WRAP IT UP It appears that Australia may have a condom logistics problem
BY: Kartya Vucetic
Apparently, one of Australia’s bigger sexual health problems may be considerably less complicated than we thought.
It’s that nobody is remembering to bring a condom.
New national research from Moments Wellness found 66.6% of Australian women aged 18 to 45 have had sex without one simply because neither person had one available. Almost half said it had happened more than once.
The same study also found that 46.5% of women believe responsibility for having condoms should be shared equally. However, only 21.2% said that actually happened in their most recent encounter. Men supplied them 37.6% of the time, compared to 12.3% of women.
The Moments Sexual Health Study 2026 surveyed 1,111 Australian women aged 18-45, weighted by age, state and region.
So why aren’t more women carrying them?
Reportedly, the biggest reason listed was simply the assumption that their partner would have one. Others said they didn’t want to seem like they were expecting sex. Some admitted they’d feel embarrassed if someone spotted one in their bag.
That embarrassment, and stigma, clearly still exists. 36.8% of responders believed that women carrying condoms automatically meant they must sleep around. For men, that figure dropped to 23%.
And then there’s the genuinely concerning part…
Image: Supplied
When participants were asked which forms of contraception protect against both pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, 26.2% selected the contraceptive pill (it does not).
Condoms are the only contraceptive method in the study that also protect against STIs. That means a decent chunk of respondents appear to be treating pregnancy prevention and STI prevention as the same thing when they very much are not.
The testing numbers aren’t especially comforting either.
More than half of respondents had either never had an STI test or hadn’t had one in over a year. One in four said they had never been tested at all.
Moments Wellness is trying to push back on exactly that with its ‘Women Carry Condoms Too’ campaign, running through the duration of Sexual Health Month.
Image: Supplied
The premise is fairly simple: if nearly half of us think the responsibility should be shared, it probably makes sense for the logistics to catch up. And while many think that keeping a condom on you isn’t particularly glamorous, the Moments range is designed specifically to be carried by women (tbh they’re kind of cute).
You can check out the full research and Moments range here.
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