Staying Safe: Would You Trust a Dissolvable Condom?

First we had the male pill, then the one-handed condom and now? Now researchers are in the process of designing a dissolvable condom. Yes, really. We’ll admit that we raised a collective eyebrow when we came across the news.

The Huffington Post reports that researchers at the University of Washington are close to developing a new condom that can block sexually transmitted diseases, stop unwanted pregnancies and release protective and preventative drugs after use. Oh, and we should probably mention that this super condom (or “hypercondom” as researchers are calling it) also dissolves inside you once you’re finished having sexy times with your man.

The condoms are being targeted for use by women and are made by a new technology known as “electrospinning.” Not only would this hypercondom block sperm, it could also release a cocktail of anti-HIV drugs and hormonal contraceptives into the female body after use.

Would you trust a condom that dissolves inside your body after use?

“This method allows the controlled release of multiple compounds,” said Cameron Ball, a student involved in the research of the condom.

“We were able to tune the fibres to have different release properties,” he added.

So it’ll stop you getting pregnant, picking up anything nasty and it’ll dissolve inside you meaning that there’ll be no awkward clean up post-sex.

Hmm, in theory it sounds pretty good but we have to ask: would you trust a dissolvable condom to keep you safe?