I have heard and done some research on my own but have not found a definitive answer to the following question.
Is HIV transmission possible through cunnilingus?
There isn’t a definitive answer. Sorry!
Please understand that I am not a doctor, so I am answering to the best of my knowledge based on what I know about disease vectors (a little better than the average layman, but not much!)
The best we can come up with is that there are a couple of documented cases that they think are likely to have occurred during cunnilingus, but in terms of statistical risk of life1 , it’s less risky than you getting into your car and driving to the grocery store. That theoretical risk is a bit higher if it is certain that blood is involved — ferinstance, cunnilingus during menstruation, especially if the person doing it has just brushed his teeth, so has teeny tiny open wounds in the mouth.
But it’s quite true that oral sex is not exactly risk free!
That said, I recommend getting regular testing for STDs in general. AIDS is hardly the only STD out there, and there are some others that will kill you, some that won’t kill you and still completely suck! Make sure you take appropriate precautions. I really recommend Assessing STD Risk Tolerance to learn a bit more about STD risk assessment. She’s remarkably sensible.
The only thing special about STDs are how fragile the little bugs are and how intimate you have to be to get ‘em. We don’t flip out when you get strep throat, and if untreated, that can certainly develop complications that can kill you. I rather dislike the stigma and shame attached because it prevents us from treating them sensibly.
1For HIV only! There are other STDs for which oral sex is very much a transmission activity!
Oh yes — people who are embarrassed to be seen entering a sexual health clinic! I don’t understand what’s embarrassing about admitting you care about your health, especially in an area where your health can affect someone else’s health. Maybe it’s a nurse thing, but keep me away from people who won’t get tested if they’re sexually active.
There are ways other than going into sexual health clinics, too. There are companies on the net (I won’t recommend any particular one, but Google will show a bunch) that basically subcontract out to labs – you pay their fee, and then you just go to the local lab.
They’re typically the same labs that do a lot of random drug testing work for employers, so there be no stigma whatsoever attached to going to one.
Honestly – if people are too embarrassed to go ask for an STD test then they have no business having sex. Period. And no business being poly. There’s no room for dancing around this stuff.
I just go to the porn star clinic in Van Nuys. AIM Healthcare. Full panel, results quickly, no fuss, no muss, no judgement. Just friendly people. It’s hard to be embarrassed in a room full of porn stars.
The worst thing that’s ever happened to me at that clinic is, some gentleman who I’ve seen naked on multiple DVDs asked me if I’d knit him a sock. I was knitting in the waiting room. And I had to bite my tongue not to ask, “Just one? I think what you’re asking for as a ‘cosy’ not a sock.”
Rainy, someone needs to start following you around with a camera and a needle full of sodium pentathol.
This was a great response, and I suspect the CDC would concur.
But you can always email and ask them! They were great with our recent little crisis – responded the next day with references to recent literature and a totally non-judgmental attitude. Yay for real, compassionate scientists!