Currently, condoms are heavily marketed towards men even though 40% of condoms are purchased by women. With this information in hand, and knowing that our society is uncomfortable with the idea of women buying, carrying around, and using condoms, entrepreneur Meika Hollender is attempting to “arm women with chic sexual health products.”
Recent studies have shown that while millennials are having less sex than their parents’, people under the age of 25 still account for nearly half of all new STDs. Yes teen pregnancy rates are going down but STD rates are going up; only 19% of single, sexually active women have used condoms consistently over the last year. This means that people are using other forms of birth control that aren’t protecting them from STD’s, like condoms.
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But, if you are going to have multiple partners, you should be using both.
Who is Meika Hollender?
At the ripe old age of 27, Hollender has co-authored a book on non-toxic cleaning, picked up an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business, and launched her own sustainable brand of sexual health products for women called Sustain. The brand began in 2013 with their first product, condoms. But, they have recently expanded to lubricants and are preparing to launch “post-play” wipes in September.
Sustain uses a fair-trade certified rubber plantation and factory. This means that buying their products supports a factory with fair wages and no child laborers. And they are breaking into the lubricant market with a clean product; Sustain’s formula is free from petroleum, glycerin, and parabens and they’re biocompatible with the pH of a woman’s body. Most other lubricants aren’t.
From the article:
“Lubricant usage rates are, in fact, soaring – a whopping 43% of sexually active millennials incorporate lubricants in the bedroom. And while 17% of women experience problems with vaginal dryness during sex, lubricants have long been marketed towards older, postmenopausal women. Meika was surprised to hear her friends were using them too.
‘When petroleum enters your vagina, it damages the cell tissue,’ Meika explains. ‘It basically makes your vagina sick and less likely to protect you against contracting an STI. You’re also 13% more likely to get BV from petroleum.’”
Sex is everywhere: TV, print ads, the subway, billboards…and yet we never really talk about it. Including sexual health. But, with STD rates soaring, it’s time we start.
Source: Teen Vogue
