Oral Sex Causes Head Cancer and Neck?

Oral Sex Causes Head Cancer - The main drivers of cancer is human papilloma virus (HPV). The virus can be transmitted through certain types of sexual activity.

"There seems to be pretty good relationship with the increasing number of sexual activity, especially oral sex, is associated with increased HPV infection," said Dr. Greg Hartig, professor of ENT and head and neck surgeon at the Faculty of Medicine and Public Health University of Wisconsin, in Madison.

While Dr. William Lydiatt, professor and chief of head and neck surgery at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, said that the overall incidence of head and neck cancer will come down, mainly because fewer people smoking. Tobacco and alcohol are the major traditional risk factors.

But the incidence of tonsil and base of tongue cancer has increased over the last decade, he said. And they are the ones who are more likely tested positive for HPV.

"Until now, 60-70% of all cases of thyroid cancer in the U.S., associated with HPV," said Lydiatt.

Although the relationship between HPV and these cancers can not be denied, but the relation with oral sex is still a speculation among experts.

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine (2007) found that young people head and neck cancer are positive for oral HPV infection, more likely to have multiple sex partners vaginal and oral sex in their lives.

In the study revealed that a person who has six or more oral sex partners during lifetime associated with a 3.4 times higher risk of oropharyngeal cancer - base of tongue cancer, throat or back of the tonsil.

The researchers also reported that the tonsils and base of the tongue cancer has increased every year since 1973. And all the researchers wrote that the widespread practice of oral sex among teenagers may be a contributing factor in the increasing case.

The researchers conclude that in their study, oral sex is 'strongly associated' with oropharyngeal cancer. But they noted that can not 'rule out transmission through direct mouth' as the French habit of kissing.

In 90% cases of HPV infection in the body, the immune system naturally clear HPV within two years. However, in some cases, several types of HPV can cause cervical cancer or oropharyngeal cancer.

"HPV tends to be in specific locations," explained Dr Amesh A. Adalja, additional instructors in the spread of infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

In other words, HPV tend to stay anywhere else when you first enter the human body, both in the vagina (which in some cases can cause cervical cancer), or the mouth and throat.

So is increasing the incidence of this means that a new generation of more sex than their grandparents.

"Baby Boomers - generation of the 1970s and early 1960s - may have more freedom in sexual relations in general, including oral sex," added Dr. Bert W. O'Malley, Jr., chairman of Otorhinolaryngology - head and neck surgery at the University of Pennsylvania.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that in 2002, about 90% of men and 88% of women aged 25-44 years reported having oral sex with opposite sex couples.

This figure is comparable with the data in 1992 showing that about three-quarters of men aged 20-39 and approaching 70% of women aged 18-59, never giving and receiving oral sex.