The female condom is back. But Eastern Virginia Medical School in Hampton Roads is not researching the condom’s effectiveness for contraception, as it did in 1992.

This time, EVMS is testing the effectiveness of the female condom against HIV when the condom is reused. Rosslyn-based Contraceptive Research and Development Program (Conrad), and Family Health International based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., are sponsoring the project.

Why recycle the product? Cost savings. Susan A. Ballagh, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at EVMS, says that if the female condom can be reused and have the same level of effectiveness in protection against HIV as it had the first time it was used, the cost will be dramatically lowered. "De-pending upon where you purchase the condom," Ballagh says, "the price can be up to three times as much as the male condom."

Cost is a major factor in making the product more accessible for those at the highest AIDS risk, notably residents of third-world countries. Ballagh doesn’t believe sales of the female condom will skyrocket as a result of her research; she is more concerned with saving lives. It is possible that the female condom could be re-used up to five times, says Ballagh, making it similar to the convenience of a diaphragm, but without the need for a fitting or a prescription.

The United Nations AIDS program has been distributing the condom to women in areas most devastated by the disease, such as Africa and Eastern Europe.