The Myth: Oral Sex Is Safe

The truth about safety or oral sex depends on what you would like to avoid.  What one is trying to refrain from is pregnancy or any form of demeanor then it supposedly might be termed as safe but as far as contacting diseases are concerned it can be more risky than ordinary sexual contact.

The different forms of oral sexual contact are termed differently and have almost the same risk factors for contacting the venereal diseases.  Practices like cunninglus or fellatio both have genito-oral contact and there is exchange of body fluids like semen, vaginal discharge or saliva. In both the cases the mucous membranes of two individual come in contact with each other and the exchange of the body fluids containing pathogens spread the diseases.  The risk is far greater in serodiscordant couples i.e. one partner being HIV positive and the other partner HIV negative. 

Unprotected oral sex is said to saver than unprotected vaginal sex but one can take protection in the case of a vaginal intercourse which is absent in this form of oral sex, that is why the U.S. disease control (CDC) classifies this as high risk behavior.  The presence of bleeding gums and oral ulcers also render oral sex as more dangerous as it exposes more to the serological disorders as well as STDs.  Herpes is said to spread from genitals to mouth and from mouth to genitals. The pathogens may enter the blood stream directly through the cuts and sores and this causes even more damage.

There are ways to make oral sex safer by taking the following measures.