Remember Michael Douglas and how he burned the screen in the 1993 erotic thriller “Basic Instinct”?
Viewers still remember the torrid love scenes by Douglas and Sharon Stone. Michael Douglas is presently suffering from throat cancer, and he had been forthright in an interview with The Guardian when he said his cancer was caused by HPV contracted while performing oral sex.
PPV is once again in the news when a new study revealed that men are at a higher risk of developing mouth and throat cancer as the number of oral sex partners increases. The causative pathogen is Human Papillomavirus, and it increases the chances of getting mouth or throat cancer in men many times more than in women.
Middle-aged and white men are at a higher risk than other races according to the study.
The figures are different in women since the number of sex partners has no effect on the risk of cancer. Interestingly the study reveals that women who have more vaginal sex partners have a lower risk of oral HPV infection.
It is explained by researchers to be caused by immunity developed by women who are first exposed to HPV vaginally develop immunity against the virus which protects them from oral HPV infection. Men sadly do not produce any such immunity.
Dr Gypsyamber D’Souza, a member of the researcher’s team, said that men are less likely to make the infection than women further elevating the risk of cancer.
HPV is one of the most widespread STD among adult sexually active people and can be linked to mouth and throat cancer. HPV is known to infect more than 90% of the men and 80% of the women as perf United States CDC.
The HPV infection can go away without developing any form of cancer cells, but some disease can cause cellular changes which can lead to malignancy and development of cancerous tissues if it is left untreated. The symptoms of the disease can appear years after the person had sexual contact with someone infected.