Cunnilingus and HPV

Hi doc,

I am a female and I received oral sex from a male a couple of weeks ago(2-3 weeks ago). I am quite worried about contracting hpv from this exposure. This lasted for maybe half an hour or so, I'm not sure exactly)

Basically, my question is: Can I as a female get HPV from receiving oral sex from this male. I'm really worried. If I had any symptoms would they been apparent by now.

I am of course assuming the possibility of this male having oral hpv, which i have read is rare. im just really confused. If you could clarify a bit for me, Id greatly appreciate it. I was unable to find any archives in reference to HPV and cunnilingus.

much thanks for your time

respectfuly,

worried 925

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

You cannot catch genital HPV by receiving oral sex.  Even people with genital warts or HPV infection rarely have it in the mouth; and I have never heard of a case of transmission of HPV from mouth to genitals (or mouth to mouth).  If you think about it, it has to be this way:  if people had transmissible oral HPV in anywhere near the frequency of genital HPV, we would all have warts of the mouth from kissing.

I'm not surprised you can't find much detail on the web about this sort of question.  That in itself is an indication this isn't an important problem.  Don't worry about it.

You seem overly concered about HPV in general.  Remember that everybody gets it; genital HPV is essentially unavoidable.  Most cases never cause symptoms and never cause important health problems.  You can protect yourself from the most common and dangerous HPV types with the new HPV vaccine, called Gardasil.  Ask your health care provider about it.

In the meantime, definitely don't worry about HPV through oral sex.

HHH, MD