Does Condoms expire?
Does Condoms expire?
No. Latex degrades, the date is regulated, and there is no visible warning before failure.
Latex: up to 5 years from manufacture. Polyurethane: up to 5 years. With spermicide: 2 years
Condoms are regulated medical devices and the date is based on tested material performance, not a guess. Latex loses elasticity with age, heat and ozone exposure, and a degraded condom looks completely normal until it fails. Storage matters as much as the date: a wallet is one of the worst places, because friction and body heat accelerate degradation, and the same is true of a glovebox. Spermicide-lubricated condoms have a shorter dated life because the spermicide degrades faster than the latex does.
How to store it
- Cool, dry, away from light and friction. Not a wallet, not a car.
- Keep them in the original wrapper until use.
How to tell it has gone
- Brittle, sticky or discoloured, or a wrapper that has lost its air pocket.
- There is often no sign at all, which is exactly why the date matters here.
"Use by" and "best before" are legally different. Use-by is a safety date and should be respected; best-before is about quality, and food is usually fine well past it. Where the two diverge matters, the page above says which applies.
Common questions
- Does Condoms expire?
- No. Latex degrades, the date is regulated, and there is no visible warning before failure.
- How long does Condoms last?
- Latex: up to 5 years from manufacture. Polyurethane: up to 5 years. With spermicide: 2 years
Related pages
- Does Sunscreen expire? No. Sunscreen is regulated as a drug and must hold its stated SPF for three years — after that, assume it does not.
- Does Infant formula expire? No — this is the one supermarket product whose date is legally binding and should be obeyed exactly.
- Does Mascara and eye makeup expire? Three months after opening, and this is one of the cosmetic rules worth taking seriously.
- Does Child car seats expire? Yes, genuinely — six to ten years from manufacture, moulded into the shell.
- Does Smoke alarms expire? Ten years from manufacture, then the whole unit — not just the battery.
- Does Cycle and motorcycle helmets expire? Five years is the usual manufacturer figure, and any single significant impact ends it immediately.
- Does Contact lens solution expire? No. The date is real, and the opened bottle has a much shorter life than the printed date suggests.
- Does Plasters and sterile dressings expire? The adhesive fails and, more importantly, the sterile seal is only guaranteed to the date.
- Does Honey expire? Does not expire
- Does Eggs expire? Degrades in quality
- Does Medicines expire? Degrades in quality
- Does Milk expire? Has a real expiry date
- Does Salt expire? Does not expire
- Does Frozen food expire? Indefinite if stored properly
Sources
- US Food and Drug Administration — FDA (Public domain (US Government))