Women's issues

‘... there is death in the pot.’ (2 Kings 4:40).

Research suggest there's an increase in the incidence of certain head and neck cancers among middle-aged and younger Americans, which some experts link to the rise in the popularity of oral sex .

It’s believed that the human papillomavirus (HPV) which can be transmitted through this type of sexual activityis a major trigger for these cancers.

"It seems like a pretty good link that more sexual activity, particularly oral sex, is associated with increased HPV infection," said Dr. Greg Hartig, professor of otolaryngology — head and neck surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison.

While the overall incidence of head and neck cancers has gone down, largely because fewer people are smoking the incidence of cancers of the tonsil and base of the tongue have been going up over the past decades. Experts now believe that: 60 to 70% of all tonsil cancers in the U.S. are HPV-related. .

Although the link between HPV and these types of cancers is indisputable, the association with oral sex is strong but a little more speculative, experts say. A 2007 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that younger people with head and neck cancers who tested positive for oral HPV infection were more likely to have had multiple vaginal and oral sex partners in their lifetime.

In the study, having six or more oral sex partners over a lifetime was associated with a 3.4 times higher risk for oropharyngeal cancer — cancers of the base of the tongue, back of the throat or tonsils. Having 26 or more vaginal-sex partners tripled the risk. And the association increased as the number of partners — in either category — increased.

The human papillomavirus (HPV) is a member of the papillomavirus family of viruses that is capable of infecting humans. Like all papillomaviruses, HPVs establish infections only in the epithelium of the skin or mucous membranes. While the majority of the nearly 200 known types of HPV cause no symptoms in most people, some types can cause warts, while others can – in a minority of cases – lead to cancers of the cervix, vulva, vagina, and anus in women. Futhermore HPV infection is a cause of nearly all cases of cervical cancer; even though most infections do not cause disease.