1. Oral se x is linked to throat cancer.
Cancer? Yes, you can get throat cancer from oral se x, says American Cancer Society Chief Medical Officer Otis Brawley, MD. It's not oral se x, per se, that causes cancer, but the human papillomavirus (HPV), which can be passed from person to person during or al se x. Researchers have found that some cancers of the oropharynx (the middle of the throat) and tonsils are probably caused by a certain type of human papillomavirus (HPV).
HPV is common, but it doesn't always cause cancer. If you aren't exposed to HPV during oral se x, you're not at risk for cancer
Brawley says that hints of a link between HPV and oropharyngeal cancer came in the late 1980s and early '90s. Researchers noticed an increase in this kind of cancer among people who hadn't been very prone to it before.
It began to affect increasing numbers of people around the age of 40 that didn't smoke or drink, whereas in prior decades these cancers were usually found in older people that smoked cigarettes and heavily drank hard liquor. In the early 2000s, scientists were able to use advanced DNA testing to find HPV 16 in many of these newer cancers.
2. Oral sex enhances some adult relationships, strains others.
Among adults, oral se x causes stress for some couples and enhances intimacy for others, says se x therapist Louanne Cole Weston, PhD, of Fair Oaks, Calif. She says stress about oral se x often has to do with one partner's concerns about hygiene.
"One person will not want to receive it because he or she worries about the partner's reaction," Weston says. Some people may also be anxious about their performance -- doing it well enough to please a partner -- or about responding appropriately to receiving it.
"Some people can't just let go and receive," Weston says. Sexual power dynamics may be part of it, too. "Some people resist doing it because they feel a bit subjugated," Weston says.
Her advice for those people: "They have a very important body part between their teeth; and after all, who is in charge in a position like that?" Other people, Weston says, experience oral s ex as a "relationship strengthener" and "a very intimate connection" shared with a partner.
"It's being able to look at the partner and see them going into really very personal space," Weston says.
3. Unprotected or al sex is common, but has risks.
Several sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV, herpes,syphilis, gonorrhea, HPV, and viral hepatitis can be passed on through oral s ex. "Oral se x is not safe se x," says Terri Warren, RN, owner of Westover Heights Clinic in Portland, Ore., a private clinic specializing in STDs.
"It's safer se x, but it's definitely not safe sex." The risks depend on a lot of different things, including how many sexual partners you have, your gender, and what particular oral sex acts you engage in. Using barrier protection can reduce the risk of getting an STD.
A barrier can be a condom covering the penis, or a plastic or latex "dental dam" placed over the vulva or anus. Instead of a prepackaged dental dam, a condom cut open to make a sheet is also an acceptable barrier. But most people don't use protection for oral sex. That's common wisdom, and it's also shown by large-scale surveys of sexually active teens and adults. That's probably because many people don't know that STDs can be spread orally. Or if they do, they don't see the health risks as being very serious, Warren says. The risks of getting an STD from unprotected oral sex are typically much lower than the risks posed by having unprotected vaginal or anal sex, Warren says. Warren's advice about using barrier protection for oral sex depends on whom she's talking to. Typically, performing oral sex on a male partner without a condom is riskier than other forms of oral sex, she says. For example, Warren says she might stress the importance of condom use for a man having oral sex with multiple male partners. "If a male is giving oral sex to a woman, I consider that to be a low-risk exposure," Warren says. But if a woman's regular partner has oral herpes, "that's a whole different discussion," she says.
4. Oral sex is common among teens.
Compared with vag n al se x, "They really don't consider it as big of a deal," Halpern-Felsher tells WebMD. Past surveys Halpern-Felsher conducted showed that most teens thought that engaging in oral sex would not put them at risk for social, emotional, or health problems. Other surveys she has performed showed teens who said they only had oral s ex were less likely than those who had vagin al se x or vag inal and oral se x to report STDs. Still, there were STDs among all three groups of sexually active teens. Just under 2% of teens who said they'd only had ora l sex said they caught an STI, compared with about 5% of those who had vaginal sex only, and 13% of those who had vaginal and oral se x
The idea that it's less risky than vaginal sex was their No. 5 reason. Here are their top four reasons :
1) seeking pleasure,
2) improving relationships,
3) gaining popularity, and
4) curiosity. That list differed between males and females.
Pleasure was the No. 1 reason cited by males; females said their main motivation was to improve a relationship.
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