Is oral sex a risk factor for throat cancer?

Have you seen this article in the headlines recently - ‘oral sex is now the leading risk factor of throat cancer’? Linking oral sex and cancer? Don’t panic! Knowledge is power. Let's talk about what this is about and how to protect yourself.  

Over the past 20 years there’s been a big increase in throat cancer in the west, That increase has been driven by a particular type of throat cancer called oropharyngeal cancer, affecting the area of the tonsils and the back of the throat.

The main cause of this cancer is HPV, human papillomavirus, which you might’ve already heard about as it’s also the main cause of cervical cancer. In fact almost all cases of cervical cancer are caused by HPV - it’s HPV that's really the headline in the story.  

HPV is a really common Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI)  – in fact, it’s so common that the US Centre for Disease Control says that almost every sexually active person will get the virus at some point in their life if they aren’t vaccinated.  

The reason HPV is the main risk factor for oropharyngeal and cervical cancers is because it’s transmitted sexually.  

 It’s not always bad news! Most of the time, our body can clear an HPV infection by itself, and since you can have HPV without showing symptoms, it’s definitely possible to have the virus and clear it without even realising.  

But why take the risk when you can protect yourself? 

These days there is a vaccine for HPV. It can help protect you against the types of HPV that lead to cancer. The other thing you can do to lower risk Is the same way you protect yourself from any STI’s -  use condoms or dental dams  

If you do get it, in terms of treatments, the cancers caused by HPV can actually respond better to things like radiation and chemotherapy than cancers not caused by HPV. 

 While HPV is the cause of around 70% of cases of oropharyngeal cancer, this type of cancer itself is actually pretty rare. Only 11.5 adults out of every 100,000 will develop oral cancer.  

Basically, what this all means is it’s not super common to get this particular type of throat cancer, but if you do, it’s often caused by HPV.  

So, you don’t need to stop enjoying sex, oral or otherwise, but it really makes sense to protect yourself – think condoms, dental dams and vaccination. Prevention is always way better than cure. 

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