By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

April 12, 2004 10:25 AM

(HealthDayNews) -- Adding new evidence to the value of safe sex, researchers
are suggesting that condoms do more than prevent pregnancy and protect
people from AIDS.

According to a new study of clients at a sexually transmitted disease clinic
in Colorado, people who consistently used condoms got fewer cases of
gonorrhea and chlamydia than those who used them only occasionally. Condoms
also prevented transmission of genital herpes in men and possibly in women,
too.

The research came out before the American Social Health Association
announced this week that 45 percent of young Americans surveyed don't use
protection during vaginal intercourse.

Condoms "aren't as effective as someone being abstinent or mutually
faithful," said study co-author Dr. Judith Schlay, an attending physician at
Denver Public Health. "But if a person is going to put themselves at risk
for STDs, [condoms] are a very important strategy to reduce their risk."

While public health advocates have long promoted condom use, researchers
disagree over their effectiveness against most sexually transmitted diseases
(STDs). A major federal study failed to find evidence that they protected
against anything more than pregnancy, HIV infection and, in men, gonorrhea
transmission, Schlay said.

In her study, Schlay and colleagues examined the medical records of about
74,000 people -- females and heterosexual males -- who made 126,000 visits
to a Colorado health clinic from 1990 to 2001. About 60 percent of the
patients were men, and large percentages were black and Latino.

More than half reported using condoms at least once over the previous four
months, but only 16 percent said they used condoms consistently.

However, those in that last group had better sexual health. Compared to
those who used condoms now and then, men who used condoms consistently were
13 percent less likely to get gonorrhea; women were 29 percent less likely.
The numbers were 34 and 26 percent for men and women, respectively, for
chlamydia, a potentially serious STD.

Women were 13 percent less likely to get trichomoniasis, an infection that
causes vaginal irritation, and men were 27 percent less likely to become
infected with genital herpes. Among women, researchers found "a trend in the
right direction" toward lower genital herpes rates, Schlay said, but the
statistics weren't as clear-cut as they were for men.

Condom use didn't appear to affect the rates of two other health risks --
genital warts and moluscum, which causes genital bumps. Those ailments are
often transmitted through exposure to areas of the body that aren't covered
by a condom, Schlay said.

The findings appear in the March 2004 issue of the journal Sexually
Transmitted Diseases.

The American Social Health Association, which advocates safe-sex practices,
cautions that people must learn to use condoms consistently and correctly,
said Charles Ebel, senior director of health policy. He added that much of
the news coverage of condoms fails to note their value as a form of
"secondary prevention."

"There are many couples in which one person already has an STD, and in that
context, they wonder what they can do as a couple to protect the partner who
doesn't have this infection," Ebel said.