In his guest reportMojave66 asserts that, “transmission from females to males is dependent on a lot of factors such as open sores on the penis and vulva, vaginal trauma in women and circumcision in men,” the last because, “non-circumcised males have a higher risk of penile cancer.”
Okay, vaginal trauma provides for more blood to get into the lubrication (as detailed below), and open sores provide for nice direct pathways, but what does cancer have to do with it? Does penile cancer make the skin more permeable to infectious agents? Is he asserting that the higher rate of penile cancer is caused by more diseases transmitted from females? That females transmit penile cancer (where the hell do they get penile cancer)?
Incidentally, it’s almost irresponsible not to qualify the “higher rate” comment. As it stands it could be read as “slightly” or “greatly” higher, and the default assumption in most people’s minds is, unfortunately, “greatly”.
My hearty congrats to Mojave66 for a fantastic guest Staff Report.
I’ll let her respond to Mathochist, I thought that was mostly a parenthetical comment, in much the same way that bacterial vaginosis was mentioned, although that’s not a sexually transmitted disease.
Knowing that a STD, HPV (human papilloma virus) is a cause of cervical cancer, I searched to see if it can cause other genital cancers. According to the American Cancer Society, it does seem to be a possible risk factor for penile cancer.
Thanks Dex, I really appreciate the opportunity to do some staff reports.
This being my first, I realize I should have gone back and clarified that. Ferret Herder is right-- HPV has been inplicated in penile cancer (which, for the record, is extremely rare) and HPV can be passed from females to males. In fact, my research group at UCSF starting a study to find better numbers for the rate of transmission. Right now, the answer is “we thnk it’s roughly equal, maybe a little less common than male to female.” We’re hoping to make that a tad more precise.
Good point, but there is ZERO research being done on the topics of oral or digital (no, not computer) sex. My research group has tried looking for oral HPV, and it’s nonexistent in our cohort. It’s also not publishable data, alas. My semi-educated guess(*) is that as long as it’s not herpes and you don’t have open sores in the areas you’re playing with, then the rate of transmission is probably pretty low. Herpes gets to be the exception b/c damn near any part of the body can be infected with herpes. That’s a tough little viral buggar.
(*) Look, I don’t care what you read-- always, always, always play safely. Stay clean and healthy, don’t take stupid risks. I lost every gay male friend that I had back in the early 80’s because none of us had ANY idea that some damned virus was on the loose.
The mention of Uganda and lubrication reminds me of things that I’ve seen regarding the popularity of “dry” sex in some parts of Africa. I’d try to google it to come up with a more informed sounding question, but I’m too much of a prude: surely that’s a factor (given the importance of lubrication and abrasions) and how’s it figure in the story?
