Doctor’s claim that oral sex is worse than smoking for causing throat cancer goes viral

Dr. Daria Sadovskaya, 29, from Singapore, posted the video last month, linking performing oral sex with a partner to the potentially life-threatening disease.

Although the American Cancer Society lists tobacco use as the number one risk factor for the disease known as oropharyngeal cancer, Dr. Sadovskaya insisted she was right.

When one of Dr. Sadovskaya’s hundreds of thousands of followers asked, “You mean oral sex has been proven to be the number one cause of throat cancer?”, she responded by singing along to the song’s lyrics: “I said what I said.”

Although tobacco use and excessive alcohol consumption are considered the two biggest risk factors for developing throat cancer, doctors say the human papillomavirus (HPV), a family of viruses that infect the genitals and can be transmitted to the throat during oral sex, is becoming increasingly common . , are a source.

Men are also at greater risk as women are more likely to carry the virus, with Michael Douglas famously blaming HPV as the cause of his throat cancer.

With an estimated 13 million new cases each year in the US, HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is so widespread that “nearly all sexually active men and women will get the virus at some point in their lives.”

Although HPV usually goes away on its own within two years, most people don’t realize they have it, which means they can unknowingly spread the disease.

“Men are more likely to develop throat cancer through oral sex with women, because women are more likely to carry the (HPV) virus in their genital area,” Sadovskya said.

Although her video was viewed tens of thousands of times, one user said they weren’t willing to give up oral sex despite the risk.

“This won’t stop me,” they declared.

Douglas told the Guardian in 2013: “Without getting too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which is actually caused by cunnilingus,” he explained at the time.

In 2021, researchers found that people with ten or more oral sex partners were more than four times more likely to develop HPV-related mouth and throat cancer.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 41% of teens ages 15 to 19 participate in oral sex.

Young people aged 15 to 24 were responsible for almost half of the 26 million new STD infections in 2018.

Men were significantly more affected by HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer, with diagnosis rates in men increasing by 2.8% annually between 2015 and 2019.

However, there is hope that the HPV vaccine, which aims to prevent reproductive cancers, could protect against the virus strains that also cause oropharyngeal cancer.

Dr. However, Eric Adjei Boakye investigated the lack of knowledge about HPV earlier this year for the American Association for Cancer Research.

“More than 90 percent of HPV-associated cancers could be prevented with the HPV vaccination, but vaccine uptake remains suboptimal,” he found.