Playing the Odds
Dear editor:
It seems that some people are under the impression that condoms provide a foolproof means of protection against STDs and unwanted pregnancy. Perhaps young people should indeed be taught about more than abstinence. As a starting point, let’s teach them the odds involved in so-called “safe sex,” so that if they choose to play sexual roulette they do so fully informed of the likely consequences of their actions.
According to the World Health Organization, a condom, if used perfectly, has a 97% chance of preventing pregnancy. If a man, armed with condoms, were to have sex with every woman on campus, 356 (not 0) pregnancies would result (using the Fall 2001 female enrollment figure of 11,874). To bring the numbers down to an even more understandable figure, a couple using a condom exactly as it is designed has just under a 1 in 34 chance of becoming pregnant. This is better odds than getting three of a kind in five card poker (a 1 in 48 chance).
Statistics on condom effectiveness in preventing the transmission of STDs were harder to locate; while it has been shown that properly-used condoms prevent the transmission of HIV, no definitive studies have shown their effectiveness (or even if they are effective) against other STDs. Again, I’d rather play a hand of poker at Vegas, where the only thing I’d risk losing would be a bit of cash.
If more of our young people were taught the odds involved in promiscuous sex, perhaps there’d be less need to “preach” abstinence to them.
–Nathan BakerUSU Alumnus, 2002nbaker@darkwing.uoregon.edu(541)988-0897