Condom worn on tips of index and middle fingers — Shutterstock

How can you improve sex with a condom?

The way to enjoy sex with a condom is getting plenty of variety into your lovemaking. Are condoms a damper? There are ways to maximize your pleasure.

If you just stick to straight intercourse and not much else, you’re more likely to end up wishing the rubber wasn’t there.

To put it simply, guys who get a blow-job or hand-job too are more likely to be happy about intercourse with a condom, a US study of 1875 men reported. The more ways a man is stimulated outside of intercourse itself, the more likely he is to feel good about condom sex. And giving his partner a good time through oral copulation or by hand is a pleasure booster for him too.

Comfy condoms

Men in the study kept daily diaries recording details on when they had sex, how good it was and when they used a condom. Researchers then analysed the 5249 times these men had vaginal sex with a condom what it was that made sex with a condom great – or less than great.

For one thing, the condom needs to be comfortable.

So it’s worth trying out different condoms to see what suits you best. Don’t just grab the first pack off the shelf, but experiment with different sizes and different materials to find what suits you best.

And make sure you put them on properly too for maximum pleasure.

Her pleasure

Of course, the intercourse itself matters too. The more intense it is and the longer it lasts, the more guys say they like it, researchers found. And obviously, they’re happy if they have a great orgasm.

But guys are also more likely to enjoy sex if they feel their partner is having a good time, the study found. They get lots of pleasure from giving their partner oral sex. And if intercourse is uncomfortable for her, he’ll enjoy it less.

Sex spoilers

In fact, guys are more worried about their partner’s discomfort than their own during sex with a condom. It seems the more pleasure the girl gets from sex, the better the guy will feel about the lovemaking experience.

Apart from worrying about the girl’s pleasure, problems getting hard are the second most likely sex spoiler a guy – and fretting about whether his penis is hard or wide enough.

Full package

The older a guy is, the more likely it is that he’ll enjoy vaginal sex with a condom, the study found. But that probably doesn’t really have much to do with either age or condoms, the researchers say. It’s just that older guys are more likely to be feeling comfortable in a long-term relationship, and that helps make them feel more sexually satisfied.

All in all, there are a lot more factors affecting how much a guy enjoys sex than just whether or not he wears a condom, the study concludes. Sexual pleasure is about the full package.

Do condoms spoil sex for you? Leave a comment here or join the discussion on Facebook. You can find us at Love Matters Kenya and Naija.