WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reportedly authorized ultrathin, vanilla-flavored panties from Lorals to be considered protection against STIs transmissible from the vagina or anus during oral sex.
“It is a first for underwear,” the New York Times reported today.
“The FDA’s authorization of this product gives people another option to protect against STIs during oral sex,” said Courtney Lias, director of the FDA office that led the review of the underwear.
"Infections like herpes, gonorrhea and syphilis can be transmitted through oral sex, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)," reported the Times. "The only product previously authorized for protection during oral sex was a dental dam.”
However, dental dams are "extremely unpopular," Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told the paper, adding: “I mean, honestly, could there be anything less sexy than a dental dam?”
Lorals founder Melanie Cristol told the Times she chose the brand name because the “L” sound “evokes words like love and lust.”
Cristol explained that the panties, available as bikinis and “shorties," are “made of latex that’s about as thin as condom material and forms a seal on the inside of the thigh to keep fluids in.”
The entrepreneur shared that the idea came to her “after an experience in 2014 during her honeymoon in Mexico with her then-wife.”
The Times explained that Cristol, who was a corporate lawyer at the time, and had been a sex educator in college, discovered she had an infection that could be sexually transmitted and realized “how limited the protection options were.”
“I wanted to feel sexy and confident and use something that was made with my body and actual sex in mind,” she added, referring to the less-enticing dental dams.
Cristol launched the single-use Lorals in 2018 and marketed them to “people with vulvas.”
After securing the FDA approval, Lorals will begin branding its products today explicitly for infection protection.
