Is Oral Sex Safe Sex? A Gay Man Speaks Out

From his HIV diagnosis in 1985 until his death in April of 2009, Cass Mann was one of the world's longest-term HIV-positive survivors. He founded Positively Healthy, the UK's only HIV/AIDS charity staffed exclusively by openly gay men, which provided HIV services including education, support, and peer counselling. These videos now archive his wisdom and insight for future generations. Here he talks about the risks of oral sex. Oral sex, known as "giving head" or "blow jobs", can transmit HIV, syphilis, and other STIs. Syphilis together with HIV is a killer combination. Remember that dementia is a possible end-stage complication of both syphilis and HIV. If you have unprotected sex, you're risking syphilis, HIV, gonorrhoea, and whatever other diseases your partner has in their system. However, it's difficult to get gay men to use condoms for oral sex because people consider the risk much lower than anal sex. It's true that the risk of HIV transmission via oral sex is lower than the risk of HIV transmission via anal sex, but the risk isn't zero, and the risk isn't only of HIV transmission. Remember that your partner might have had sex, including anal sex, with other partners immediately before you have oral sex with them, especially in the context of dark rooms, back rooms and parks. Oral sex is most definitely not safer sex. Use a condom if you choose to have oral sex, as difficult as you may initially consider this to be. For more information, visit http://www.AIDSvideos.org/. This video is freely downloadable from http://www.archive.org/details/AGayManSpeaksOutIsOralSexSafeSex . [Do you want to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS? Are you fluent in a language other than English? Then volunteer to translate our videos into other languages! Click http://AIDSvideos.org/translate.shtml to to learn how you can help!!! © Copyright 2008-2011 Global Lifeworks. All rights reserved. This work is licensed to be used for non-commercial purposes under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/.]

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• HIV
• AIDS
• oral
• sex
• giving
• head
• blow
• jobs
• STI
• STD
• syphilis
• hepatitis
• gonorrhoea
• unprotected
• risk
• safer

[natalino177]

may i ask a question ? is it safe to have sex with a condom ? if yes , please explain why

[AIDSvideos]

@natalino177: This is Eric; I'm not a doctor. Having sex with a condom is safer than having sex without a condom because the condom reduces the risk that various sexually transmitted diseases will be transmitted. The latex is a barrier to the passage of viruses and bacteria. Note that it is not a 100% guarantee against transmission of HIV but it greatly reduces the risk if used correctly every time.

[Ben3654]

I love this guy, but i love how everybody that talks about it being risky doesn't distinguish the level of risk between having an ejaculation take place in your mouth or not. Nobody talks about if you're at higher risk by swallowing/vs just licking... I personally don't go for the gold when i'm down there... unless there's a ring on my finger and we've been to the clinic! So how come nobody touches onthe difference? Anyway, don't have sex at all people... it's obviously not worth it. !!!!!!

[stevensillygoose]

ooooo..syphillis would suck in the mouth!

that means u too ladies! DO NOT GIVE YOUR BOYFRIENDS HEAD!

[SpanishGamerProd]

@natalio77 sex transmited dessices for example HIV + dont do anal and than vaginal

[TheRogueMonk]

i am not gay but is the mouth clean enough normally for oral sex? .. iam not talking about people who have aids or anyting jus ta normal person you know if you want to have sex with them and they dont have any disease.. is themouth clean enough?

[natalino177]

why do ppl even use condoms for anal xD like isnt it in the vagina that the cum must go O.o im rlly curious

[AIDSvideos]

@mrwonderfulman2011: I'm not hitting a brick wall. I'm hitting (1) a YouTuber who very much wants to believe that oral sex is 100% safe, CDC statements notwithstanding, and is making selective use of experts, quotes, and data; (2) a single medical doctor who is making public statements that underestimate the risk of HIV transmission in some situations and contradict both the CDC's official determinations and known, actual documented cases of HIV transmission in the literature.

[mrwonderfulman2011]

@AIDSvideos Look this one up ... Dr. Edward Hook states: "Kissing is no risk for any STD (including HIV), even deep kissing and even with gum or dental disease. The quoted figure for HIV risk, if one has oral sex with an infected partner is less than 1 in 10,000 and, in my estimation that is too high. Some experts state there is no risk at all from oral sex." You're hitting a brick wall here and the evidence you provide is limited. Cheers!

[AIDSvideos]

@mrwonderfulman2011: [cont'd] ... in a culture where deep kissing between such family relations was considered a normal behavior. Unfortunately, the older relative was HIV+ and both had gum disease and/or bleeding mouth sores, and a documented HIV transmission took place. I did not say that light kissing on the lips risks HIV transmission. (It doesn't.) I said your claim that oral sex is completely safe even with mouth sores and ingestion of blood was irresponsible b/c unsupported by science.

[AIDSvideos]

@mrwonderfulman2011: You're not paying attention to what I'm writing. I did not say that light kissing on the lips poses a risk of HIV transmission. CDC, and my web site (see "FAQ" on the AIDSvideos site) are clear about that. I wrote "There has been a documented case of HIV transmission just from *deep kissing* when both parties had gum disease or bleeding sores." Look it up. It was an unusual case of intra-familial transmission from an older female relative to a younger female child ...

[AIDSvideos]

@mrwonderfulman2011: Some have argued that all of the cases in which oral sex-only HIV transmission was reported were cases where the people had sex in other ways but were not admitting it. However, the CDC has concluded that there are specific cases where the evidence for oral sex-only transmission is compelling.