Strategies for Preventing HIV in Women

Female-controlled methods are those that are designed for use by a woman to protect herself against sexual transmission of HIV or other STDs. The only female-controlled method that is currently marketed in the United States for this purpose is the female condom.

It remains unknown whether the female condom provides the same degree of protection against HIV/STD infection as the male latex condom. However, the female condom does provide an alternative method of protection for couples who do not use a male latex condom.

CDC and the National Institutes of Health are working with scientists worldwide to develop and evaluate the effectiveness and safety of female-controlled prevention methods. To date, the effectiveness and safety of products that might act as topical microbicides in providing protection against HIV/STD infection have not been proven. Some studies have shown that spermicides containing nonoxynol-9 (N-9) can reduce the risk of some STDs (gonorrhea and chlamydia) in women, and that N-9 spermicides inactivate HIV in test tubes (Cates and Stone, 1992). A recent study in Cameroon, however, demonstrated no effect of N-9 spermicide in STD prevention (National Institutes of Health, unpublished). Data on the effectiveness of N-9 spermicides for HIV prevention is inconclusive and inconsistent.