Back to Basics

The makers of an age-old form of birth control, the condom, are again doing a thriving business. After a decade of mediocre sales in the 1970s, the condom is rapidly regaining popularity. Some 500 million will be sold in the U.S. this year, a 15% increase over 1983. According to manufacturers, many people see them as a way to help prevent some kinds of venereal disease. Says Milton Bryson, marketing director for Youngs Drug Products, which makes the Trojans brand: "People have become much more health conscious." Other buyers choose the condom, which is more than 90% effective in preventing conception, to avoid the side effects sometimes associated with such birth control methods as the Pill and intrauterine devices.

Condoms are now also easier to buy. They emerged from behind the pharmacist's counter after a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court ruling made it legal to advertise and display them. Today about the only difficult part of buying them is choosing from some 50 brands of varying colors and textures. Such old established types as Trojans and Sheik have been joined by slickly packaged ones with names like LifeStyles Stimula.