Oral sex during menstruation unsafe, Gynaecologists warn

Experts in Obstetrics and Gynaecology have warned against engaging in oral sex during the menstrual period, describing it as unsafe and could lead to multifaceted infections.

According to them, such practice could lead to upper respiratory tract infections, hepatitis B and C, Sexually Transmitted Infections, mouth and throat infections.

While some online platforms have claimed that the practice is safe, the experts warned that not everything on the internet was factual and accurate.

Speaking with our correspondent, a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Edo State, Dr Joseph Okoeguale, said STIs and problems caused by changes in normal vaginal flora could occur when engaging in oral sex during menstruation.

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“Men go down on women when they are not menstruating, and that may be pleasurable, even for the ladies, but during menses, a lot of debris is fluxed out from the endometrium, so the menstruum you see is not just blood, it is fluxing off of the wall of the endometrium.

“Engaging in oral sex during menstruation means that the person is drinking the debris coming out from the cavity of the uterus, the vagina, even the normal vaginal floral which is microbes, and they could be deleterious to humans, apart from the effects of having to drink someone’s blood. The vaginal has its normal floral which can grow as bacteria and cause some level of infection and the fact that you are not even sure if the person does not have other genital tract infections.

“You can contract STIs from having to do that because, at that time, the place is not in the best form of hygiene, so the risk of microbial contamination either from the mouth to the throat and to the gastrointestinal system is there. And then the effect of the menstruum there is the risk of having hepatitis B, and C with attendant complications. There is also the risk of having upper respiratory tract infections because that is where the thing is going to pass through, from the mouth to the throat, and the risk of having to drink the blood itself, it can be immediate and it can long-term.

“It is not something anybody would want to do because of the complications. Whatever the woman has, washes down through the cavity, to the vagina and the person drinks it, it is like swallowing a mix of microorganisms, both microbial, bacterial, and of viral origin,” Okoeguale said.

Another Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Dr Joseph Akinde, said there were risks involved in oral or vaginal sex during menstruation.

“Infections can occur when a woman engages in sex during her menstruation. Why would a man go down on a woman when she is on her period? That is unhealthy.

“I can’t imagine menstrual blood going into somebody’s mouth, it is unsafe. How will somebody put his mouth in blood when the person is not Dracula, it is Dracula that sucks blood.

“Most of these things online are not verified, that somebody said it is safe online does not mean it is hygienic and safe. There is bacterial floral in the vagina, so it is absurd to put your mouth in the vagina. If the man has an oral infection, he might infect the woman,” he noted.