Since this Sunday, January 1, people under 26 can get free condoms in pharmacies, as Emmanuel Macron had promised. But a lot of vagueness remains on the conditions to take advantage of it. We will explain everything to you.
- Free condoms for those under 26 are in addition to other preventive measures such as free contraception for all women up to the age of 26 or the cost of STI screening without a prescription for those under 26. .
- A survey conducted in 2021 among 2,000 young people by the Heyme student mutual insurance company shows that wearing a condom is far from systematic, even during penetration.
- 26% of respondents do not use it “not all the time”, or even “never” when meeting a new partner. This new measure aims to make condoms more accessible to combat this.
After the contraceptive pill last year, it is the turn of the male condom to become free since January 1 for all young people under 26 years of age. The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, announced it on December 8, for 18-25 year olds, during a session of the National Council for Refoundation devoted to the health of young people, before including the under 18 the next day.
How to take advantage of the free condom in pharmacies?
If you are between 18 and 25 years old, you can now get condoms for free, without paying a penny, up to one box per day. For this, you will have to present your vital card. Medicare directly supports the purchase of the box at 100% (this is a third-party reimbursement). There is no need for a prescription anymore, you can just ask for a box of condoms at the counter.
If you are a minor, all you have to do is give your age to the pharmacist. The purchase can be made as for adults, with the social security card of the parent to whom you are attached, or you can remain anonymous and the purchase will be invoiced to health insurance with an insured number. fictitious (the issue of condoms will not appear on the parents’ social security statement).
Only 2 brands of condoms can be obtained for free
However, you cannot choose just any brand. Only two brands can be obtained free of charge: “Eden”, a box which currently contains 24 condoms and “Sortez Couverts”, which contains 12. These two brands were already reimbursed by Social Security, without age limit, but on prescription medical treatment for those who request it. However, this system was still largely unknown: only 21% of minors and 29% of 18-24 year olds had heard of it, according to French Radio.
On the other hand, it may be necessary to wait a little before being able to really benefit from this measure, the time that all pharmacies are preparing to apply it. Indeed, pharmacists only had a short month to organize themselves after this “surprise” announcement. Asked yesterday by France infothe president of the Union of Community Pharmacists, Pierre-Olivier Variot, points out that “arbitrations at ministerial level were taken late”. “The announcement of the President of the Republic surprised the whole Republic“, emphasizes the pharmacist. We had to do this urgently and we have so far found solutions. These solutions were stopped last night, so it’s really quite recent.”
Reduction of STIs in young people, HIV… the objectives of this measure
The objective of this “small revolution in prevention”, as Emmanuel Macron had nicknamed him during the announcement, is clear. That young people have easier access to this method of contraception in a context of resumption of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and while in recent years the number of new diagnoses of HIV infection has not decreased in France (stagnant around 5,000 in 2021), as recalled French Radio. Above all, 15% of people who discovered their HIV status in 2021 were under the age of 25, according to Public Health France, a share which has not decreased since 2017 in this age group.
In free information, screening and diagnosis centres, 65% of chlamydia detections and 42% of gonococci occur in people under 26, reports The world. According to data from Santé Publique France, these infections have been increasing since the early 2000s. Between 2017 and 2019, the number of diagnoses of chlamydia infection increased by 29%. This increase is more marked among women aged 15 to 24 (+41%) and among men aged 15 to 29 (+45%). The number of gonorrhea diagnoses increased by 21%.
