
Bill Gates Will Give You $100,000 to Build a Better Condom - mattquiros
http://mashable.com/2013/03/23/bill-gates-condom
======
Lockyy
I was reading recently about the origami condom.[1] It certainly seems to fix
the problem mentioned about male condoms, i.e. reduced pleasure. Plus other
benefits like speed etc. I'm not sure whether the female condom in their range
would fit the "easier to put on" requirement however.

[1]<http://www.origamicondoms.com/>

~~~
raverbashing
Wow, just wow.

The video for the male condom is very illustrative.

Hopefully they will have success with it.

~~~
Trufa
But an absolutely unfair demo of the traditional condom, it's just ridiculous,
you can have trouble sometimes but the comparison is just wrong.

Don't get me wrong I love the idea.

~~~
raverbashing
Yes, these demos are always like "as seen on TV" stuff, where people always
have problems with the competitor's product.

~~~
Trufa
Exactly my feeling, I remember a reddit post for a pen that showed a woman not
being able to sharpen a pencil in a very clumsy manner just like this one.

------
raverbashing
"The primary drawback from the male perspective is that condoms decrease
pleasure as compared to no condom,"

Hummm really?

Condoms are a usability nightmare:

\- Fragile

\- Comes in few sizes, beyond that, you're in 'specialty shops' territory.
(Really, I don't care about shapes, flavours, bells and whistles, I care that
it fits!)

\- It's lubricated on the outside. Good for when you're using it, AWFUL when
it comes to applying it.

That "teaching kids how to put on a condom using a banana" thing? It's good
intention, but someone needs to come with a realistic model. Maybe put a
condom on a banana then try putting another over it: closer to the real thing.

~~~
SwellJoe
_\- Fragile_

I've never had a condom break or leak in 20 years of sexual activity. I tend
to think of them as pretty much unbreakable. Maybe I've luckily chosen only
good quality condoms in all that time? (Mostly Durex Extra Sensitive, but I
try new ones all the time, in hopes of finding something better.)

 _\- Comes in few sizes, beyond that, you're in 'specialty shops' territory.
(Really, I don't care about shapes, flavours, bells and whistles, I care that
it fits!)_

This is absolutely valid criticism. Fit makes a big difference in how
pleasurable their use is, and also whether there is risk of the condom
slipping off (and probably poor fit increases risk of breakage).

~~~
kh_hk
Let's not forget that condoms have a failure rate, given perfect use, of 2%.

~~~
swombat
I've always wondered about how they calculated that.

If they just taught people how to use a condom and then sent them off to their
merry romps, and then checked how many of them got pregnant after a few
months, then the statistic is highly suspicious - after all, it could just be
from misuse (put it on the wrong way, then remembered how to use a condom and
put it on the right way) or just omitting to use them (and then lying about
it).

In this case, that would mean that the 2% statistic just indicates that 2% of
the participants were not capable or willing to use a condom.

If that's not the way they did it - then how did they do it? Because beyond
having every participant followed around by a man with a clipboard, I don't
see any ways to reduce the chance of misuse or lying...

~~~
kh_hk
Nope, the 2% is considering 'perfect use'. Now, if that involves lying (I
promise! I was using a condom, and perfectly!) I can't know, but I think
statistics usually involve some corrections for these cases.

The failure rate for 'typical use' (which always involves too much cases) is
15%. These statistics come from wikipedia [1], but I knew some rough numbers
from sexual education at my school and were around that. For casual sex, yes,
condom is the way to go (both for birth control and STDs).

That's a big bummer, because that usually means involving hormone birth
control methods in stable relationships, and I hate them and the effect that
can have on my partner.

I am looking forward to see the advances in male contraception [2]. But I am
afraid it will be something for the next generation.

[1]:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_birth_control_met...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_birth_control_methods#Effectiveness_of_various_methods)

[2]:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_inhibition_of_sperm_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_inhibition_of_sperm_under_guidance)

------
sharkweek
Melinda Gates wrote a great piece for Foreign Policy discussing the importance
of pivoting away from focus on male contraceptive to female versions --

[http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/26/why_birth_c...](http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/26/why_birth_control_is_still_a_big_idea)

------
WA
Let's look at that problem from a few different perspectives. I claim that
it's impossible to design a better condom while still being a condom.

If you want to avoid STDs, you need some sort of protective material that
keeps all fluids at their place. So, there's no other way than having this
sort of material.

Exception would be to have some sort of material or liquid that:

\- kills all bacteria and viruses \- thus prevents STDs \- has no health side
effects \- avoids pregnancy

But then it's not a condom anymore, but a STD-reducing liquid.

To make a condom more pleasurable, you need to make it thinner or to "enhance"
it by adding some sort of chemical that emulates a vagina to a certain degree
and heightens the sensual experience.

Thing is, while it seems possible to increase the sensitivity of a penis with
certain chemicals, you cannot design a condom that increases the PSYCHOLOGICAL
sensitivity. There's a difference in having sex with a condom and without a
condom. And the problem of that is the condom itself, no matter how
pleasurable it is.

So, the ideal condom is probably not much different from the current condom,
material-wise. Maybe the ideal condom is the same product but with an entirely
different marketing strategy to get the psychological factor right. Or
something along the lines where people get educated on how to train their mind
sexually to increase their pleasure despite using a condom. Though I don't
believe that this is possible on a broad scale.

~~~
majani
I think the STD-reducing liquid you're referring to is a vaccine.

~~~
WA
That's one approach. The other would be something like a spermicide but also
agains STDs applied locally.

------
dougk16
Hmm, cool problem...maybe a small circular patch, kind of like a band-aid, and
you stick it right over the meatus (the "eye" if you will). The band-aid
itself has an elastic reservoir in the center that fills up just like a
condom's. That way you'd have pretty much all your sensitive parts still
directly exposed. The main challenge would be a user-friendly way of cementing
that sucker to the head of the penis though. Bioré pore strips are
ridiculously clingy to skin (don't ask how I know), but take a while to apply.
Maybe something in that vein? Would probably need something that chemically
reacts/bonds to skin (a band-aid's level of stickiness just wouldn't be
enough), but is soluble in some other gentle chemical.

~~~
k-mcgrady
That would provide no protection from STI's.

~~~
dougk16
I don't know about _no_ protection. It would prevent most transmission from
male to female, as I understand STI's (it's been a while since sex ed class).
True that it wouldn't help when there's open sores and such on the penis
though.

~~~
argonaut
You forget that the entire head of the penis is basically a mucous membrane
through which STIs can be passed (i.e. one big open sore). So you would have
to cover the entire head, at which we run into the problem of sensitivity
again.

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mattsah
I couldn't get the article to load, but given that it's Bill Gates, I assume
this has something to do with the spread of HIV/AIDS.

From the commments I can discern that one concern is reducing pleasure. I'd
imagine the condoms used in third-world country are not high-end super thin
condoms which make the experience a bit better, but the really rubbery thick
ones you can get for free at a high school sex class.

That said, is this really about building a better condom? Or just building a
better condom, cheaper?

Also, I'm not sure this is the primary problem. You'd probably be better of
spending $100,000 on fighting the catholic church to make sure condoms, even
the cheap kind, are widely available.

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pshin45
This Gates Foundation challenge focuses on making a more pleasurable condom,
but what about just good old-fashioned scare tactics like we see for
cigarettes (blackened lungs, people breathing through a tube in their neck,
etc.)?

Include (extreme) imagery in condom ads to remind potential customers of the
costs of unprotected sex - nauseating pictures of STD-infected genitalia,
stories of men who have to pay $xxx in child support every month, men who were
"forced" to get married due to pregnancy and miss out on their youth, etc.

Wouldn't this be just as effective, while requiring much less effort and
ingenuity?

~~~
Sunlis
Putting scare-tactics on cigarette packaging works because the person buying
them is "in the wrong" and needs to be "scared away". Negative reinforcement
to make an action or habit less desirable.

I'm no psychologist, but I would guess that associating the scary images of
STDs and the like directly with condoms and contraceptives in general would be
more likely to cause people to form a negative opinion of condoms. What you
want to do is advertise sex and condoms side-by-side, so that thoughts of sex
trigger thoughts of condoms, rather than thoughts of condoms triggering
thoughts of STDs and child-support. Positive reinforcement rewarding positive
behaviour.

------
gee_totes
I would much rather see Bill Gates offer $100,000 to developing a cheap and
easily reversible vasectomy, and disrupt the condom market.

~~~
raverbashing
Vasectomy does nothing for venereal diseases. Ok, it may reduce the
transmission of some diseases, but not to a safe level.

But I remember there was something like 'easy and cheap' vasectomy (still in
research) being done by injecting polymers in the Vas Deferens

Ok, found the wikipedia for it:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_inhibition_of_sperm_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_inhibition_of_sperm_under_guidance)

~~~
nilkn
Once you have a steady, trustworthy partner, condoms are mostly used just to
prevent pregnancy.

So a cheap and easily reversible vasectomy wouldn't eliminate the condom
market, but it would certainly disrupt it I would think.

~~~
nicholassmith
I would assume they're focused on STIs, HIV and AIDS rather than decreasing
pregnancy rates. Whilst vasectomy reversal would disrupt condoms, male anti-
birth pills (getting ever closer to production) are more likely to achieve
what you're thinking.

------
hello_newman
I am going to be honest....condoms suck. Pure and simple. Trojan ultra-thins
are the best, but still not the same. Although not getting an STD makes
wearing one worth it.

I am still waiting for some type of spray. A spray that could be applied
before intercourse that essentially protects your "sheath" and provides a
barrier. It would allow you to have condom-less sex with out the worry of
STD's. It would not help with contraception, but with the vast amount of
females on the pill they have that taken care of for the most part.

Maybe one day, but until then I'll take a condom over an STD or pregnancy any
day of the week.

------
shurcooL
One strategy to get people to use stronger passwords is a "that password can
be cracked in <time>." meter.

Apply similar strategy to get ppl to wear condoms. Focus on chance of having a
kid, STDs, etc.

~~~
nicholassmith
That metaphor applies to people who care, there's still a lot of people using
incredibly weak passwords.

~~~
shurcooL
Do you think not even seeing "that password can be cracked in 5 minutes" won't
get them to add a few more characters?

~~~
nicholassmith
Nope, people have been told not to use weak passwords for years and I still
know a few who use dictionary passwords with maybe a number at the end, or
two. They care, but not enough to change.

~~~
shurcooL
It's one thing to be told not to use weak passwords in theory, but another
seeing how many seconds/minutes/hours/years it would take to crack your
password and have that number change with each extra letter you type. Or so I
would imagine.

~~~
nicholassmith
A lot of sites use 'your password is weak/strong/very strong' indicators,
there's still a lot of weak passwords used for them.

~~~
Evbn
They are rather abstract, though. They don't force the user to watch a movie
about getting identity thefted.

------
newsign
I think RISUG (Vasalgel) is the most promising male contraceptive ... its
waiting for FDA appoval and is being used in India for more than a decade, it
looks like it will change the world :) , ofcourse we need more data before we
can really say RISUG will be effective against HIV transmission ... but
nevertheless its very promising amongst all other options ...

<http://www.gizmag.com/risug-male-contraception/18824/>

------
blt
_The primary drawback from the male perspective is that condoms decrease
pleasure as compared to no condom._

Um, pretty sure they decrease pleasure from the female perspective too.

------
aashaykumar92
In light of the instant stop-bleeding gel[1], I started thinking about the
concept of a gel that could serve as an even better form of protection than
condoms. I wish I knew my chemistry better but I am sure that scientists can
determine a way that this can be done.

[1][http://www.humansinvent.com/#!/11409/the-gel-that-stops-
blee...](http://www.humansinvent.com/#!/11409/the-gel-that-stops-bleeding-
instantly/)

~~~
PakG1
Not the first time a gel has been tried, but admittedly what you're thinking
of is a different concept.

[http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/04/us-hiv-gel-
study-i...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/04/us-hiv-gel-study-
idUSBRE9230UI20130304)

edit: meaning that with gel, maybe the problem is actually a UI problem. :)

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drucken
Here's one idea, enough for at least $100k?

 _Condoms treated with silver nanoparticles could ‘completely inactivate’ HIV,
other STDs: researchers_

[http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/03/condoms-treated-
with...](http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/03/condoms-treated-with-silver-
nanoparticles-could-completely-inactivate-hiv-other-stds-researchers/)

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ditojim
perhaps some kind of spray-on film that peels off easy when finished but won't
break and is hella flexible.

~~~
hooo
Not sure how that would be better. Now you'd get condom spray all over the
place.

~~~
javis
And I think some guys would be reluctant to spray anything directly at it.

~~~
hp50g
Yes this is something you learn not to do by accidental deodorant spray :)
ouch!

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mrwhy2k
Perhaps this is obvious, but how do you perform "testing" for prototypes?

~~~
tempestn
For prototype condoms, or in general? Presumably they would stress test in a
simulated environment, as well as perform human tests with participants who do
not require them to be effective. (IE using alternate methods of birth control
and having been screened for STIs.) I would imagine they would use volunteers
in committed relationships. Or are you asking specifically how one would go
about testing a condom's effectiveness?

------
chuachua
like,,

------
piokoch
Better condom - the greatest challange Western Civilization is facing right
now.

~~~
VMG
where did you get that from?

~~~
tempestn
I assume it was intended to be sarcastic. If so, I would point out that better
condoms -> more people wearing condoms -> less spread of disease and fewer
unwanted pregnancies. Good things in Western Civilization, but even more
important in developing countries.

------
Gravityloss
Super-thin almost invisible graphene condom. After ten years on the market,
it's noticed that it causes cancer in users and in nature after disposal...

~~~
voidlogic
Graphene superconductors are compost-able.... we will know more in time, but
as a sheet of pure carbon graphene has an intuitively low risk of being
carcinogenic. Graphene is also produced every time you write with a
traditional pencil, so tons of graphene exposure starting at a very early age
has occurred, with no known side affects.

