safer with oral

safe from pregnancy, yes

safe from disease, no

Link

The study found that patients with HPV in their mouths are much more likely to get tonsil cancer than patients who don’t have it. In fact for patients who are HPV-positive, the rate of tonsil cancer has gone up seven times since the '70s, Dalianis says. It takes between 20 and 30 years for an HPV infection to result in cancer, so the people getting sick now were infected in the '70s and '80s.

“It’s an epidemic,” she says.

Prior to this, the greatest risk factor for tonsil cancer was drinking and smoking. As smoking rates have dropped, the number of tobacco-linked tonsil cancers has declined.

Researchers monitored everyone in the Stockholm area diagnosed with tonsil cancer between 2003 and 2007. Their study, recently published in the International Journal of Cancer, found that of 120 patients who got the cancer, at least 83 were HPV-positive. 

Tonsil cancer is dangerous because it has almost no symptoms, so many people don’t seek medical attention until it has spread to their lymph nodes and is much harder to treat.

“If they have a lump in their throat, especially if it’s on one side and it doesn’t go away with antibiotics, they should see a doctor,” Dalianis says.

Just want people to be aware so they can manage their choices and their health.

yeah, actually, risk of HIV infection from oral is "moderate" too.  it's partly because people with HIV often have HPV and other STIs as well, so are more likely to have genital and/or oral lesions.

Good thing I don't have tonsils.  ;)

...but if you put a condom over your head...won't you suffocate? 

Sorry, I know this is a serious issue but I just couldn't resist.

I can see it now

The Surgeon General warns smoking penis' causes cancer.

dammit.

i still have my tonsils.

Original Post by bagga:

I can see it now

The Surgeon General warns smoking penis' causes cancer.

 I don't care who you are...that's funny!!!!

Original Post by bagga:

I can see it now

The Surgeon General warns smoking penis' causes cancer.

 BAAAHAHA

*pictures the warning labels printed on all packages of boxer briefs*

ummmmmm.....yeeeeeaaaaahhhh....I'll leave this one alone....lol.

Original Post by eddiepotter:

ummmmmm.....yeeeeeaaaaahhhh....I'll leave this one alone....lol.

 

 Why? 

lol....yeah whatever Pure...lol

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

In fact for patients who are HPV-positive, the rate of tonsil cancer has gone up seven times since the '70s, Dalianis says.

 This seems fishy, how is it that HPV is more likely to cause tonsil cancer now than it was in the 70's, has something about the HPV virus changed since the 70's?

(and by 'gone up 7 times' does it mean there have been 7 instances where they measured the rate of tonsil cancer and found an increase, or that the rate of cancer has increased  7 fold?)

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

Researchers monitored everyone in the Stockholm area diagnosed with tonsil cancer between 2003 and 2007. Their study, recently published in the International Journal of Cancer, found that of 120 patients who got the cancer, at least 83 were HPV-positive. 

 So about 2 in 3 people with HPV get tonsil cancer, but doesn't HPV affect about 2 in 3 people in the general population? if so then the HPV probably isn't a factor in tonsil cancer.

the people in the study all had tonsil cancer

there was no control group of people who did not have tonsil cancer

the researchers are suggesting that oral sex became more commonly practiced beginning in the 70s, and that as a result, more people have HPV in their mouths (doesn't address all of the people who have contracted HPV on their genitals whatsoever)

more HPV in the mouth/throat = more HPV-caused cancer in the mouth/throat

did i answer what you were asking?

also in the 70s, almost nobody got to adulthood with tonsils.

If all the people in the study had the cancer, and showed a frequency of HPV equal to the frequency of HPV in the general public, it doesn't seem like that shows any correlation between the two.

The spermicide gel doesn't taste too good...

so i've heard!....

I'm just going to settle for the "Credit Crunch Rabbit" safest option...

Where did you find that 2 out of 3 people (and in what country?) have HPV in their throat/mouth?

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

more HPV in the mouth/throat = more HPV-caused cancer in the mouth/throat

did i answer what you were asking?

I understand that if HPV causes cancer then more HPV = more cancer, but the article seems to be saying that the rate (or percentage) of people with HPV who have tonsil cancer is going up:

"In fact for patients who are HPV-positive, the rate of tonsil cancer has gone up seven times since the '70s, Dalianis says."

 The way I read this quote is that, for example, in 1970 1 in 10 people with HPV had tonsil cancer, and now 1 in 5 people with HPV have tonsil cancer then the rate of tonsil cancer in HPV patients has gone up, but unless something about HPV has changed (the virus mutated, etc) I would interpret this finding as evidence that HPV does not cause tonsil cancer.

Edit: and just to add, the lack of quotes around what 'Dalianis says' is worrying to me, I think the author is giving us his/her opinion and trying to make it look like it's the opinion of an expert.

Original Post by andie-joe:

The spermicide gel doesn't taste too good...

 

so i've heard!....

 

I'm just going to settle for the "Credit Crunch Rabbit" safest option...

 What?!?!?!?...and What?!?!?!?

Credit Crunch Rabbit...what the h-e double hockey sticks is that?

I'm going to regret asking that aren't I?

sully, see #13.  you can't get tonsil cancer if you don't have tonsils, and up until the 70s, tonsilectomies were practically a rite of passage.

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

Where did you find that 2 out of 3 people (and in what country?) have HPV in their throat/mouth?

The article states that about 2 out of 3 people with throat cancer are HPV positive, it doesn't say that they have HPV in their mouths.

I don't have a good source, but back whenever the HPV vaccine was being released I heard reports that something like 1/4 teenage girls in the US have it and something like 80% of women in the US have it or have had it.  If it's that common 66% at any one time doesn't seem unreasonable to me.