DANGERS OF ORAL SEX

Recently, a woman dragged her husband to court, asking to be divorced from him. Her major complaint: her husband wanted her to perform oral sex on him the way his girlfriends do, but she doesn’t like it.
If you love to give or receive oral sex, the following information will be useful…

Human Papilloma Virus is a sexually-transmitted virus that is also a leading cause of throat cancer (oropharyngeal cancer), and it spreads from person to person via oral sex.

The Number One risk in contracting oral HPV and developing HPV-related throat cancer is having multiple oral sex partners.

You can be infected with a sexually transmitted infection from oral sex. Many STIs, including chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, hepatitis A, and the viruses that cause warts, intestinal parasites, etc. can be spread through oral sex.

The chances of giving or getting STIs during oral sex can be lowered by using a condom or dental dam.

You can get some STIs in the mouth or throat from giving oral sex to a partner with genital or anal/rectal infection.

HIV can be passed on during oral sex when fluid containing HIV (such as semen, vaginal fluid or blood) find a way into the bloodstream of an HIV-negative person (via the mouth or throat, if there is inflammation, or cuts or sores present).

If you have HIV, there is a higher risk of passing on HIV through someone performing oral sex on you.

If you don’t have HIV and you are performing oral sex on someone who has HIV, you are at more risk of being infected if you have cuts, sores or abrasions in your mouth or on your gum

For men, having a high viral load in the blood may also mean that viral load is high in the semen’

For women, the levels of HIV in vaginal fluid are likely to be highest around the time of menstruation, when HIV-bearing cells shed from the cervix are most likely to be found in vaginal fluid, along with blood.

Oral sex will be riskier around the time of menstruation.

If you give or receive oral sex, go for regular medical check-ups to ascertain the state of your health.

Sources: aidsmap.com, American Society of Clinical Oncology, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health,