Condom fatigue is a term used by medical professionals and safer sex educators to refer to the phenomenon of decreased condom use. It is related to decreased effectiveness of safer sex messages because people who realize the necessity of condoms still perpetuate the phenomenon. It is typically expressed as a frustration with the idea of a future filled with less sexual pleasure due to the use of condoms.
The term has particularly been used to describe men who have sex with men, Condom fatigue is linked to increased HIV infection, as consistent condom use can significantly lower one's risk of transmitting or catching HIV.
Condom fatigue is not a universal phenomenon. In Germany, condom use between new sexual partners has increased between 1994 and 2010 from 65% to 87%. That being said, it is seen in many different cultures in both the United States Condom fatigue can also be related to fears about sex, in part due to condom use's constant link with HIV/AIDS prevention. Experts attribute this to "AIDS fatigue" among younger people who have no memory of the worst phase of the epidemic in the 1980s and early 1990s, as well as "condom fatigue" among those who have grown tired of and disillusioned with the unrelenting safer sex message. The increase may also be because of new treatments.