Oral During Periods Is Fun, But What Are My Risks?

Dear Madame X,

I like to down on girls when they have their period and obviously part of the fun of it is the mess. Is it possible to get HIV this way? I am a single guy at the moment so I don’t know these girls well enough to get tested with them.

Red Beard the Pirate

Dear Red Beard the Pirate,

It’s great that you like to get down and dirty when girls have their periods, that will definitely win you points for open-mindedness and sexual variety.

But you’re right, you do have to think about HIV as well as other STIs from doing this.

If a woman has HIV it will be in both her normal vaginal fluids as well as her menstrual blood.

Now in most cases your mouth will protect you because there are enzymes in your saliva that make the virus weaker and less able to pass to you. And although it is possible to get HIV from doing this, it is extremely rare from giving a woman oral sex.

This risk will be increased if you have any problems with your mouth like bleeding gums, ulcers, recent dental surgery, and the like. Basically these things will make it easier for the virus to get into your bloodstream. So yes, there is a risk, but it is low, so it’s up to you to decide how much risk you want to take.

In terms of other STIs, you are much more likely to get those than you are HIV as compared to the others it’s very difficult to pass around. This means it is possible that you might get something like chlamydia or gonorrhoea infections in your throat, or genital herpes on your mouth, if the women you are with have these STIs.

One way of avoiding this is using dental dams (or a cut in half condom) as a barrier between your mouth and their genitals.

But that’s not very sexy, is it?

You could also ask them about STIs beforehand if you are comfortable with that, or, just make a decision on how much risk you are willing to take and go with it.

Other than herpes and HIV the others are curable so it’s up to you to decide how far you want to go.

You can read about HIV transmission here and other STIs here.

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Please email me with any and all questions about sex and relationships and I will answer them in this column.