Beginning a sexual relationship in college is a difficult balancing game. On one hand, there’s that exhilarating feeling of freedom and wild debauchery that accompanies those ever-so-naughty romps in the hay, but on the other, there’s that far more sobering feeling of responsibility that interrupts your session and nags you to go get a condom. There is nothing unsexier than stopping in the heat of the moment to root around discarded clothing for a spare condom; it ruins the moment. The concern for protection has turned the transition from foreplay to sex into a race to grab a condom and put it on before the moment dies.
Of course, safe sex is absolutely essential. Most would agree that sparing yourself years with embarrassing diseases is enough of a motivator to justify those 20 seconds of awkwardly fumbling with a condom. But is there a way to make the protection protocol a little less awkward and little more sensual? Below are some suggestions for ways to protect yourself without spoiling your sexy routine.
Buy colored condoms. Multi-colored condoms can make protection a fun game of coloring, inside or outside the lines. Choose different colors according to what mood you’re in: Red is passionate and aggressive; blue is soft and sensual; yellow is funky and experimental, and pink, of course, is naughty but nice. Condom color coding can be a sexy new way of communicating with your lover without speaking. Let’s be red tonight, baby. Color me sexy.
If you’re not a taste-the-rainbow kind of person, then there are also several kinds of pleasure-enhancing condoms that come in the regular transparent color. Trojan brand condoms now offer pleasure variety packs with styles such as Her Pleasure, His Pleasure and Warm Sensations. These condoms are ribbed and covered with warm-on-contact lubricant to make the entry and exit slide smooth and sensual and combat that embarrassing probing for first penetration. The pack, which costs around 15 dollars for 20 condoms, can be found at any drug store.
Of course, in order to be protected at all, applying the condom is the first stage. Women are often given the task of gloving the loving; however, many can be a bit sloppy and imprecise, causing the condom to break, tear, or slide off without notice. In addition to these risks, enhanced pleasure condoms are much less pleasing if they aren’t put on properly, so make sure to follow the basic steps of condom application:
1) Pinch the tip and level it on the head of the penis.
2) Roll down the condom.
3) Make sure the condom is rolled all the way down to the bottom and secured in place.
Once you have these steps mastered, there is less than a 1 percent chance of condom breakage even under the most aggressive of conditions. Get the rules down before you go down, and it’ll save you a trip to Student Health.
Here’s another little known fact: condoms come in many different sizes, not just normal and Magnum XL. Guys, make sure to buy what size fits you. If you are not a Double Magnum XL, just accept it and buy your own size. You don’t need to be endowed like a horse to be a good lover. When you buy a size that’s too big for you, the chances that the condom will slide off during sex are much higher. Then you’re not getting the 99.99 percent protection you paid for, and that’s just bad consumerism.
Don’t ever think that ‘pulling out’ is safe sex. “Pre-ejaculation also contains semen that can impregnate and spread disease, so put a condom on before any kind of penetration,” says Planned Parenthood representative Sherry Goldwin. Any intercourse can cause mixing of bodily fluids, even if the man doesn’t ejaculate. Condoms need to be put on immediately before intercourse to be completely effective. In a two-year study of sero-discordant couples (in which one partner was HIV-positive and one was HIV-negative), uninfected partners became infected in 10 percent of couples using condoms inconsistently, while no uninfected partner became infected among couples using condoms correctly at every act of vaginal or anal sex, according to the Center for Disease Control. If everyone learned how to correctly wear a condom, STDs could become a thing of the past.
Safe sex is always good sex. Even if you have to pause for 20 seconds and lose some momentum, it’ll save you regret, panic and a trip to the pharmacy. Condoms can enrich your sexual experience if you allow them to do their job. Buy the right size, spice it up with colors and pleasure enhancers, and you can gain more from a piece of rubber than you ever thought possible. Remember, it’s OK to ride in the fast lane, as long as you wear a seat belt.
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