This is the page where you can learn more about condoms than you've ever cared to. So, what do you say? Shall we begin with the history of the venerable prophylactic? Or perhaps we should start instead with the etymology of the proper term for the legendary love glove. Yes, that's it, and the etymology of the word condom is... entirely unknown.

Wow, that's kind of let-down, now isn't it? So, if you really need something to talk about at the next kegger you attend, it turns out that Condom is an Irish surname (and how would you like to have that for a moniker?), and there's an apocryphal story of a Dr. Condom supplying such articles to Charles the First of England. Unfortunately, there's no evidence to back up the tale, but that hasn't stopped anyone yet from telling it. The first instance of the written word in English appeared in 1666, which is fairly soon after the the reign of Charles the First (they chopped his head off in 1649, but fortunately not for using condoms). But again unfortunately, the spelling used in that instance was condon and not condom, the modern spelling not appearing till the early 18th Century. Oh, well, enough word lore, now on to the history.

Following the first documented outbreak of syphilis in Europe in the 1490s, an Italian writer named Gabriele Fallopius (for whom the Fallopian tubes of women's anatomy are named) described the use of chemically-treated linen sheaths for protection against the disease. This is the earliest documentation regarding the use of something we would today recognize as a condom. There's argument over whether anything like condoms were used in antiquity, but again unfortunately there's no documentary or archaeological evidence to support these arguments. There is a peculiar tale of the Japanese using tortoise shell or animal horn (!) for the purpose, which kind of cranks a whole new twist into the term horny.

In addtition to the linen sheaths described by Fallopius, beginning in the 16th Century condoms were made out of the ceca from animal intestines, as indeed some condoms still are today, but these "lambskin" condoms are not recommended for protection from STDs. By the beginning of the 17th Century there is documentary evidence condoms were being used for birth control. Throughout the 18th Century condoms were widely used in Europe and America, but because of their expense, their use was limited mainly to the wealthy and middleclass.

In the middle of the 19th Century Charles Goodyear introduced vulcanized rubber, and within ten years condoms were being manufactured out of this new product, which revolutionized the industry by making condoms more affordable. Then in 1920 water- based latex was introduced, which greatly simplified the process of making condoms, and by 1930 fully-automated modern condom manufacturing was in place. Since that time there have been steady improvements in the latex formula and the manufacturing process, and modern condoms have become not only much thinner but also stronger. Properly used, modern condoms rarely if ever fail.

During World War II condoms were distributed to military personnel on all sides of the conflict, and after the war condom sales and use continued to rise, but at the end of the 1950s the first birth control pill was introduced. This new means of birth control, along with the widespread availability of antibiotics for the first time in history, led to a sharp decline in condom usage in the US and Europe. Not entirely by coincidence, at the same time as this decline in condom usage occurred, the rates of STD infections began a precipitous rise. Despite this rise in STIs, condom usage continued to decline for twenty years, but in the 1980s the recognition of AIDS as a sexually transmitted (and incurable) disease reversed this trend.

Despite being inexpensive and widely-available worldwide, condoms remain primarily a resort of the educated and well-to-do in developed countries. The use of condoms in many developing countries continues to be depressed by religious taboos, negative rumors (including the preposterous claim that condom manufacturers put the AIDS virus into the lubricants used in condoms), and outright governmental oppostion. There is, however, some good news concerning this regrettable situation. In recent years the governments of several developing countries, including India, South Africa, and Thailand, have begun encouraging condom usage in an effort to stem the tide of HIV infections.