I'm an oncologist - why we think oral sex is fueling surge of throat cancers READ MORE: The sex act most couples do could be fueling rise in throat cancers By Cassidy Morrison Senior Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com Published: 17:33, 21 October 2024 | Updated: 17:46, 21 October 2024 e-mail 3 View comments Oncologists are increasingly looking to oral sex as a primary driver of a steady rise in throat cancers. Rates of the disease have been climbing at a slow but consistent rate of about one percent a year since the mid-2000s.
And while it tends to be more common in older adults, oropharyngeal cancer is increasingly diagnosed in young people due to increased rates of human papillomavirus. Dr Hisham Mehanna an oncologist at the UK’s University of Birmingham wrote in the Conversation that the number of lifetime sexual partners, especially oral sex is the leading risk factor for this specific type of throat cancer. People who have oral sex with at least one of six people with HPV over their lifetime are 8.
5 times more likely to develop cancers of the throat, cervix, or genitals compared to those who do not practice oral sex. This graph shows how the number of new cases of throat cancer has ticked upward in the US since 1999. It is rising by about one percent a year in women and three percent in men Research shows that more than 80 percent of men and women practice oral sex, and surveys suggest that those rates are rising particarly among women , from 85 percent reporting oral s.