# How exactly do condoms fail? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 29, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-condoms-fail/626710 "2012-06-29T17:36:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-condoms-fail/626710/21 "2012-06-30T07:44:50Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Heh actually I was curious since currently condoms are my sole birth control method about the 2%? failure rate. Which seemed baffling, I’ve personally never seen a condom bust or break(just lucky?) in intended use. [QUOTE=Friends] Ross: We used a condom. Rachel: Well, y’know, condoms only work like 97% of the time. Ross: What? What?! They should put that on the box! Rachel: They do. Ross: No, they don’t! Ross: I’m not freaked out. I’m indignant… as a consumer! [/QUOTE] 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-condoms-fail/626710/22 "2012-06-30T13:14:58Z")
IIRC from some discussion I saw, the 3% involves “real life” use, i.e. survey of couples who relied on them. So given the lifestyles that often tend to use condoms, that failure includes “in a hurry”, “oops, we ran out” and “too drunk to put it on properly” (or to remember them). As I mentioned, “using during frottage” is as likely a fail as “failed to use during frottage”. The concept of sticking a glop of petroleum jelly up there and hoping to get “accidentally” pregnant is a common urban legend. ---
**Author:** ![TurboNuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@TurboNuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TurboNuke)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-condoms-fail/626710/23 "2012-06-30T14:59:59Z")
If you doing it and suddenly it feels much much better, the condom broke or slipped off. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-condoms-fail/626710/24 "2012-06-30T15:46:35Z")
The condom breakage I’ve seen was with an ultra-thin style (I don’t remember the brand). The ultra-thins seem to be a lot less elastic. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Cornholio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed8c4c/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Cornholio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Cornholio)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-condoms-fail/626710/25 "2012-06-30T20:01:52Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Water based lubricants are safe to use with condoms. Petroleum jelly is not. And by “Not safe”, I mean “Will fail”. > > Science experiment. Blow up condom like a balloon. Rub petroleum jelly on it for 5-10 seconds. Pop! Same with Baby Oil. Avoid using the stuff for a nice rub-down before rubbering up, it stays on your (or her) hands for ages and perishes condoms. As a promiscuous type (OK, a slut), I have used condoms religiously (erm, not Catholic, obviously) for many years. I have had the odd condom break, every time in a local Swingers’ Club, and each time the lady in question was…um, “well nourished”. I only use Durex or ones that I get from my local GUM clinic - they don’t give away cheap crappy ones, or they will be getting more business, and that’s NOT their aim! There is nothing quite as disheartening as banging away, enjoying a most satisfactory union, when suddenly it becomes REALLY good. I now know that I have to withdraw immediately and pray I’m the only one who has been in there bareback, even if unintended. I think it is definitely a lubrication issue, though whether it’s down to the lass being a fatso, or because I’m the 7th person who’s had a go on her that night, I can’t be sure. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t a cantankerous old git who is incapable of holding down a long-term relationship with a nice young lady… ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-condoms-fail/626710/26 "2012-06-30T22:14:51Z")
> [@Zep\_Tepi](#): > > Fortunately I had one fail on me in 1978. I say fortunately as this breakage lead to the birth of our third child, a daughter who has now given us two delightful granddaughters. I just do not know where I would be today if the faulty import from the East had not torn during normal use. > > Needless to say after the birth of the unplanned daughter I rushed off to get the snip. Far safer. 😉 Does your daughter know she was conceived as an oh-shit-the-condom-broke? My father has used that line, as well as the milk man one, and a few others, for years. I figured he was just fooling around…:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-condoms-fail/626710/27 "2012-06-30T22:18:18Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > IIRC from some discussion I saw, the 3% involves “real life” use, i.e. survey of couples who relied on them. So given the lifestyles that often tend to use condoms, that failure includes “in a hurry”, “oops, we ran out” and “too drunk to put it on properly” (or to remember them). > > As I mentioned, “using during frottage” is as likely a fail as “failed to use during frottage”. > > The concept of sticking a glop of petroleum jelly up there and hoping to get “accidentally” pregnant is a common urban legend. How the heck can you get pregnant by frottage? If that’s the case, I don’t know how many junior-high-school classmates bore my children. Plus I would’ve avoided a lot of soreness. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-condoms-fail/626710/28 "2012-07-01T01:09:26Z")
Many years ago I remember _Time_ magazine reporting (perhaps a Cold War myth) that CIA agents once methodically poked tiny holes in thousands of Soviet condoms in a warehouse in India, hoping that the failure of so many of them would turn the Indians against “shoddy, unreliable” Soviet imports. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-condoms-fail/626710/29 "2012-07-01T02:14:34Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > They just rip sometimes while in use. I don’t know why it happens because they seem pretty strong but I have had it happen several times. Best username-post combination! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-do-condoms-fail/626710.md?page=1)