So my SO, Supergirlfriend, tells me last night that she’s gonna leave a big hickey on my neck to mark her territory (she’s 29, I’m 28. I thought all that was behind us). She then proceeds to tell me that hickeys increase the risk of developing cancer. Naturally, I scoffed at this. I couldn’t find anything in snopes, or google. Little help?
We could always speculate:
The darkening of the skin caused by a lovebite(hickey) means that it will absorb more UV light.
Any irritation to the skin can potentially cause cancer as as the healing mechanism requires cell division at a greater than normal rate and mutations may occur during this process.
Bruising is a result of damage to blood vessels, this may cause necrosis(tissue death) on a small scale; that, and the accumulation of dead blood cells may break down into mildly toxic components.
However, I would say that the risk from any of the above is slight at most.
So, let me get this straight: Your girlfriend is telling you that she wants to deliberately increase your risk for cancer? Dude, if I were you, I’d be looking for a new girlfriend.
I am trying it envisage the extensive clinical testing that would have had to been done to establish this relationship. Or perhaps someone has just done the research on rats?
You know, I had that same thought after I read the way I worded this. Sounds like she’s trying to bump me off. Hey, if it’s true, there’s an almost-foolproof way of bumping people off for the insurance money…
Giving hickeys to rats? I’d hate to be a research assistant in that lab.
Someone here mentioned you could get HIV from hickeys. I suppose its possible…
The hickey giver would be at greatest risk for HIV if the hickey-getter had it, as they would be drawing blood to (and thru) the skin, and ingesting it. Less likely would be transmission from hickeyer to hickeyee (I hope you get the shorthand terminology, we have to be flexible with our jargon in medicine). Unless the hickeyer is having bleeding gums, the risk of transmission that way is really negligible.
Qadgop
First the “can my gay friend suck your dick” question, then this?
Dude, methinks you have a seriously depraved girlfriend.
I’d marry her if I were you.