When we talk about performing oral sex, we tend to pronounce it as an act of ‘giving’, but it seems that headaches may also be taking something from the experience. Unfortunately, it’s cancer.
Recent research by Johns Hopkins University has found a link between performing oral sex and getting human papillomavirus, or HPV. The findings, published in the American Cancer Society’s peer-reviewed journal CANCER, suggested that those with more oral sex partners were at greater risk of developing HPV-related cancers of the mouth and throat. Specifically, the research indicates that performing oral sex on just ten previous partners has been linked to a 4.3 times greater risk of developing HPV-related cancer.
In addition to a greater number of previous partners, other risk factors that researchers have identified include the age of ‘sexual initiation’, the age of your partner and having more partners in a shorter period of time. It is perhaps surprising that the study did not indicates the gender composition of those who participated, and suggests that the variable is of little importance when it comes to oral sex and any appropriate carcinogenic properties.
According to the research, the younger you were when you were ‘sexually initiated’ (or in other words started having oral sex), the greater your risk of getting HPV. Those who performed oral sex on older partners also found a greater risk. It has also been found that oral sex from extramarital affairs is an HPV risk factor.
On top of that, although many of us have probably come of age after an unofficial sexual rulebook that encouraged us to stop at every base before we go home, it seems we would have been better off than we were with ‘ a home business would be ‘initiated’. . The study found that those who had oral sex before first having penetrative sexual intercourse were also more likely to contract HPV. According to the researchers, initial exposure to the virus by the genitals leads to a ‘robust immune response’ that better protects the body against HPV when it is introduced later orally. But if you go straight to the mouth without giving your genitals a chance to trigger this immune response, you are on your own.
Sign in here for our free daily newsletter.