MEDICAL RESEARCH can be an inexact science. Be it saccharin, Tupperware, or microwaves, what’s good for you one day does not mean it’s OK the next. (Will we ever know if a cell phone in our front pocket can cause impotence?) Sometimes the information is so conflicting you don’t know what to think. Take for instance the risk of contracting HIV from oral sex. This has long been a great concern and a matter of debate among researchers. Although it is possible to contract HIV from oral sex, just how great is the risk?

One thing is certain: The risk of contracting HIV through unprotected oral sex is lower than that of unprotected anal sex. After that, the statistics get foggy. According to Dr. Jeff Schouten, a Seattle-based HIV specialist, “Healthy lining of the mouth is very resistant to HIV transmission, as opposed to the rectal lining, where it is much more permissive.”

According to a 2001 study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the University of California, San Francisco, only 7.8 percent of the men studied were infected through oral sex. Nearly half of those men reported oral problems, including occasional bleeding gums. Also, most of these men reported that their partners ejaculated in their mouths, further increasing the risks. “Pre-orgasmic sex is obviously lower risk than orgasmic sex,” says Schouten. “All these nuances are difficult to nail down in a study.”

If semen gets into a cut, sore, ulcer, or even an inflammation somewhere in the lining of the mouth and throat, an infection can occur. “We see more syphilis transmissions than HIV in oral sex,” says Schouten. “It is possible a person can have sores in the back of their mouth from syphilis and not even be aware of it.”
To be safe there is always the option of using multiflavored condoms. Yet the fact remains, most gay men prefer not to suck on a condom. After all, skin is better to the tongue than latex. But if you are going to have oral sex with a partner you don’t know well, bone up on reducing your risk.

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