Tuesday 11 March 2008

Dr Ayan: Danger Down Under?


No, we're not talking about holidays to Oz, but oral sex of course. Yet again, it's been brought to my mind by a patient who asked me the question last week.

The risks are higher to a person performing fellatio on a man rather than cunnilingus on a woman, but don't be reassured by that, because the bottom line is you can theoretically catch everything from either act. Ok, I know, the doctor only talks about the doom and gloom side of sex. Well, I'm not here to preach. I think the point is to be aware of the risk, and remember, the quicker you act if you think you're at risk, the easier it'll be to treat. Remember - most STI's are treatable, so if you do have a lapse, get down to the GUM clinic sharpish.

Here's a useful link which leads to others about what you can and can't catch from oral sex.

3 comments:

Trixie Firecracker said...

Thanks so much for posting this! Very informative! I was going to turn this into a blog entry myself but you beat me to it!

Alistair said...

Pubic lice? What, in your beard? Ugh. Anyway, what are the comparative risks with penetrative sex?

Dr Ayan said...

Penetrative sex is always much higher risk than oral across the board, but possibly unsurprisingly, you can get genital warts on your vocal cords from oral sex...

In some parts of the world orally transmitted STIs are being reported more frequently as people think it's a safer option to unprotected penetrative sex. It is safer, but the risk is still there... it's like smoking 10 light fags a day instead of 10 full strength ones. Neither is without risk.