A dissolvable tampon that delivers HIV-preventing medication minutes before having sex is in the works by a team of bioengineers at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Russia Today reported that the team is hoping this will replace topical creams or the need to use condoms- which are often viewed negatively because of reduced pleasure for men.

But even though there are female condoms, they are less popular and more expensive, according to the Syndey Morning Herald.

"We envision a product that could dissolve, pretty much instantaneously, into a gel and then spread around the vagina during sex. We want something that dissolves quickly so that people can say, 'Hey, I wasn't planning on it, but I'm going to have sex in five minutes so I need to use this product, and I want it to be completely dissolved before that'," Cameron Ball, lead author and a doctoral student in bioengineering at UW, told The Huffington Post.

Ball and fellow bioengineer Kim Woodrow published a paper about the new delivery mechanism in June in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, according to the Syndey Morning Herald (SMH).

More than 80 percent of women diagnosed with HIV contract the virus through heterosexual contact, and the tampon is an improvement over gels and creams that can leak, are messy or take too long to work.

"Follow-up trials have shown that the real barrier for women in using them is that they don't adhere to the products -- there's leakage that makes it messy for them to use, so we're interested in creating a different form of the drug," Ball told Huffington Post. "Basically, a different product that women might be more likely to use."

The dissolving tampon works by holding anti-HIV microbicide until inserted, then it dissolves and the substance is absorbed into the vagina within six minutes, according to SMH.

"That means women don't have to apply it far in advance of having sex," Ball told NPR, according to SMH.

The tampons were about 30 percent microbicide and the remainder was the material it was woven into, according to RT.

Ball and his team are still in search of funding to continue their research - which involves testing on rabbits for safety and effectiveness, according to Healthline, reported RT.

The team also said they are working on a version for rectal use.