Future of Sex community member Mark Heath wrote a thought-provoking post speculating on the future of contraception, Beyond simply preventing pregnancy, he raised the idea of future birth control options also protecting people from sexual transmitted infections and diseases.
We’ve published several articles on developments and out-of-the-box ideas to create new and better birth control, including through gene modification and contraceptive jewelry.
From my memory, few projects have aimed to tackle both. However, several groups have received grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to reinvent the condom. The aim has been to create a condom that is not just more effective against pregnancy and STIs but is also more comfortable or even makes sex more pleasurable.
Personally, I think this is exciting but it appears progress has been slow. I’m currently most interested in projects developing more birth control options for men. But being a woman who would be the one who would get pregnant, I’m not sure how much I’d want to rely on someone else.
Regardless of your sex or gender, how comfortable are you leaving the responsibility of birth control and STI prevention up to someone else?
Also, is anyone aware of projects trying to take on STIs and birth control at the same time?
