Condoms Effectiveness?

As a contraceptive, condoms are cheap and easy to obtain, but they are not perfect. The condom's reliability in preventing pregnancies depends on how it's measured. Researchers don't count the number of individual condoms that fail. They define contraceptive failure as the percentage of women who use a given method but who nonetheless become pregnant over a year's time.

For regular condoms, the typical failure rate is about 12% (the rate for the Reality female condom is 21%), somewhat worse than birth control pills (8%), but better than the diaphragm (18%), withdrawal (19%) and rhythm (20%). [Source: "Contraceptive Technology," Irvington Press, and Family Planning Perspectives journal.] Researchers know that, as with other methods, the failure figures include many couples who don't use contraception every time. If couples used condoms consistently and correctly, researchers estimate, the condom's failure rate would be only 2% or 3%, maybe even less (the Reality female condom is predicted to be 5%).