Condom advice, please! Help us choose one!

[Tybee Swing]

Originally Posted by CuriousInOregon

I have Used the Female Condom and tey work great, they just get pushed up inside the vaginal cavity till you hit cervix and it sits there almost like the Instead cup but it doesnt slip out of place

This sounds like a pregnancy barrier, but not a disease barrier? There is nothing covering the penis or lining the whole vagina, correct? It's all skin on skin inside, except for this little thing pushed against the cervix?

[Tybee Swing]

Something that's reusable doesn't sound like disease prevention, either. Confusing! So, I went looking for info, found a link with a picture and a good explanation. There's even a side-by-side comparison here with male condoms: http://www.femalehealth.com/theproduct.html
So, it is a sheath, and it does cover the whole inside of the vagina. The outer ring of this thing sits outside of the woman's body.

Curious, is this the kind you used? Do you know how these feel to the male? Thanks.

[good times]

I don't know if their is such a thing as a one size fits all, I would guess their is probably one size fits most though, but it doesn't fit me. I had so much trouble with condoms that we recently did our own condom research project. Mrs. GT went to several local stores that carry condoms and bought all the different brands and sizes she could find. Before I give you the results I have to say that the reason for this project was that I had been having poor to bad results with the half dozen condoms we had tried before this. I also must say that I am a little larger than average so that may have had a lot to do with the problems. After trying a bunch of them I concluded that the main problem was that, for me at least, too big of a condom was better then too small, much better. I have since found out that the condom makers suggest the same thing, surprisingly, I was told that they even stay on better if they aren't too tight. This may be too much information here, but regular size condoms make my weiner turn a funny purple color and it goes numb in about two minutes, so we decided some research was in order. Now that Mrs, GT had a pile of condoms, we locked ourselves in our room one Sunday and didn't come out until we had tried them all, man were we sore.

So, the results,

Trojan magnum XL, can't feel a thing, usually loose my erection in a few minutes due to lack of stimulation. Would probably be good for those guys that are overly sensitive.

Lifestyles XL, Although sensitivity is better than the trojans they are still to small for the bigger guys. I would guess they would only work for guys average or smaller.

Durex XXL, sensitivity is better than the trojans and this is what I used for quite some time, but the feel was still poor enough that I really wanted to find something better.

Kimono microthin large, Sensitivity is excellent, next best thing to nothing at all, for my part I wish they made them just a little bigger, as it is they are just barely big enough.

We tried several other brands but these are the commopn ones, my advice, get the Kimono's in regular microthin and large microthin, I think that would cover most guys, unless you get a guy that is really big then I think the only ones big enough would be the trojan magnum XL or the durex XXL.

By the way, we have run across a couple of women that find that the lubricated condoms make them itch, so if you are having that problem try the non-lubricated condoms and see if it solves the problem.

From what I am told, they all taste bad, even the flavored ones.

[VanHlebar]

Yet another great thread by Tybee!

Thanks to GT for the great research and I guess I am going to have to go looking for the Kimono's this week.

I am just an average guy, but I hate condoms and I can't stand to have them squeezing me. I have been using the Trojan Maxum XLs since we got started and they seemed to have been working the best. Only issue with them is that their lack of sensitivity causes me to have a very difficult time climaxing, and yes this is bad a times.

So, guess we will look for the Kimono's and give them a go.

Thanks folks, I learn something new everday from this board.

-Van

[edmustang]

Yes, good show, Tybee!

I imagine the female condom would feel just fine to the man. I don't like condoms because there is very little feeling of motion. The female condom would fix that.

[Tybee Swing]

Good Times, THANKS for all of that! Your research will help Mr. Tybee too, since you had some advice in his size range, also.

We'll look for those Kimonos. I haven't heard of that brand - are they found in common places like all the others?

[good times]

Originally Posted by Tybee Swing

We'll look for those Kimonos. I haven't heard of that brand - are they found in common places like all the others?

Yes, we got them at the local supermarket. It is funny that a couple of years ago when we went to get condoms the store would usually just have one brand, two at most, lately they seem to all be carrying a much bigger variety. Just before our little experiment, we went to the store to get condoms and we both stood there for about a half an hour trying to decide which ones.

If you can't find them locally their are a lot of condom outlets online and their shipping is usually fast and discreet.

From what you have said about your husbands size Tybee, I think he will really like the Kimono's. It was funny to read about your measuring session in another thread, we did almost the exact same thing some time back. Seems if you are larger than average you often get the question, "so, exactly how big is it?" after hearing that a couple of times (interestingly, they usually ask Mrs. GT, not me) she decided that another research project was in order. It was kind of funny, I never realized it would be so hard to do, even with Mrs, GT using all of her extensive abilities at the art of stimulation, it was hard to keep a woody while she was wrestling with the measuring tape and trying to keep me suitably stimulated at the same time, we were laughing our asses off.

[OttawaCuple]

Originally Posted by edmustang

How well do the female condoms work? Anyone ever use one? How do they feel, ladies?

My husband and I've tried the "Reality" female condom just precisely for the reasons that you've all talked about concerning size, etc.

It is like a great big polyurethane (the same material they make Avanti non-latex condoms out of) bag with a soft plastic ring about 1 1/3" across attached to the closed end and a large soft plastic ring about 2" across attached to the open end.

Anytime up to 8 hours befor having intercourse, you insert the smaller ring deep inside your vagina and push as much of the polyurethane tube up inside, leaving the outer end of the tube and the outer ring outside, basically ringing your pubic area.

It certainly doesn't look very sexy and since the polyurethane doesn't stretch and is therefore designed to accommodate an erect penis, there's quite a it of the polyurethane tube that tends to hang out of your vagina. And did you know that polyurethane "crinkles" when it moves??? A little disconcerting!!

If you want to have oral sex with the Reality condom inserted, the man either has to give you oral over top of the tubular shield (which actually would be not a bad thing if you wanted "protected" cunnilingus), or has to push the outer ring to the side (without pulling out the inner ring) so he can access your clit and labia directly with his tongue or fingers.

Penetration is quite easy, but extra lubrication (which the package provides a little pouch of) helps to keep things nice and slippery so the thrusting doesn't threaten to pull the whole Reality condom inside with his penis, defeating the "area surrounding the penis and the vulva protection" issue which is a large part of the PURPOSE of the Reality condom.

My husband is a snug fit inside me, and even with lubrication, it felt like he might pull the condom completely inside with him, so I spent most of the time holding onto the outer ring with my fingers to make sure that didn't happen (not a completely unpleasant thing to have to do as he loves me playing with the bottom of his shaft while he's fucking me, but not something you want to HAVE to do).

The one really good thing is that it's nice and loose on the man, and my husband, who hates condoms cuz they're so tight (we now make sure he has large condoms and he's much happier), said the Reality condom didn't reduce his feeling at all, in fact it made him slide in and out EASIER, which he liked :-). The only thing that disturbed him was that rustle-rustle thing.

Tonight we're going to try the Reality condom again (it's fun to experiment, if nothing else!!), but this time, I've put it in and have actually pushed the outer ring into my vagina as well (by twisting and squishing it much like those fold-up car windshield sunshades) so he can go down on me without him even being able to tell it's in (except I'll ask him not to put any fingers in me when he's going down on me. I hope, when we're ready for him to penetrate me, that I can fish around with my finger and pull out the outer ring, letting it flop open against my vulva as it's designed to.

If anyone's interested in the result of this experiment, let me know & I'll give a follow-up report.

I think the biggest problem with the Reality condom is its cost. In Canada, a package of three costs around $12 to $15 and like condoms, they are designed to only be used once, although given how they fit loosely in the vagina, the man CAN withdraw, leaving the Reality condom in the woman's vagina, play in other ways (say her giving him oral sex for a while) and then, with some extra lubrication, penetrate her again.

The biggest advantages of the Reality condom are that it fits all men, that it's non-latex so there's no allergy issue or latex smell, and that it does provide more thorough coverage againtst STD's because it separates the whole vulval area from the man's penis AND base, not just the vagina from the shaft/head of the penis.

[edmustang]

So, how did it go?

[BonnyaClyde]

My biggest issue with condoms has always been the taste, I like to taste my wife after she cums.
I personally would highly reccoment the paradise ultra thin condom. It's thin which is hard to find in a flavored condom and it has a lube that is lightly flavored just enough to cover the latex taste but does not overwhelm the natural flavors of sex.
I also liked the new mint tingle condom but it still has a rather strong mint flavor.

[BonnyaClyde]

My biggest issue with condoms has always been the taste, I like to taste my wife after she cums.
I personally would highly reccoment the paradise ultra thin condom. It's thin which is hard to find in a flavored condom and it has a lube that is lightly flavored just enough to cover the latex taste but does not overwhelm the natural flavors of sex.
I also liked the new mint tingle condom but it still has a rather strong mint flavor.

[JustAskJulie]

Originally Posted by good times

I don't know if their is such a thing as a one size fits all, I would guess their is probably one size fits most though, but it doesn't fit me. I had so much trouble with condoms that we recently did our own condom research project. Mrs. GT went to several local stores that carry condoms and bought all the different brands and sizes she could find.

We decided that we should probably start making an effort to find a condom that we both like and in doing so we both thought of this post. So we headed to the store and bought a few different kinds. What we discovred those things are damn expensive and somehow I knew we could get them cheaper online and so I went looking and found a "condom sampler pack" online and bought it.

We will try to keep track of our progress on here somewhere. So far we've only tried one and I can't even remember the name but it was way too thick. I'm going to see if I can get Pet to set up a blog on here to track the progress.

[jakenlin]

My member slightly about average (8 inches) and most condoms are to tight and uncomfortable. Do you have any advice on which one to try!!