- Antoinette Radford
- BBC News
Young men in France will be able to get free condoms from January, in an effort to curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the new health-related measure, during an event themed on youth health.
Macron said that young people can get an ounce from pharmacies, and described the move as “a small revolution in terms of contraception”.
In 2021 and 2022, France recorded an increase in the rate of sexually transmitted diseases by 30 percent.
The new measure comes in addition to initiatives aimed at confronting the spread of these diseases and facilitating access to contraceptives.
And in 2018, the French government began reimbursing individuals for condoms if they were bought in a pharmacy with a doctor’s or midwife’s prescription.
At the beginning of 2022, the government made access to contraception available to women up to the age of 26.
Macron said in a tweet on Twitter that Thursday’s announcement comes with health measures, which include free emergency contraception for all women in pharmacies, and free over-the-counter tests for sexually transmitted diseases – except for HIV – for those under 26. .