Researcher Carol Joanis asked 160 women to try the condom brands out and pick a favourite.
"Better fit, better feeling"
The testers voted the new Woman’s Condom as their top choice – it won nearly half the votes. In second place came rival condom brands FC2 with 37 percent. Reddy FC (also called V-amour) trailed in third place - just 16 percent of the women liked it most.
The women ranked the Woman’s Condom higher because they thought it looked better, was easier to use and fitted better. What’s more, it beat the Reddy FC on feeling.
No one size fits all
Does this mean the end for the FC2 or the Reddy FC? No, says Nienke Blauw of UAFC Joint Programme, an organisation that promotes the use of female condoms. She points out that none of the condoms won the test hands down by taking more than half the votes.
"And the women who liked the Reddy FC really liked it. They wouldn’t trade using it for the other two female condoms.”
But she's happy to see a newcomer on the female condom market: “What we really need here is more options. Because there is no one size that fits all for every woman.”
For more information on female condoms see www.femalecondoms4all.org.
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