What are the risks associated with oral sex?
Oral sex can be broken down into two situations: • Oral sex being performed on you, and • You performing oral sex on someone else. There are risks associated with both situations. • It is theoretically possible to become infected with HIV through receiving oral sex. Although saliva has not been shown to transmit HIV infection, if the person performing oral sex on you has HIV, blood from the mouth of that person can transfer the virus through the vagina, the tip of the penis (urethra), the anus, or directly into the body by a small cut or open sore near the genitals. The degree of risk is unknown but most health officials can agree that it is less than that of unprotected anal or vaginal sex. • There have been a number of documented cases of transmission of HIV through performing oral sex on an HIV infected partner. HIV can be found in a variety of body fluids, including blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid and vaginal secretions. Cells in the mucous membrane lining of the mouth have the abi
