Social Factors
Condoms are an effective method for blocking the transmission of most sexually transmitted diseases (with HPV a notable exception). However, a variety of social factors (including, but not limited to, the sexual disempowerment of women in many cultures) limit the feasibility of condom use. Thus, topical microbicides might provide a useful woman-initiated alternative to condoms.
Some sub-Saharan African cultures view vaginal lubrication as undesirable. Since some topical microbicide formulations currently under development function as lubricants, such "dry sex" traditions may pose a barrier to the implementation of topical microbicidal programs. Recent data on product acceptability, however, show that many men and women enjoy using gels during sex that would contain a microbicidal drug.
Read more about this topic: Microbicides For Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Famous quotes related to social factors:
“... as women become free, economic, social factors, so becomes possible the full social combination of individuals in collective industry. With such freedom, such independence, such wider union, becomes possible also a union between man and woman such as the world has long dreamed of in vain.”
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)