|
Before I answer the question I think you’re asking, let’s get
one thing clear here first. Sperm is not semen. I know that may
seem like a silly distinction to make, but it’s important, particularly
in this case.
Sperm are actually only about 2-5% of the total volume of what
a man ejaculates. The other 95-98% of what is ejaculated is composed
of a bunch of secretions produced by the prostate, the seminal
vesicles, the Cowper’s glands, and other glands along the male
reproductive pathway. The vast likelihood is that you will never
swallow sperm all by themselves. What ends up in your mouth when
a man ejaculates into it is semen.
The reason that this is important is because sperm can carry genetic
diseases in the DNA they hold, but they aren’t likely to be carrying
other disease organisms. This means that a sperm that carries
a genetic disease encoded in the instructions of its DNA might
affect a child who is born from the union of that sperm plus an
egg... but that sperm itself cannot give a genetic disease to
the person into whose body it is ejaculated.
However, the liquid in which the sperm swims -– the semen -– can
quite easily transmit disease to the person into whose body it
is ejaculated, whether it is ejaculated into the vagina, anus,
or mouth. There are many types of disease organisms that can live
in semen, including many of the Sexually Transmitted Diseases
you probably already know about, like HIV, gonorrhea, syphilis,
and hepatitis B, but there are also quite a few others you might
not have heard of. We’ll get to those in a bit.
The other issue here is that swallowing semen isn’t necessarily
as much of a problem as having semen get in your mouth in the
first place. The jury seems to still be out in regard to whether
disease transmission is likely to take place through stomach or
intestinal lining where swallowing semen is concerned.
But we do know for sure that it’s really frighteningly easy for
disease organisms to be transmitted through the mucous membranes
of the mouth and throat. Obviously, semen is not directly ejaculated
into the stomach, but into the mouth, and it will only get into
the stomach by traveling down ye olde throat. So what we’re really
concerned about here is whether or not diseases can be transmitted
by semen that enters the mouth or the throat.
And the answer to that is yes, they sure the hell can. Not only
can many types of disease organisms travel right through the mucous
membranes of your mouth and throat (and vagina and anus/rectum)
and into your bloodstream, but human beings frequently also have
small cuts and abrasions in our mouths which open the bloodstream
up directly to whatever nasty little critters might happen to
be swimming around in our mouths. If you’ve brushed your teeth
recently, chances are good that you have microscopic abrasions
in your mouth, even if you didn’t see any blood.
So, what kinds of diseases can be transmitted through semen? Can
you, in fact, catch whatever ails your man by letting him come
in your mouth?
Well, it depends on what he’s got. Some types of disease organisms
are transmissible through semen, and some aren’t. Disease organisms
that can be transmitted through contact with semen are in a class
known as bloodborne pathogens –which can be present in blood,
tissue, blood products, and other potential infectious materials
defined by the Centers for Disease Control as the following:
- semen
- vaginal secretions
- cerebrospinal fluid (brain and spine)
- pleural fluid (lungs)
- peritoneal fluid (fluid in the abdominal space around your organs)
- pericardial fluid (fluid in the sac that holds the heart)
- amniotic fluid (fluid in which a fetus lives while in the uterus)
- synovial fluid (fluid found in your joints)
- breast milk (not all authorities agree that this is a problem)
- saliva in dental procedures (also controversial)
In cases when the organism that causes an infectious disease is
not one that can be carried by blood or related body fluids, that
disease can’t be transmitted through semen either.
This means that viruses that cause things like colds, the flu,
tuberculosis, measles, chicken pox, warts (including genital warts)
and even oral and genital herpes can’t be transmitted through
semen. These are all transmitted through the air, or through contact
with infected lesions or sores. The same is true of many bacterial
infections, like Streptococcus pyogenes, the bacteria that causes strep throat, and Bacillus anthracis or anthrax, the bacteria that has been showing up in the news
so much lately. They simply cannot be transmitted through semen.
They don’t work that way.
Just for reference, bacterial infections can generally be cured
with antibiotics. Viral infections cannot. Once you’ve got a virus,
either your body kills it off...or you’re stuck with it for life.
This is why some viral infections, like herpes simplex I and II,
and HIV, are considered chronic, ongoing conditions for which
there is no cure.
This does not mean you can’t catch a cold, or a case of the flu
or strep throat from having sex with someone! After all, having
sex puts you into very close physical contact with another person,
quite close enough to be within range for any airborne disease
organism they may be carrying... even if you don’t kiss them.
Sexual activity also makes it highly likely that you could have
skin-to-skin contact with any infectious sore or lesion that a
person might have. This is the way herpes most commonly spreads,
so you can see from that example alone that it’s a pretty effective
way for a disease organism to travel from one person to the next.
In reality, the number of communicable diseases you stand a significant
chance of catching from semen is fairly small, particularly when
compared to the number of diseases you can catch in far less intimate
ways. The problem is that the diseases you’re likely to catch
via contact with an infected person’s semen tend to be pretty
serious ones.
Of these, the most well-known are the standard sexually transmitted
diseases (STDs) that are transmitted via semen and other bodily
fluids. They can be bacterial, like gonorrhea, chlamydia, and
syphilis (technically a spirochete), or they can be viral, like
HIV, hepatitis B, or cytomegalovirus. It’s important to bear in
mind that not all STDs are transmitted via bodily fluids like
semen. HPV (genital warts) and genital herpes, for instance, are
transmitted via skin contact with an infected sore or wart, or
with skin that is shedding viruses. This is why using a condom
doesn’t reliably prevent these types of STDs: the infected skin
might simply not be somewhere that a condom will cover.
But there are also other types of diseases that can be transmitted
through semen. The Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society (CFAS),
in its Guidelines for Therapeutic Donor Insemination (guidelines for sperm donation and artificial insemination),
recommends that all sperm donors and samples be screened for the
following:
- HIV (the virus that leads to AIDS)
- HTLV (Human T-Cell Lymphotrophic Virus, can lead to leukemia)
- Hepatitis B
- Hepatitis C
- Cytomegalovirus
- Chlamydia
- Gonorrhea
- Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma hominis (bacterial infections which can cause pelvic inflammatory disease,
infertility, non-gonococcal urethritis, vaginitis, and a number
of other problems in infected individuals)
- and a full screening for other STD types, including syphilis,
Molluscum contagiosum, Hemophilus ducreyi (chancroid lesion), etc.
What these guidelines tell us about this list of communicable
diseases is that they are commonly enough transmitted through
semen that doctors feel it is justifiable and prudent to check
every potential sperm donor and every sperm sample for the little
bastards.
I tend to feel that if doctors think it’s reasonable to check
every single one of their sperm donors for these conditions, and
to assume that the donor is unsafe until proven safe, it’s definitely
reasonable for you or I to assume the same thing –that anyone
whose semen we might come into contact with is unsafe until they’ve
been proven safe through testing.
Funny how suddenly the idea of using condoms for oral sex can
becomes awfully damned attractive, isn’t it?
There are other diseases which can be spread through semen, although
they’re far less common. Of interest to North Americans, there
are theories that Lyme disease (caused by a spirochete, as is
syphilis) could possibly be spread via semen. This has not been
documented, though. Lyme disease is generally considered to be
transmitted primarily by ticks, and the medical establishment
in general does not consider there to be any substantial risk
of it being transmitted via blood, urine, semen, or other body
fluids.
There are also some types of viruses that are rare in the developed
world which are sometimes transmitted by semen. Hemorrhagic fever-causing
filoviruses like the Marburg virus and Ebola, for instance, can
be transmitted in semen, although if you’re having sex when you’ve
got Ebola, you’re built of much stronger stuff than I. Lassa virus,
a virus found in sub-Saharan Africa, can also be transmitted through
semen for up to 3 months (there is a vaccine for this virus).
These are not diseases that you’re likely ever to be exposed to
if you live in a first-world country. If you plan to travel in
the developing world, however, you’ll be well-served to check
the travelers’ health advisories listed by the Centers for Disease
Control (http://www.cdc.gov/travel/), and keep in mind that sexual
contact with people you meet while you’re traveling could potentially
expose you not only to the common STDs we all know and love, but
also to things you may never have heard of.
The moral of the story is that yes, you can get sick from letting
someone come in your mouth. You can also get sick from having
infected pre-ejaculatory fluid (precum) in your mouth. It can
carry all the same disease organisms that semen can. Bear in mind
that anything that can infect you through your mouth can infect
you through your anus, rectum, or vagina as well.
So, how do you avoid it?
The best way is to avoid letting anyone get his pre-ejaculate
or semen in your mouth. This is most easily accomplished by either
not putting the darned thing in there in the first place, or by
using a condom if you do (a few drops of lube inside the condom
will make it more pleasant for him, using unlubricated, non-reservoir-tip
condoms will make it more pleasant for you).
If this isn’t possible, you can still vastly reduce your risk
by not allowing your partner to ejaculate into your mouth. “On
me, not in me” is a good phrase to remember when it comes to semen:
there is a far lower chance of infection from having semen on
your skin than inside your mouth, vagina, or butt.
If that isn’t possible, you can still reduce your risk of infection
somewhat by spitting the stuff out as soon as possible, and rinsing
your mouth out well with water or mouthwash. The alcohol in mouthwash
won’t necessarily kill off many disease organisms, but it will
help cut the stickiness of semen and saliva and do a somewhat
more thorough job of cleaning it out of your mouth.
This all holds true for vaginal secretions as well as for semen,
in case you were wondering. The risk of transmission from vaginal
secretions is considered lower, mostly because women’s vaginal
secretions are not ejaculated into the body of a partner, but
the risk is still there. The same means of prevention –avoidance
or using barriers (in this case a dental dam, or plastic wrap)
–also apply.
What if you want to be able to let someone come in your mouth?
Simple. Practice only safe and monogamous sex with that person
for 6 months. Both of you then go get a complete STD screening.
If everything comes back clean, practice only safe and monogamous
sex for another 6 months. Then get ye hence to the ol’ clap clinic
for another STD screening, both of youse. If you come back clean
a second time, you’re pretty much as likely as you’re going to
be to be genuinely clean of infections.
Do remember that this only holds true as long as you’re completely
monogamous with one another, though. Sex with another partner
runs the risk of introducing new disease-organism variables into
the mixture.
And in the event that you end up having unsafe oral sex –- or
any other kind of unsafe sex -– with someone whose infection status
is not a fairly well known quantity, just hop on over to your
local sexual health clinic and get tested. It’s much easier to
get it treated if you know you’ve got it, and a lot more of a
relief to know than to wonder.
Want to ask the Fat Broad a question? Email her. |
