This article, written by Lillian Roberts, is part of an African Alliance series celebrating 25 years of the inner condom in South Africa and the people who helped to establish the world’s biggest state-funded inner condom project. Dr Mags Beksinska, a sexual and reproductive health researcher has worked in the field for almost 20 years. Her research has included clinical and operations studies in the broad area of reproductive health with a focus on barrier methods for dual protection. She has specialised in research on female condoms, also now known as internal/inner condoms and is a member of the UNFPA/WHO Female Condom Technical Review Committee. Beksinska is also involved in the development of international standards and specifications for condoms. She was an author of the WHO/UNFPA Female Condom Specifications. She is active in global female condom programming and advocacy. She also acts in an advisory role with UNFPA and the Universal Access to Female Condoms Joint Programme (UAFC). “One of the most important things is choice and ensuring people have a choice of different condoms, including male and internal, that they get good instructions for use to ensure they don’t run into problems. There is a huge practice effect with internal condoms and so we need to make sure new users are well counselled,” says Beksinska. “Unfortunately I read everywhere that condom use generally has decreased, yet STIs, including syphilis, are increasing at an alarming rate, and only condoms can protect from these infections. Long term, STIs can cause infertility, something that is less known about, in particular as many STIs are silent,” she warns. Beksinska has a Bachelor of Science in Genetics and Cell Biology, a Masters in the Neurophysiological Basis of Behaviour, and her PhD focused on the effect of hormonal contraception on bone mineral density in adolescent and perimenopausal women. She has authored over 70 peer-reviewed publications. In 2023, she published a study on the inner condom’s scent and colour preference in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The study found that strawberry scented condoms were very popular. Although coloured and scented male condoms have been available for many years, coloured and scented female condoms were not available globally until 2019. South Africa introduced the coloured and scented ones in the same year. The FC2 condom comes in caramel, vanilla, strawberry and plain. “Unfortunately there is little interest from donors to fund more much-needed research and development on internal condoms,” she explains.
