According to a new survey released by Smerep, a third of French students never wear a condom. A figure that has risen slightly since 2013.
The condom is not popular among young people. Indeed, 1 in 3 students do not leave covered according to a recent survey Harris Interactiveunveiled by the student health insurance Smerepa few days before World AIDS Day which will take place on Monday.
Protection at the start of a relationship
Carried out online on a sample of 500 students from France and 700 students in Ile-de-France, the results are a continuation of the survey conducted the previous year but with a slight increase, since they were 30% in 2013 said they never put on a condom during sex compared to 33% today. But the study also reveals that the 70% who said they protected themselves during their sexual relations, do so especially at the beginning when they do not know the person. The famous rule of “never a one-night stand without a condom” therefore seems to be widely applied within the campus. But as soon as the relationship becomes serious, the condom stays in the closet. “Students only get the technical and informative side of things. But the real question is what do you do after sex? “, underlines Pierre Faivre, in charge of prevention at Smerep.
The condom seen only as a contraceptive
According to the Smerep survey conducted in March 2013, 60% of French students say that both partners have taken a screening test. Half explain that a partner is already using another means of contraception… forgetting that the condom is also used to protect against sexually transmitted infections. Young women are more cautious about an unwanted pregnancy. They are 60% to take the pill, which does not prevent accidents. Thus, in 2013, 15% of female students used emergency contraception.
Trivialization of AIDS
According to the survey, one of the main causes that explains the reluctance of young people to protect themselves, would be for boys, a question of “pleasure and sensations”, which latex protection could cause to fall apart. Screening for STIs is not a priority for French students either. Negligence that Renaud Bouthier, director of the association Avenir Santé whose remarks are reported by AFP, explains by a current form of “trivialization of AIDS”. “It has become an established societal phenomenon. There is less of this emergency relationship vis-à-vis the disease”. A point of view shared by Yaëlle Amsellem-Mainguy, in charge of studies and research at the youth observatory, “the + Aids Generation +, who began their sexual life in the dark years of the disease (between 1981 and 1995 ), has benefited longer than today’s young people from prevention campaigns and greater visibility of the epidemic”, explains the latter to AFP.
