A Michigan-based company that manufactures condoms says it has developed a new wearable tech female condom equipped with a vibrating ring that is able to “make a woman orgasm every time.”
According to IXu, LLC, the designers of the new product, the female condom is the first that “people would prefer to use more than using no condom at all.”
Apart from providing protection from pregnancy and STDs, the new condom, called VA w.o.w, is a wireless, Bluetoooth-enabled product that has a heart or star-shaped vibrating sleeve or outer ring that helps to bring women to orgasm during sex.
The wireless-controlled vibrator nestles against the vulva, preventing the condom from being pushed deeper into the vagina, and stimulates the clitoris with a buzzing vibration.
Michigan-based IXu, LLC, said that ladies can insert the condom up to 8 hours before sex.
A study involving 50 participants, sponsored by the company, found that 100 percent of female users had an orgasm by the fourth use.
Seventy percent of participants had an orgasm the first time they used VA w.o.w. About 84 percent had an orgasm by second use, and 100 percent by the fourth use.
Brian Osterberg, spokesperson for the company, told the Daily Dot, “The rate of orgasm for women by the fourth time of use was 100 percent. It was a higher orgasm rate for women than even for men. It just goes to show how powerful the technology is.”
Osterberg said IXu has five patents to create a range of “wearable tech” condoms that combine the health features of regular latex condoms with the pleasure-oriented functions of electronic sex toys. He said his company is looking to partner with a manufacturer who will help to bring the product to the market.
“This is a major step to speed up female condom innovation. We have definitive data showing female condoms with electronic vibe devices attached are extremely ‘agreeable’ to users.
We want to expand and showcase the tremendous potential for wearable tech mixed together with female condoms and we welcome any outside participation to explore the possibilities.”
The company said it is waiting for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to formerly license its new VA w.o.w in the U.S., but the product will be available in the European market in the next 18 months.
“Typically the difficulties of FDA approval is the expense, the millions of dollars needed for clinical evaluation. There’s been some hesitation to spend the money to test something [Female condoms] if it seems similar to a product that failed.”
The company plans to connect the new female condom to smart phones to allow users to control the orgasm-inducing vibrations remotely, according to a spokesperson for the company.
The idea is not entirely new. According to the Daily Dot, since 2006, a company, OhMiBod, has been producing wireless music vibrators that function with sex toys and connect to smart phones through Bluetooth.
“The condom could be controlled from a iPhone or an Apple Watch. You could develop as many apps for this as you can think of.
One could communicate and control the condom (by wireless remote, smart phone etc) while the condom performs various stimulating functions; vibe/pulse sensations, sound, heat and light emissions.”
Experts agree that one of the major advantages of focusing development of condom technology on female condoms is that men, who are often dominant partners in sexual relationships, prefer female condoms. Access to condoms the woman — rather than the man — wears gives women more control over their reproductive health, as they can wear the condom instead of trying to compel often recalcitrant male partners to wear one.
A condom that combines the functions of a sex toy with the health advantages of the latex sheath and which both partners would “prefer to use than nothing at all” could further enhance the ability of women to protect themselves.
The development of the condom follows the market failure of the first female condom, the FC1, which was introduced about two decades ago. The polyurethane product, manufactured by Chartex International Plc, popularly known as the Femidon, was widely disliked for the awkwardly distracting rustling noise it made. Men also complained that it felt “like having sex with a plastic bag.”
An improved version, the FC2, a 6.5-inch plastic sheath the woman inserts before having sex, gained slightly wider acceptance, but still fell short of success due to what many users considered an ungainly design.
A critic described it as being “like a trash bag lining my vagina.” But the FC2, rated as 95 percent effective, is the only FDA-approved female condom in the U.S.
If VA w.o.w proves to be half as good as its makers claim, it is likely to find wider acceptance.
[Image: IXu LLC]
