Doctors call oral sex the main culprit of the throat cancer epidemic
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
But the old people warned – this Kama Sutra will not bring you to good! And how they looked into the water. Doctors talk about the throat cancer epidemic that has swept a number of countries, and the culprit is … oral sex.
This cancer of the larynx has a strange history. It was believed that it was provoked by traditional male “virtues” – smoking and alcohol. The fight against tobacco and the green snake led to the fact that from 1973 to 2004 the number of diseases caused by these causes began to decline. However, in parallel, there was an increase in cases of oncology, provoked by human papillomaviruses (HPV). According to American doctors, this virus is now the cause of 70% of all cases of oropharyngeal cancer. Doctors have long been familiar with HPV infection, it is sexually transmitted and is considered the main culprit of such an unpleasant disease as cervical cancer. But doctors say that throat cancer in a number of countries has already become a more common disease.
How does papillomavirus get into the larynx? Thanks to oral sex, which has become popular among lovers recently. Scientists believe that this way to give each other pleasure has spread widely in the world thanks to the sexual revolution and the baby boomer generation (people born from 1943 to 1966), who were fond of this section of the science of tender passion. What percentage of lovers practice such radical ways to achieve pleasure? Polls give different figures, it is hard to believe in the sincerity of the answers. If only because in the prison world a man who caresses a woman in this way risks being at the very bottom of the social hierarchy. But most researchers put numbers in the region of 75-80 percent – it seems that so many couples practice love without boundaries.
But every medal, even such a voluptuous one, has a downside. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University discoveredthat men and women for whom there is no taboo in love have an 80% higher chance of getting throat cancer. It is curious that men who dare to such intimate caresses suffer more often than women, in the proportion of 70 to 30.
But the most loving citizens risk the most. By words Hisham Mehann, professor at the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences at the University of Birmingham, it is the number of sexual partners that is a key risk factor. If you’ve had six or more oral sex partners, you’re 8.5 times more likely to develop throat cancer than someone who keeps their mouth shut during intimate play.
And what now, you ask? Have to make love with clenched teeth?
“No, no one should take the research data as a call to “forget oral sex,” explains Hunter Handsfield, professor of medicine at the University of Washington. – Rather, these results highlight the importance of HPV vaccination for preschool girls and boys.
The fact is that you can catch papillomavirus during a deep French kiss, and almost every one of us practiced such innocent fun.
According to scientists, most people have come into contact with HPV infection in one way or another, but in the vast majority of cases, the immune system itself removes the virus from the body without any help. Only in a small proportion of patients, the virus settled in the cells of the oral cavity and continuously replicated. At some point, cell mutation can lead to throat cancer.
Modern papillomavirus vaccines show good protection. True, during the coronavirus pandemic, it turned out that many people look askance at vaccinations. But, as the hero of the film “The Irony of Fate” sang: think for yourself, decide for yourself whether to have or not to have. I’m not sure that it was about oral sex, but the essence of our business from this does not change.
