Oral sex is where you use your mouth to stimulate the penis, vagina or anus.
Risk of HIV
The chance of someone without HIV contracting HIV from oral sex is extremely low, however it is difficult to know the exact risk involved. This is because people who often have oral sex will then partake in vaginal or anal sex.
Although the rate of transmission of HIV is low, there are several factors that may increase the risk. This includes sores on the mouth, vagina or penis, bleeding gums, oral contact with menstrual blood and if there are any other sexually transmitted diseases present.
To be on the safe side, it is always best to wear condoms in order to be one hundred percent safe of not contracting HIV.
Risk of Other Infections
Other sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis, herpes, gonorrhea, and chlamydia can all be transmitted through oral sex.
Risk Reduction Strategies
There are a few different ways that you can further reduce the risk of the HIV transmission from oral sex. This includes preventing partners from ejaculating in their mouth. This can be done by wearing a condom, or removing the penis from the mouth before you or your partner ejaculates.
Using barrier contraception like condoms or dental dams during oral can help to significantly reduce the transmission of HIV and other STDs.
Other methods to reduce the risk of contracting HIV includes when a partner is taking medicine in order to prevent HIV like PrEP or if the HIV positive partner is taking medicine to treat HIV or is virally suppressed.
