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Those damn scientists, always the bearers of bad news. A study says that it pays to be monogamous as particularly men who have many oral sexual partners are more likely to develop head and neck cancer.
The study, published in Annals of Oncology, included 13,089 people between the ages of 20 and 69, who were tested for oral HPV infection which can develop into cancer. They then used data on US oropharyngeal cancer cases and deaths to predict one's cancer risk from oral HPV.
The research found that Oncogenic oral HPV prevalence was higher in men than women, and increased with number of lifetime oral sexual partners and tobacco use.
Study author Dr Amber D'Souza, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health had this to say about the findings of the study:
Most people perform oral sex in their lives, and we found that oral infection with cancer-causing HPV was rare among women regardless of how many oral sex partners they had. Among men who did not smoke, cancer-causing oral HPV was rare among everyone who had less than five oral sex partners, although the chances of having oral HPV infection did increase with number of oral sexual partners, and with smoking.
I'm going to stop at a kiss on the cheek from now on... Where's did I leave my chastity belt?
