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:
“The difference between style and taste is never easy to define, but style tends to be centered on the social, and taste upon the individual. Style then works along axes of similarity to identify group membership, to relate to the social order; taste works within style to differentiate and construct the individual. Style speaks about social factors such as class, age, and other more flexible, less definable social formations; taste talks of the individual inflection of the social.”
—John Fiske (b. 1939)