How to Use Internal and External Condoms

By Teen Health Source

Condoms are just tubes, right? So how difficult can they be?

Answer: Not very difficult at all! But they can be! Wait, what?

External Condoms (that go on penises* or sex toys) are 97% effective at preventing pregnancy when used correctly. Internal Condoms (that go inside vaginas* or butts) are 95% effective when used correctly. But these percentages drop to 86% and 80% (respectively), when people don’t use them properly. And it’s hard to use something properly if you’ve never been taught how! When it comes to learning about safer sex, lots of people don’t even get the “Condom on a Banana” demo in sex ed class. And don’t event get us started about using condoms to prevent the transfer or STIs! (Actually, please do get us started on it. We have lots of info.)

Anyways, with all that in mind, we here at Teen Health Source made some new condom demo guides! You can check out the How To pages on our website here:

• How to use an External Condom [Link]
• How to use an Internal Condom [Link]

Or download some PDFs of the guides:

• How to use External Condoms [Download]
• How to use Internal Condoms [Download]
• Combo: How to use Internal and External Condoms [Download]

Please feel free to print and share these guides! We have a limited number of these already in print, so please get in touch if you’re in the GTA and want physical copies: teenhealthsource@ppt.on.ca.

Our thanks to Victor Martins for the super helpful art!

If you have questions about this topic, feel free to contact one of our peer educators. [Link]

Last Updated: April 2020

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*We know that these aren’t the words everyone uses for their bodies (eg. trans folks), and support you using the language that feels best for you.