Can You Get Cancer From Eating Butt?
Short answer – yes, its possible.
As you can guess there aren’t a ton of studies on cancer and eating butt (also called analingus), but we are starting to talk more about oral sex in general and the link to cancer. Why? Because the number of cases of oral cancer and throat cancers from HPV is rising.
It used to be that when we talked about oral cancers, or oropharyngeal cancer if we want to use the technical term, we would talk about the risk from tobacco products and alcohol use.
But now 70% of oral cancers are caused by HPV.
HPV stands for Human Papilloma Virus, it’s the virus that causes genital warts and certain forms of cancers. It’s also considered to be the most common STI. There are over a hundred strains of HPV, but not all of them cause cancer.
So how do you protect yourself from getting cancer from eating butt?
1) Talk to your partners about your sexual history and theirs. It can help you make a decision about what amount of STI risk you might be exposing yourself to. That can help you make healthier decisions for yourself, and for them.
Keep in mind that there are other things you need to worry about when performing analingus other than HPV, like gonorrhea, chlamydia, herpes and parasites.
2) Use a barrier method, You can use a dental dam, which is a piece of latex that you can put over the anal opening before you put your mouth there
Don’t have a dental dam handy? Just take a condom out of its package, cut a large square (6X6) and use that.
If you can’t use a dental dam because of a latex allergy or sensitivity, then cut open a non-latex condom and use that.
3) Get vaccinated for HPV, but keep in mind that the vaccine doesn’t protect against every stain of HPV. Remember when I said before that there are over 100 strains? Well the HPV vaccines only provide protection from a few strains.
When they designed the vaccine they were thinking more about preventing genital warts and cervical cancer than oral cancer, but the vaccine can still help protect you from certain strains.
The HPV vaccine is recommended for everyone ages 9 – 26. If you’re between 27 and 45 it’s still an option, just talk to your health care provider.
Until next time, be safe and have fun!
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