{"id":55747,"date":"2013-06-04T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2013-06-04T17:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=55747"},"modified":"2013-06-03T19:31:08","modified_gmt":"2013-06-04T00:31:08","slug":"michael-douglas-cancer-confession-the-risk-of-hpv-and-oral-sex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2013\/06\/04\/michael-douglas-cancer-confession-the-risk-of-hpv-and-oral-sex\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Douglas’ Cancer Confession: The Risk of HPV and Oral Sex"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at Girl w\/ Pen<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Having written\u00a0about\u00a0sexually transmitted HPV (human papillomavirus)\u00a0for 13 years,\u00a0I\u2019ve been waiting for the day when a celebrity would lend his or her fame to spotlight the realities of HPV infection, especially of\u00a0HPV-related oral cancers. \u00a0That day has come: this week Michael Douglas has announced<\/a> that his cancer was caused by an HPV infection that was likely<\/a>\u00a0transmitted through oral sex. \u00a0The mucus membrane tissue of mouth and throat are similar to those of genital skin, so researchers have known for some time that, like herpes, HPV could be transmitted oral to genital, as well as genital to oral.<\/p>\n

My hopes are that big news can be a long-needed catalyst for change. \u00a0Back in\u00a02009<\/a>, the research\u00a0findings were already\u00a0clear:\u00a0oral transmission of cancer-causing HPV means that almost all of us are more likely at risk than we are safe from risk.\u00a0 For my 2010\u00a0feature article in Ms. Magazine<\/a>, I focused\u00a0on the importance of not only educating the public about HPV-related cancers in men but also about the HPV-oral cancer link. In addition, I advocated for\u00a0the need to\u00a0destigmatize\u00a0all STDs: my research and\u00a0book<\/a>\u00a0have shown\u00a0that STD stigma makes it more likely for at-risk\/infected\u00a0 individuals\u00a0to put off getting tested and treated. STD stigma also makes it less likely for individuals to disclose their sexual health status to partners, placing those partners at greater risk for infection.\u00a0 In addition, negative stereotypes about the “types” of women and men likely to be infected distort our ideas of\u00a0who is at risk.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll wrap up this post with a call: for us to come together, to\u00a0learn the facts and not be swayed by incomplete media coverage<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0confusing pharmaceutical claims<\/a>.\u00a0 We must\u00a0support\u00a0significant funding increases to investigate\u00a0exactly how we can\u00a0prevent\u00a0HPV-related oral\/throat cancers, which\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0shows to be steadily on the rise and\u00a0more fatal than cervical cancers in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Adina Nack is the author of <\/em>Damaged Goods?<\/a> and a\u00a0professor of Sociology at California Lutheran University<\/a>. \u00a0She\u00a0specializes in medical sociology, gender inequality, and sexual health and writes for Girl w\/ Pen.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at Girl w\/ Pen. Having written\u00a0about\u00a0sexually transmitted HPV (human papillomavirus)\u00a0for 13 years,\u00a0I\u2019ve been waiting for the day when a celebrity would lend his or her fame to spotlight the realities of HPV infection, especially of\u00a0HPV-related oral cancers. \u00a0That day has come: this week Michael Douglas has announced that his cancer was caused by an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[403,329,252,120],"class_list":["post-55747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-deviance","tag-emotion","tag-healthmedicine","tag-sex"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55747"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55752,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55747\/revisions\/55752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}