I read an interesting headline recently that something called a “natural condom” may help to stop the spread of the HIV virus.  Well, when natural comes to my mind I’m thinking maybe something made with lambskin or some other sort of natural material that is organic in nature, rather than latex, which does not allow any cells, no matter how small, to pass it’s barrier.  In other words, I think of a natural material that stops male ejaculate from going past a certain point and entering the vaginal quarters.

However, I was pretty far off in my assumption that a “natural condom” meant an actual condom-like contraption that is fitted on a man’s penis to prevent the spread of the virus, it’s actually a hormone that when administered offers a natural barrier within the body that stops the spread of the virus and therefore prevents infection if someone has slept with someone who has the virus without protection in the form of a condom, or if that protection was inadequate.

Apparently research is being done on estrogen in men and how it can block the virus from entering the male penis and therefore prevent infection of a man with the HIV virus.  Intersting, because I never knew that estrogen provided a sort of natural barrier against the virus.

However, the guys in the testing did not have to orally take the hormone estrogen to gain benefit.  What is was is that they applied the hormone estrogen to the penis topically and this apparently was enough to offer some sort of a level of protection against the HIV virus from entering the penile chambers.

More interesting is that estrogen does this by creating a natural barrier between outside viruses by making the skin on the penis thicker where it is applied, and therefore just makes the skin a bit of a better natural protectant against invading viruses. 

This seems all well and good, but the study didn’t mention how often a man has to apply the estrogen to his penis, nor whether applying estrogen would have any side effects, since essentially anything that is applied to the skin generally absorbs into the blood stream and should cause some sort of interaction since it is a female hormone.  More to come on this one I’m sure - it’s interesting nonetheless.