Condoms and Choices

HIV/AIDS has already been recognized as a woman’s issue. More women than men are getting infected with HIV, and this is mainly because women, due to biology as well as culture and social status that influence their sexual behavior and decision-making power, are more vulnerable to sexually-transmitted infections.

But why is it that, despite more than 20 years’ research into and development of prevention strategies against HIV/AIDS, the number of new infections among women -- and deaths, as well -- continues to rise? An article in the December 2006 issue of International Family Planning Perspectives argues that part of the reason may be that strategies have not been attuned enough to the realities of women’s lives and situation, and that, ironically enough, too much emphasis has been placed on the use of the male condom as the “most effective” means of protecting oneself from HIV/AIDS infection.

Erica Gollub, a professor of epidemiology, asserts that “successful HIV prevention work among women means the adoption of a woman-centered paradigm, one that is grounded in women’s realities and acknowledges gender roles and gender-based power differentials as critical factors in women’s ability to make and effect decisions regarding their health and welfare.”

Years of research have also shown that “most women around the world cannot control male condom use,” says Gollub, “and we have begun to understand that women’s attitudes toward and use of protective methods are based on personal, relational, sociocultural and structural factors, with a different mix for each woman.”

Read more... Condoms and choices By Rina Jimenez-David (At Large). Philippine Daily Inquirer. March 13, 2007