By Tara Nykyforiak
Photos by Vaikunthe Banerjee
The most primal and pleasure-fueled of all human acts can also be a financial burden for those involved. It’s great that so many young people today are taking proper measures to practice safe sex, so it’s unfortunate and illogical that condoms are priced the way they are. You may never have given it much thought, but the high cost of condoms does have a real impact on drug stores and the choices that couples make.
A box of my favourite condoms will run me and my partner $16.99 plus tax. This is exponentially cheaper than the cost of raising a child, but works out to be the better part of a dollar per bedroom session nonetheless. When compared to the BC minimum wage — $10.25 an hour — a box of condoms seems like a lot, because a person has to work one and half hours just to make enough to afford to have this safe sex option.
Now, it is easy as a student to get condoms for free through the health centre, but this isn’t always practical. Students such as myself in long-term relationships are in need of more than a couple condoms here and there, so this option is only realistic for those partaking in casual hookups.
Of course, there are other options. Birth control pills can be cheaper, because many Canadian university student health plans offer them at reduced costs. However, the pill is hormone based, so when a woman uses birth control pills, her natural hormone cycles are altered.
Moreover, the pill does not protect against STIs, and there is a long list of potential side effects. Yaz (a specific brand of the pill) was determined in 2011 by the Food and Drug Administration to cause a 75 percent increase risk for blood clotting. More recently, it was linked to the death of 23 Canadian women, so it’s easy to understand why birth control pills are a contraceptive measure not all women need or desire.
One can also suggest various other methods of birth control, such as a copper intrauterine device (IUD). It is good for five years, is non-hormonal, and costs between $90 to $160. This amounts to significant savings long-term; however, it does not protect against STIs, and not all women feel comfortable with having foreign objects implanted in their bodies.
So, if alternative forms of birth control are not what a woman needs or is comfortable with, the only means left for her to practice safe sex — in this case using condoms — will cost upwards of $228 a year, if her and her partner go through a box of Trojans or Durex every month. At this price, sometimes I feel like I’m being punished for being a student in a committed relationship who practices safe sex.
A study conducted by Pharmacy Practice revealed the consequences of having a high price on condoms. Of the drug stores featured in the study, up to 11.74 per cent of condoms were stolen in a given month, with the store experiencing the highest theft rates located in a university town. That’s a lot of inventory being stolen, but more importantly, is the message being conveyed: condoms are not priced as an affordable option for safe sex, especially for those in lower income brackets.
At the end of the day, the most natural, non-invasive, and most effective means of practicing safe sex are condoms, so it’s a real shame they aren’t more accessible.
