“Is oral sex safe?”
Oral sex is when someone uses his or her mouth to pleasure their partner’s genitals (penis, testicles, vagina)or anus. It is sometimes called a “blow job,” “going down,” “eating out,” or “rimming.” It’s true that you can’t get pregnant from oral sex, but you can get or give some STIs, sometimes called STDs, by having oral sex. STIs can be passed from mouth to genitals or from genitals to mouth. Some of the STIs that can be passed through oral sex are: herpes, gonorrhea, HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis.
STIs are passed during oral sex by skin-to-skin contact or by coming into contact with body fluids. You can lower your chances of passing an STI through oral sex by using a latex barrier between the mouth and genitals or anus.
There are a few ways to do this:
- If you are going to put your mouth on your partner’s penis (a “blow job”), use a condom! Use a non-lubricated condom or a flavored condom. You can also buy flavored lube to put on unlubricated condoms.
- If you are going to put your mouth on a partner’s vulva (the area around the vagina) or on an anus, use a dental dam, a Sheer Glyde dam, or cut a condom open into a square. You can put flavored lube on these as well!
You can get condoms, flavored lube and dams at clinics, some pharmacies and some grocery stores.
You can always talk with your doctor or a health professional at a clinic about questions about sex and how to keep yourself healthy.