Jaime Winstone asks whether oral sex is safe in new BBC Knowledge programme
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Darren was diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer, a rare form of mouth cancer, at the age of only 31 – and it had been caused by the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), which is sexually transmitted. Darren had caught it through having oral sex.
New research shows that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of HPV-related oral cancers amongst young people. Jaime Winstone sets out to discover why the statistics are rising and whether anything can be done to stop this trend.
HPV is recognised as the cause of cervical cancer in women and so, two years ago, the government introduced a national vaccination programme for teenage girls. But if a vaccine exists, why is it not also given to boys to protect them from developing HPV-related cancers?
Winstone’s journey takes her to meet Dr Margaret Stanley, an expert on HPV and Professor Hisham Mehanna, a head and neck specialist at University Hospital, Coventry whose research has shown an increase in HPV-related oral cancers. Winstone talks to teenage boys about what they know of HPV and to teenage girls about why they are reluctant to get the freely available vaccine, before confronting the Department of Health over why they currently do not vaccinate boys as well as girls on the NHS.
Is Oral Sex Safe? airs on Monday, 8 December at 22:00 on BBC Knowledge, channel 184 on DStv.
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