Extent to which petroleum jelly degrades latex.

September 25, 2014 3:12 PM

Will residual amounts affect latex to any significant degree?

After years of trying things to take care of my dry skin and occasional outbreaks of eczema, I find that my best option seems to be avoiding all water-based moisturisers and just occasionally using petroleum jelly to prevent sensitivity and retain whatever moisture happens to be there already. I use it frequently as a chapstick and much less frequently on whatever other areas seem like potential problems. One of those less frequent areas is the genitals. I'm well aware it is a big no no to use this as lubricant, but what about if it's used a few hours prior to condom use and there is no discernible petroleum jelly left on the area? Is it gone or is it just a very thin layer? How much will this affect the latex if at all? Should I just make it a rule to always wash with soapy water before condom use, and is that actually removing it? If a water/silicone based lubricant is used, does the lessen the potential problems, or would the petroleum jelly mix with it and be more able to contact and weaken the latex? Are there other products (silicone based?) similar to petroleum jelly I should try?

I suspect that the amount is not enough to cause problems, but I couldn't find information on the extent of oil-based products' ability to degrade latex in such circumstances.

posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (2 answers total)

Condoms have a significantly not-zero failure rate regardless of what lube you use, so if you are that worried about condom failure, you should use a backup method. I think it is a very difficult question you have posed here with no precise answer possible - so I would just say "it sounds unlikely that trace amounts of petroleum jelly would affect the condom enough to cause it to break, especially if you're not having marathon/rough intercourse, but it's impossible to say for certain, especially since your condom can break even if you don't use an oil-based lubricant."

You can use polyurethane condoms with oil-based lubricants, such as Trojan Supras.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 7:48 AM on September 26, 2014

I did a PubMed search and found nothing to conclusively answer your question, although I did find this interesting article about using gloves to successfully detect gasoline on suspected arsonists' hands, which makes me wonder if trace amounts of another, less volatile, petroleum product could also affect latex condoms, which are sometimes thinner than gloves. Who knows.

Ultimately, treehorn+bunny is probably right: there is no way to visually inspect your condoms for degradation, so if you are really worried about it, use an additional method.
posted by epanalepsis at 11:04 AM on September 26, 2014