Based on information from the Centers for Disease Control suggesting spermicide-coated condoms may increase risks for contracting certain Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)—including HIV—Harvard’s University Health Services announced this week that it is “phasing out” its distribution of those condoms on campus.

But the UHS-affiliated student group Peer Contraceptive Counselors (PCC) will continue to make spermicidal condoms available to students to “provide [students] with the widest possible range of contraceptive options,” even continuing to order them through UHS, said PCC Co-Director Elizabeth T.B. Murphy ’03 yesterday.

Previously, students could choose from three types of condoms offered for free by UHS and PCC—lubricated, unlubricated and spermicidal—in their Houses or on the second and fifth floors of UHS’ Holyoke Center building.

Under the new decision, UHS will place no new orders for spermicidal condoms, though it will continue to distribute its remaining supply, Christine Johnson, UHS health promotion and education specialist, said yesterday.

“We did not throw out any condoms. The CDC did not think the risks warranted that,” Johnson said.

She added that students should not be wary of using spermicidal condoms, since the report does not mandate their use be discontinued altogether. Instead of becoming alarmed, she said students should consider their contraceptive practices.

“I think what is perhaps most important about this is that we might heighten student awareness of condoms,” Johnson said. “So perhaps [any resulting scare] will be a good thing if it leads to a discussion of what type of condoms to use. Students might think more just about using condoms.”

The spermicide nonoxynol-9 (N-9) had long been assumed to have the added benefit of protecting against the transmission of STDs. But, citing studies described in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) this March, the CDC report concludes that the purchase of N-9 coated condoms is inadvisable.

None of the studies cited in the JAMA article found N-9 to protect against HIV, and few found that it reduced rates of chlamydial or igonococcal infection.

Moreover, several trials reported an increased incidence of the STDs in the presence of N-9. Researchers conjectured that genital ulcers or lesions, vulvitis and the irritation with which the studies found the spermicide to be associated were responsible for the increase.

“N-9 can damage [cells], thus providing a portal of entry for HIV and other sexually transmissible agents,” the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report explained in May.

The report also referred to the higher cost and shorter shelf -lives of spermicidal condoms in recommending that once existing, unexpired supplies of such condoms have been distributed, no more be purchased.

Although Murphy said medical and pharmaceutical communities have been aware of this information for some time, UHS administrators said the CDC report marked the first time the drawbacks of N-9 came to their attention.

When she learned of the CDC report, Johnson said she checked the trend in reaction and then complied with the report’s suggestion.

“I determined what the Massachusetts Department of Health were doing, and they were actually returning all spermicidal condoms,” she said. “So we’re following the CDC’s guidelines.”