To Suck or Not to Suck?

What are the chances of transmitting HIV through unprotected oral sex? Pretty darn low, and much lower than through unprotected anal sex, according to this week’s Village Voice. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this. I seriously doubt the risk is zero, as Klausner posits, and I, for one, would just as soon not take a guy’s load in my mouth, because you never know. Still — the chances appear to be very, very low.

Of course, oral sex can still transmit syphilis, gonorrhea, and other fun things.

Some people challenge the accuracy of such studies:

“A standard analysis will not show the effects of oral sex,” Koopman says. That’s because, if an infected person is having both anal and oral sex, most researchers assume that anal sex is the source of the infection. Therefore, the effect of fellatio is masked.

I don’t understand why it would be so hard to conduct an accurate study — one that tested people who had unprotected oral sex but not unprotected anal sex, as happened in this San Francisco example. I’ve read that it’s hard to find such people, but is it really? I know lots of people who fit this category. There must be enough of them to conduct a study.

Of course, a 100% accurate study would probably reach the same conclusion: that the possibility is not zero but is very, very small. It’s not a wholly satisfying response. Throw in guilt issues and the possibility of contracting a deadly disease, and it’s even less satisfying. But that’s life. Nothing is ever certain.