THE advice from the National Family Planning Board (NFPB) and numerous other agencies is that condoms should be used with every sex act, as this is the only method that can protect against sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS.

Even married couples are encouraged to use this method, in the wake of statistics that show worrying levels of HIV prevalence in the Caribbean.

But still there are men who refuse to draw for the rubbers, preferring to risk sex with women they insist are clean.

"Their beliefs range in reason from superstition to stupidity, to sheer machismo, and this would be the man who insists that he can't find his size," Counsellor David Anderson said.

"The fact is that many Jamaican men aren't taking note of the push for condom use. Many insist that they know their women are clean, they trust their women with birth control, and yet they go outside and practice the same habits, and then we see an increase in the number of married women with STDs."

He added: "Two out of five men I know don't wrap up."

With the increased transmission of sexually transmitted infections and the prevalence of AIDS, the practice of safe sex is being preached as no longer a matter of preference but of necessity and survival.

But despite this, some men still refuse to use a condom with every sex act.

Why? The guys below tell their reasons.

Isiah Cole, 41, common-law-relationship for 10 years:

Simply because I like the natural feeling. Condoms take away that natural feeling of the skin to skin friction. And also, I don't get that monster of an erection that I have when I'm not wearing one. I use to bag up back in the days because I was afraid of catching anything, but when I found one person to settle with I started using it initially, but after awhile you fall into the pattern of not doing so and I realise sex was even better because there is no barrier. So today I no longer use it.

Duane Mills, 48, single:

Well obviously I don't use condoms all the time because I got two children! But if I am just meeting a girl and don't know anything about her then I will use it. But my children were born during stable relationships with women I felt I could trust at the time. But to be honest, sometimes you find yourself in a position where you don't have any 'bag', so you just do your thing and hope for the best. But for the most part I try to use condoms as much as possible.

David McHugh, 41, married nine years:

I don't use condoms with my wife because it's the ultimate trust and intimacy factor. It's much more enjoyable going without and I don't have to deal with putting on, taking off, and putting on again!

Sidney Greene, 39, married three years:

I have one partner and she is not cheating on me.

Byron Burnett, 47, married 11 years:

I don't use any with my wife, but if I do cheat, and I say if, condom is a must. I don't want to get any disease.

Ezekiel Chambers, 27, between relationships:

Sometime I don't use condom still. But you realise is fool fool we fool fool? Because we meet a woman and start using it and two, three weeks later we feel like we shouldn't use it anymore. But that fool fool still, because anything that was there three weeks ago will still be there three weeks later.