And, of course, condom makers were delighted to give it prominence.
Unfortunately, those studies all seem to be on dead trees, not available on the internet, so we can't judge how careful they were. But as recently as 2005, Prevalence of condom use errors among STD clinic patients, by Diane Grimley et al., cited reuse as one of the factors leading to STDs. Since Dr. Grimley retired there no longer seems to be a copy of that paper that isn't paywalled, but here's a short summary: Study: Condoms often misused, increasing STI risk:
Among the study participants, more than 15% tested positive for gonorrhea, chlamydia, or both of these STIs. Moreover, almost a quarter of the participants indicated they had made errors in using a condom during the last month.
Common mistakes included putting on the condom inside out and then flipping it over to have sex, not leaving a space at the tip of the condom, not holding the base during withdrawal, reusing a condom, and starting to have sex and then putting on the condom during intercourse.
However, there are two big problems with the research on condom misuse:
First, all the research is based on self-reports, and other research has shown convincingly that people frequently blame condom failures because they don't like admitting that they had sex without a condom. For example, Condom Failure: Examining the Objective and Cultural Meanings Expressed in Interviews With African American Adolescents by Snitzman et al. provides a fascinating analysis of the prevalence of "blaming the condom" in one subculture. And this obviously messes up the data and screws with the research results.
Second, no one seems to make a distinction between different kinds of reuse. The kind the question refers to - leaving it in place for 5-10 minutes and then resuming intercourse - may be more or less risky than a completely different kind of reuse - taking it off, rinsing it out, letting it dry, rerolling it, and using it again a few days later, a pattern that is common in some poor areas. There's some reason to think that the second process works reasonably well against pregnancy, but not against disease. However, lumping such different things together makes it hard to decide on the risks involved with either one.
So we're left to hypothesize. Clearly when the penis shrinks, the condom becomes loose, and there is opportunity for semen to ooze into the gaps, perhaps contaminating the base of the shaft. It's natural to pull the base of the condom firmly back as close to the base of the soft penis as possible to keep it in place and prevent leakage, but this could actually promote getting semen on parts of the shaft that will be exposed when the second erection develops.
It's also possible for bacteria and viruses on the previously exposed base of the penis to mix with semen in this scenario and then get in contact with the head of the penis when the condom is later removed, although this seems a lot less likely.
My guess is that the actual risk in this scenario is very low, and that - in spite of what your teacher said - retaining the condom in place during the interval is much, much safer for both parties than "if you never had one to begin with." If only one condom were available in this situation, I would definitely make the guy use it and keep it on for the second round.
But if I were teaching sex ed to teenagers, that would be too complicated and would lead to all sorts of confusion, so I too would repeat the simple rule about never reusing a condom.
Reminder:
It's always a good idea to wash your penis after withdrawing it from a condom in the middle of an ongoing encounter. Otherwise you can get sperm, bacteria, and viruses on your fingers and then transfer them to your partner's body. (If this isn't practical, it might actually be safer to leave one condom in place than to change condoms during a short refractory period.)
Also be careful about handling any used condom, since your fingers can carry fluids from the outside of the condom to your mouth or penis.
#It Defeats the Purpose of Wearing a Condom:
Condoms are supposed to do two things, primarily - prevent pregnancy and prevent the transmission of disease. A new condom is quite good at doing these things. A used condom, on the other hand, is more likely to do the opposite.
The exterior of the condom is contaminated with bodily fluids. This creates a risk of infection.
The inside of the condom is contaminated with bodily fluids. This creates a risk of infection.
There is a significant chance that in the process of removal, or between uses, some of the semen has escaped from the inside of the condom and contaminated the outside. This creates a risk of infection and a risk of pregnancy.
Condoms are not designed to be used more than once. The latex (or whatever it is made of) is thin and weak, it wears out, it gets stretched, etc. As a result, each time you use it, the chances of breakage increase dramatically. This creates a risk of infection and a risk of pregnancy.
As you remove and replace the condom, you are contaminating your hands. This creates a risk of infection. If you then touch yourself or someone else before washing your hands, you have spread whatever infectious agents were on/in the condom. This creates a risk of infection.
##It Wouldn’t Be Very Pleasant:
Do you really want to put on a condom with old, cold semen in it? I don’t.
##It Wouldn’t Be Very Easy to Put It On:
Once you unroll a condom, it is very difficult to put the damned thing on. Also, after you use it, it tends to stick to itself, making it that much more difficult to put on.
My answer assumes that you are talking about leaving the condom on after the first ejaculation.
This is mostly a saftey measure.
If we assume that the situatuion you described
Of course, while carefully making sure no semen leaked and touched the outer side of the condom.
applies it is infact safe to use it again.
BUT (and this is why you shouldn’t):
Tecnically speaking there in no reason why you can’t use it again. But you are putting yourself and your partner1 (!!!) at an unecessary and avoidable risk.
So just take a new one.
Notes:
1: Even if you consider the risk as small enough that you will take your partner might have another opinion and since it is your partner who will have the baby if someting goes wrong. So taking a risk for something that will not be nearly as risky as for yourself is really something that you shouldn’t do.
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