Fellatio Is Carcinogenic

You heard me. Evidently, that pesky HPV virus is responsible -- the same virus that causes genital warts and cervical cancer and against which the "One Less" campaign was launched, encouraging females as young as 9 to get vaccinated against HPV. And now it seems that genital-to-genital sex isn't the only peril. According to William Lydiatt, professor and chief of head and neck surgical oncology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, "It's gotten to the point now where 60 to 70% of all tonsil cancers in the U.S. are HPV-related." Yikes. Yes, folks, that means that engaging in oral sex with multiple, possibly-infected partners (who are almost everyone, given HPV's often symptomless presence) might give you cancer. The real trouble here could be for teens, among whom oral sex has risen in popularity -- perhaps because it is seen as "safe" from pregnancy and disease. Bummer. Two words people: SEX ED. But abstinence education might work, too. No, really. It won't.