Holly Millar wants safe sex to be accessible for everyone. Photo / Supplied
Holly Millar wants safe sex to be accessible for everyone. Photo / Supplied
After struggling to find STI protection for oral sex a Christchurch university student has been inspired to create accessible protection for women.
Holly Millar is working on an improved dental dam which will go over the vulva and anus during oral sex to prevent bodily fluids being shared.
"I just thought it was crazy at how much effort I had to go to, to find these resources for safe oral sex for vulva owners."
Her goal is to create functional, sexy and accessible STI protection for use during oral sex. It will eventually be available anywhere you can find condoms.
Despite common misconceptions, you can catch a number of sexually transmitted infections through oral sex, including gonorrhoea, genital herpes, syphilis and human papillomavirus (HPV).
Millar is now creating a functional prototype of the device, which differs from traditional dental dams in that it's wearable, more like underwear, so users don't have to hold it in place.
The 21-year-old, who just completed a bachelor's degree in product design at the University of Canterbury, won a scholarship to partake in the Canterbury Centre for Entrepreneurship (UCE) Summer Start Up programme, where she's creating prototypes of the device.
The programme is a 10-week intensive incubator/accelerator that gives students an opportunity to fast-track their commercial ventures and social enterprises.
"While society is growing and becoming accepting of those in the LGBTQ+ community, product development for female same-sex protection is lacking," she said.
Millar told the Herald traditional dams were repurposed from dentistry in the early 90s for STI protection for lesbian and bisexual women, and creating an alternative would help narrow the gap between social growth and the products currently available to this group.
"It's about empowerment, and the choice to be able to use these products. Because at the moment with them not being accessible it's kind of hard to have a choice to use something that's so hard to find any information on."
In New Zealand oral sex protection is much harder to come by than traditional condoms, but they are available online and through Family Planning.
