Does size matter?

The world's first line of condoms sold in sizes is banking that it does.

The stretchy latex sheath has too long been too loose, too tight, too one-size-does-not fit all, say the makers of the newest thing in condoms.

Now a guy can pick from 55 sizes. None of them, of course, labeled "small."

When it comes to fit and ease of use, "For millions of men out there, what is available doesn't even come close," says Adam Glickman, chief executive officer of Condomania, a Los Angeles company that began marketing TheyFit condoms a few weeks ago.

A condom that's too short increases the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, Glickman says. If too tight, it may tear.

A handful of condoms already on the market come in large and small sizes.

But condoms sized for multiple widths and lengths, like shoes, are the latest advance in a product people once didn't even talk about. Thirty years ago, movie directors made a sweating adolescent's inability to ask for a "rubber" at the drugstore a metaphor for coming of age. Today, the women on HBO's Sex in the City keep bucketfuls in their nightstand drawers and talk about everything.

"You didn't hear a lot of penis talk in 1981, the Reagan years," says Glickman, who in 1991 opened New York's first condom store, Condomania. "In 2003 we have an enormous cultural shift in sexual attitudes. Now we can talk about why a condom is flavored."

All 55 sizes of TheyFits are stocked in the store. Many men want to guesstimate their size and buy. "We say, no, no, no," says Glickman, 36. "We hand out the Fit Kits."

A Fit Kit, also available on the Web at www.condomania.com/theyfit consists of paper rulers to measure length and width. "Please be careful" the instructions caution. "Watch out for paper cuts!" Measurements are not shown in inches but in nonsequential letter and number codes such as S77 or B17, which is how TheyFit condoms are sold. They arrive in a plain wrapper without a telltale return address.

A survey by Durex Condoms, says Glickman, found the erect penis ranges from 4 to 9 inches long and 1 to 2 inches or more in width.

The size chart in the kit, however, lists only "long" and "longer" and "wide" and "wider."

There is no "small."

TheyFit inventor Frank Sadlo insisted, says Glickman. Sadlo is a partner in the venture.

"When he came up with this whole thing, he was so sensitive to men. He said, "You're going to have to remove the words "small' and "short' from your vocabulary.' " "Condoms bring a lot of anxiety to (men's) sexual lives," Glickman says. "Men worry that they can't get the condom on fast enough or it's going to fall off and I'm going to feel like a jerk."

A good fit increases pleasure and prevents accidents, Glickman says.

But testing by Consumer Reports in 1999 found that condoms break or slip rarely, about 1 to 2 percent of the time. Researchers checked 30 styles of latex condoms purchased in restroom vending machines, campus clinics and other locations. They did conclude that expiration dates on condom packages should be observed: An old condom is a risky condom.

So does mankind really need more than four-dozen different sizes?

Flo Concklin, a registered nurse and manager for Pinellas County Health Department's vasectomy program, thinks not. She says she remembers a class on sexually transmitted diseases in which the instructor pulled a condom over his arm up past his elbow and told his audience not to ever believe a guy who says it doesn't fit.

"In one respect (Glickman) is getting attention to condoms," says Concklin, "and if guys buy them and wear them, who cares if there's 150 sizes."

Glickman says that when the condoms went on sale last month on the Web, all 55 sizes had been ordered by the time the 200th customer checked out. TheyFits cost about $12 per dozen. A pack of a dozen assorted Trojan condoms costs $6.99 on drugstore.com. A condom serves as a barrier to semen, fluids and germs between partners during sexual activity and is used to prevent pregnancy or transmission of disease. Condoms came back in vogue with the spread of AIDS. One federal study on birth control found condom use climbed from 12 percent in 1982 to 30 percent in 1995 among never-married women.

Researchers also fear lack of use by young gay men is propelling the first increase in new AIDS cases in the United States in 10 years.

Glickman hopes sized condoms will someday be so ubiquitous that singles ads will include the vital statistic.

"We've seen a lot of innovations in condoms to make it a sexier product," he says, "and every time . . . I applaud."

By Susan Aschoff