Condoms Can Break: Separating Fact from Fiction
“condoms are breakable”
Summary
Scientific studies report that condoms do experience breakage, with observed rates ranging from about 0.1% in controlled trials to 5% in some user samples and typical real‑world rates around 1‑3% per use. While correct and consistent use minimizes the risk, breakage is a documented possibility.
Sources 60 searched
- How often do condoms break or slip off in use?
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- Can condom users likely to experience condom failure be identified? - PubMed
A study based on a convenience sample of 177 couples who each used 11 condoms found that 103 condoms (5.3%) broke before or during intercourse and 67 condoms (3.5%) slipped off during sex. Couples who had not used a condom in the past year were almost twice as likely to experience condom failure ...
- Condom use and breakage among women in a municipal hospital family planning clinic - PubMed
Condom breakage occurred in approximately 1 out of 100 acts of intercourse using condoms, with a lifetime breakage rate of 10 per 1000 condom uses and a past year breakage rate of 8 per 1000 condom uses.
- Men with broken condoms: who and why? - PMC
The male latex condom is the single ... of condom failure have been linked with inflated risk of STI transmission.5,6,7 As breakage is one of the most common reasons for condom failure, several studies have tried to identify correlates of this event.8,9,10,11,12,13...
- Condom use and breakage among women in a municipal hospital family planning clinic - ScienceDirect
Condom breakage occurred in approximately 1 out of 100 acts of intercourse using condoms, with a lifetime breakage rate of 10 per 1000 condom uses and a past year breakage rate of 8 per 1000 condom uses.
- Latex condom breakage and slippage in a controlled clinical trial - ScienceDirect
Six breaks occurred before intercourse (nonclinical breaks), and 10 condoms broke during intercourse or were only noted to have broken upon withdrawal (clinical breaks), resulting in a nonclinical breakage rate of 0.13% (95% confidence interval, ...
- Male condoms that break in use do so mostly by a “blunt puncture” mechanism - ScienceDirect
Evidence combined from examining ... until it ultimately breaks. Blunt puncture appears to be the mechanism of breakage responsible for more than 90% of condom breakage not attributable to misuse....
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