There aren’t many things that most queer men like better than sucking dick.
But how safe is our national past time anyway?
When talking about oral sex, we often find ourselves
talking about hypothetical risk and real risk so, we’ll start there.
Hypothetically
You should be able to get HIV from sucking dick. The lining of your mouth is very thin and easily torn. (How many times have you bled just from brushing your teeth?) So you have easy entry into the body. When you put a cock in your mouth, you’re also putting your partner’s cum in there too. If your partner is HIV-positive, you’ve just put the virus into your mouth and, with the tears that are likely there, you’ve given it a way into your own bloodstream and have risked infection.
Back to Reality
The public health and research folks are still sorting out the facts about HIV. A November, 2002 study by UCSF stated that there have been no cases of HIV being transmitted through receptive oral sex. Right now, we think that the risk of getting HIV from sucking dick is very low. If you suck dick though, you can make that risk practically nothing by using a condom when you give head. The best part is, flavored condoms don’t taste all that bad anymore. In fact, we always have flavored condoms and lube on hand at PrideAlive events or at QueerSpace.
More Reality
HIV isn’t the only thing you can get from having oral sex. In fact, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) like Chlamydia and Gonorrhea are very easy to catch both from sucking dick and from having your dick sucked. If you’re having oral sex and aren’t using a condom, you should make regular STI screening part of your routine. You can get tested for almost any sexually transmitted infections imaginable at the Red Door Clinic in Minneapolis or Room 111 in St. Paul. You can even go to your own doctor.
Critters like Gonorrhea and Chlamydia live where you put them though. That means, if your partner has Gonorrhea in his penis and you suck him off, you could get it in your throat. Peeing in a cup isn’t going to tell them if you have anything living in your throat. It’s important that you tell your medical provider exactly what you’re doing sexually so they can swab and probe all the places that you could be infected.
The Bottom Line
You won’t get HIV from having your dick sucked and you probably won’t get it from sucking dick. In either case, it’s a much safer option than anal sex. You can get some other painful and damaging STIs from oral sex though, so your safest bet is to use a delicious flavored condom every time you go down on someone.
see also:
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Minnesota AIDS Project
