• Condoms have an annual contraceptive failure rate of 18.4 % for girls
under the age of 18; among young, unmarried, minority women the annual
failure rate is 36.3 %

• Many of the germs that cause STDs occur in areas not covered by the
condom. For example, genital warts can occur throughout the genital area,
such as on the scrotum and in the anal area. In those cases, wearing a
condom wouldn’t prevent the germs from being passed between partners.
Similarly, the sores that a person gets with herpes, syphilis, and
gonorrhea can occur outside the area covered by a condom.

"The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the
National Institutes of Health, released the report compiled by the panel
of 28 experts, who analyzed about 138 published studies on the use of
condoms during penile-vaginal intercourse.

"There was a lack of evidence to help us make a definitive conclusion
about the effectiveness of condoms," said panel member Dr. Timothy
Schacker, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota"