ORAL SEX.
Many men and women find oral sex an intensely pleasurable experience.
People use different terms to refer to oral sex (including formal terms like fellatio and cunnilingus and slang terms like blow jobs and giving head).
Usually oral sex means one person kissing, licking or sucking another person's genitals.
ORAL SEX AND HIV.
Doctors and researchers can't be sure how many people have been infected with HIV through oral sex.
Some think hardly anybody has been infected with HIV from oral sex, but other people think that as many as 3% of infections are due to oral sex.
In late 2008, researchers looked at all the available evidence and calculated that the risk of contracting HIV from oral sex was very low, but that it wasn't zero.
It is known that oral sex involves less risk than unprotected anal sex or unprotected vaginal sex.
The likelihood that HIV is transmitted from a person with HIV to an HIV-negative person depends on the type of contact involved.
HIV is most easily transmitted by unprotected anal sex (that is, without condoms), unprotected vaginal sex, sharing injecting equipment, and from mother to baby.
It also depends on the viral load of the person with HIV.
WHEN IS ORAL SEX MORE RISKY?
If you have HIV, there is a higher risk of passing on HIV through someone performing oral sex on you, if you also have an untreated sexually transmitted infection.
If you don't have HIV and you are performing oral sex on someone who does have HIV, you are at more risk of being infected if you have cuts, sores or abrasions in your mouth or on your gums.
There is also more risk if you have an infection, including sexually transmitted ones, in your throat or mouth which is causing inflammation.
HOW CAN YOU REDUCE THE RISKS?
There are several ways to reduce the risks of oral sex.
Naturally, some will be more acceptable than others to different individuals, so you must make your own decisions about the level of risk you find acceptable.
If you would like to discuss these issues, ask to see a health adviser, or other health professional, at your treatment centre or sexual health clinic.
Many of the strategies below will also provide protection against other sexually transmitted infections:
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