[garinda]

In a way we've gone backwards. Twenty years ago, because of the threat of AIDS, you had people like Angela Rippon and Noel Edmonds putting condoms onto bananas on teatime television, and because of the increased use of barrier protection, incidence of all STD's fell dramatically.

There is now a whole new generation of people who don't know the risk of not using condoms, if they are going to have unprotected sex. I've lost too many friends ever to forget.

As Marg P said, the only safe sex is no sex, but if celibacy holds no appeal, condoms do offer some protection, and gone are the days of embarrassment in the chemist/barbers, now that you can put them in your supermarket trolley with your beans.