Hollywood legend Michael Douglas once said that the insane amount of women he went down on in his life was the reason for him getting throat cancer, and according to the experts, he was right.

Indeed, it seems people around the world are giving more head than ever, and that this massively increases your chance of getting a specific type of throat cancer called oropharyngeal cancer (the area of the tonsils and back of the throat), which has been on the rise since the mid-2000s.

It’s all because oral is a really good way of spreading the human papillomavirus (HPV) and certain types of this virus can cause cancer.

Dr Hisham Mehanna, an oncologist at the UK’s University of Birmingham, wrote in the Conversation that people with six or more oral sex partners in their lifetime are 8.5 times more likely to get the cancer than people who do not practice oral sex.

In a study by Dr Mehanna, he found that 80 percent of men and women practice oral sex at some point in their lives. The surveys suggest that those rates are rising particularly among women. Which I guess is why The Daily Mail did Katy Perry so dirty with their headline on this story? Lol:

The sex act almost EVERYONE (including Katy Perry and Michael Douglas) does that could be fuelling the rise in throat cancer – as Jamie Theakston reveals his diagnosis https://t.co/5wyDuPhRwh pic.twitter.com/yzlXvp3IhI

— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) September 17, 2024

Normally neck and throat cancer is associated with drinking and smoking, so it’s not the best news if you like to combine the three activities (which I’m pretty sure a lot of us do). Not to worry though, because while doctors say HPV from oral sex is now the biggest risk factor for oropharyngeal cancer, there are a few ways to reduce the risk. There’s a vaccine and, if it’s not too late, having oral sex with less than six partners will help.

Thankfully though, despite the rise in throat cancers, most of us will get away with it, according to Dr. Mehanna:

‘Yet, mercifully, only a small number of those people develop oropharyngeal cancer. Why that is, is not clear.

The prevailing theory is that most of us catch HPV infections and are able to clear them completely.

‘However, a small number of people are not able to get rid of the infection, maybe due to a defect in a particular aspect of their immune system.

‘In those patients, the virus is able to replicate continuously, and over time integrates at random positions into the host’s DNA, some of which can cause the host cells to become cancerous.’

Good to know. Still, avoid getting it if you can eh?

For the dentist who revealed a sure-fire way of telling how regularly someone gives blow jobs, click HERE. Enlightening stuff.