Although everyone is happy to talk about condoms, very few people can tell you how to use them properly. The best demonstration of condom use that most people get is seeing a rubber placed hurriedly onto a banana. That kind of prudishness is no help to anyone, and can lead to people taking needless risks when they use condoms.

Using a condom properly is easy, once you have learnt how. And one of the best ways you can improve your safer sex life is to spend a little time getting it right. Although condoms will not let HIV pass through them under laboratory conditions, they can break, leak, or (and this is the most common reason for failure) slip off during sex, and if they do, they offer much less, or no, protection.