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Oral sex risk factor

Hello Doctor,
First I would like to thank you for answering my pervious question, i went to my doctor and she told me it was no big deal in regards to that hair on wart, it was acutally an ingrown hair. I have a general question regarding HIV infection risk factor and need ur expert opinion on it.

I have read on numrous sites that you can get infected by HIV through giving oral sex to a man that is HIV +. And I have also read in some other articles where doctors mentioned that it has not been scientifically proven that you can get infected with HIV thru giving/recieving oral sex ( however, the risk factor will always be there). So here are some of my questions:

1) What is the risk factor of giving oral sex to a man ( of any ethnic group ) if he *** if your mouth?
2) What is the risk factor of giving oral sex to a man ( of any ethnic group) if he only precum in your mouth?
3) Do you have a higher chance of getting infected if you have a open cut, sore...etc in your mouth?
3) Does the duration matters? I.e oral sex within 1 min? within 5 mins? Longer than 10 mins?


I always practice protected sex but I have unprotected oral sex ( due to the taste of latex) , so last question is, really...am I at risk (regardless of my partner's ethnic group) to have unprotected oral sex, however, I don't allow my partner to *** in my mouth ever.




Thank you Doctor.
3 Responses
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300980 tn?1194929400
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
We get many questions related to oral sex and the risk for HIV acquisition.  There is no question that the risk of getting HIV (either from receiving or giving) is very, very low and some experts have said there is no risk from oral sex at all.  Here on this forum we have traditionally told our clients that the risk for getting HIV from a single episode of oral sex (in either direction) is at most, less than 1 in 10,000, IF the person one is having sex with has HIV.  This estimate may be overly conservative.  Neither of us has ever seen a person who got HIV through oral sex.  The medical literature has several case reports in which oral sexual transmission MAY have occurred but, in our minds, is not definite.

As to your other questions.  HIV transmission is a “numbers” game.  By that I mean that the more virus one is exposed to, the more likely transmission is.  We also know there is more HIV present in ejaculate than in pre-ejaculate but it is present in pre-ejaculate as well.  The while risk is lower with only exposure to pre-ejaculate, how much lower is unquantified.  As for other modifiers, there are no studies of the effect of duration on risk although it makes sense that the longer the exposure, the higher the risk.  There is no evidence to suggest that sores or other problems in the mouth change the risk.  Finally, there is no change in risk in terms of ethnicity per se.  While on average HIV may be more common in an African American than a Caucasian, ethnicity in and of itself has not impact.

No matter how you slice it, the risk for getting HIV from oral sex is very, very low.  Hope this  helps.  EWH
Helpful - 3
Avatar universal
Reread the last 2 sentences in the Dr's 1st paragraph and you will see the answer to your recent question.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Sorry, I forgot one question, in your past experiences, have you ever met a patient that got infected thru oral sex? Thank you
Helpful - 0

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