Can you get AIDS from eating out?

Factual Questions
1

I have researched this and am getting nowhere. If I perform oral sex on a woman, what are the chances of getting HIV/AIDS?

Most sites I found say that it is hard to find statistics, as most people who engage in oral sex tend to have other forms of intercourse. So, for the thread’s sake I will use the following assumptions:

  1. I engage in no other forms of sexual activity, just performing oral sex on women.

  2. The woman is not on on her period, and I have no cuts in my mouth.

  3. I do not use any type of protection to prevent STD’s.

2

No numbers here, but I know that it is possible. Wildly unlikely, but possible. You’re much more likely to get the more garden variety STDs.

I would also like to point out “holy crap, it’s been a while since I last dated…” I read the thread title and thought “What does going to a restaurant have to do with getting AIDS?” :dubious:

3

Here is what our figurehead, Cecil, has to say about it in the SDMB archives.“What are the odds of getting Aids from ordinary heterosexual sex?”

4

you’re not the only one…

And then I also started to reply with “Depends upon what you’re eating…”, but the OP nicely covers that question…

5

Yeah, me too. I was all ready to come in to this thread and be the pervert and say “Depends on what you mean by ‘eating out’. ;)” And then I realized that, yeah, the OP already knew that.

6

I will save the restaurant sex question for another thread. While searching for information prior to starting this thread, I found one site that states there is one documented case, but with no information. All of the government funded sites tend to be a little biased, and most oral sex/HIV/AIDS related sites deal with male-on-male sex, or a combination of anal/penis-vagina sex.

7

And an update from Cecil…

8

Great! Good cite and all!

9

Is it ever likely that someone really has no cuts or abraisions in their mouth? Also would small cuts in someone mouth make much difference for their chance of getting or passing on HIV?

10

It is very unlikely. I am sure that everyone has some sort of open cut in their mouth, or a form of bleeding gums. According to this site, they have this to say"

11

The answer is probably yes. There are a few recorded cases of people with HIV, who have said that they prefer to “eat out” exclusively. Given that some people have health problems that may limit other sex acts or that some people tend to focus on certain sex behaviours, it’s quite possible. It is also self reported, and could be inaccurate. No one doubts fellatio is far safer than most other options, though. Here is one article about the MSM (“male gay”) population.

http://aidscience.com/Jarticle.asp?Article=886

12

The question isn’t about fellatio, though.

13

The thread is not about fellatio, but was about oral sex. The risks of cunnilingus are even more poorly studied than that of fellatio. The risk is very low, perhaps theoretical. But probably not zero, by extension to the “known” cases of fellatio; and presumably higher during menstruation. For the thread’s sake, with those assumptions, the answer is probably “very low, but unknown, and probably not zero”. Perhaps someone more enlightened may come along.

14

While I was going by analogy, here is one poster. A similar study points out the low risk in MSMs. Case reports of HIV from eating out do exist, and their accuracy can be questioned.

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/326/7392/730

This study was presented at the Barcelona AIDS Conf., and published last year in AIDS:

I) del Romero J, Marinocovich B, Castilla J et al. Evaluating the risk of HIV transmission through unprotected orogential sex. AIDS 2002;16:1296-97.

Between 1990 and June 2000, in a STD and HIV testing clinic in Madrid, the authors followed an open cohort of individuals who were initially seronegative for HIV and whose heterosexual steady partner had had a diagnosis of HIV infection confirmed. Each member of each couple was followed in the same clinic with regular six monthly examinations. Subjects were surveyed about each type of contact, whether protected or unprotected, as well as about ejaculations and accidents with condoms. Determination of antibodies to HIV was carried out for the member of the couple who was not initially infected. Individuals who showed any risk exposure to HIV other than to sex with the mentioned partner were excluded from the study.

A total of 135 seronegative individuals (110 women and 25 men) whose only risk exposure to HIV was unprotected orogenital sex with their infected partner, participated in the study. For the 110 HIV-seronegative women whose partner was an infected man, 179 person-years of follow-up were taken into account. Of these women, 96 performed fellatio without a condom, which gave an estimated total of 8,965 unprotected fellatios, of which 3,060 (34 percent) were with ejaculation in the oral cavity. Ninety- eight infected men carried out unprotected cunnilingus on the uninfected woman with an estimate of 8,656 practices of this type. Among the HIV- infected members of the couples, 8.1 percent had been diagnosed with AIDS and 15.6 percent had a CD4 cell count lower than 200 x 106/l. For 60 individuals an HIV-1-RNA quantification was available, and six of them presented with greater than 10,000 copies/ml. Of the 135 initially infected partners, 39 percent received antiretroviral therapy during the follow-up. The authors reported registering 210 person- years of follow-up with participants.

While a number of women presented with vaginal infections, the 135 individuals, “who had had over 19,000 unprotected orogential contacts with their HIV-infected partner,” presented without a single case of seroconversion to HIV. According to the authors, “this seems to point to a very low probability of HIV transmission related to this practice, when other risk exposures are excluded.”

15

I’ve been single for awhile now and am looking for a good restaurant. So where is this place? How’s the service? Expensive?
On second thought, I think I’d rather pass, considering what’s on the menu.

Oh… to answer your question. Yes, you can get hiv from oral sex. http://www.metrokc.gov/health/apu/infograms/oralsex.htm

The odds may be low but they are not nothing.

16

The first question to ask is, “what are the chances this woman is HIV positive?”

17

When in doubt, use a dental dam with a drop of water- or silicone-based lubricant on the female’s side. Unlike in the old days of dental dams, they’re now large enough to be useful and thin enough not to feel like an obstacle.

18

To echo Excalibre, the question isn’t about fellatio, though.

Unless I’m mistaken that link describes both cunnilingus and fellatio together and doesn’t differentiate between them.