Illustration by Édouard-Henri Avril of fellatio sceneįellatio can be sexually arousing for both participants, and males who receive fellatio commonly experience orgasm and ejaculation of semen during the act. The equivalent term for a female is fellatrix. Latin's gender based declension means this word may be restricted to describing a male. A person who performs fellatio upon another (i.e. The -io( n) ending is used in English to create nouns from Latin adjectives and it can indicate a state or action wherein the Latin verb is being, or has been, performed.įurther English words have been created based on the same Latin root. In fellatio the -us is replaced by the -io while the declension stem ends in -ion-, which gives the suffix the form -ion (cf. The English noun fellatio comes from the Latin fellātus, the past participle of the verb fellāre, meaning to suck. Commonly, people do not view oral sex as affecting the virginity of either partner, though opinions on the matter vary. People may also refrain from engaging in fellatio due to personal preference, negative feelings, or sexual inhibitions. Most countries do not have laws banning the practice of fellatio, though some cultures may consider it taboo. Fellatio creates a risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs), but the risk is significantly lower than that of vaginal or anal sex, especially for HIV transmission. It may be performed by a sexual partner as foreplay before other sexual activities, such as vaginal or anal intercourse, or as an erotic and physically intimate act of its own. If fellatio is performed on oneself, the act is called autofellatio.įellatio can be sexually arousing for both participants, and may lead to orgasm for the partner being fellated.
Oral stimulation of the scrotum may also be termed fellatio, or colloquially as teabagging. Most case reports concern receptive fellatio (‘doing it’) rather than insertive fellatio or cunnilingus.The risk of getting HIV through oral sex is low, but not non-existent, when a person with HIV does not have fully suppressed viral load.HIV cannot be sexually transmitted by an HIV-positive partner with a fully suppressed viral load.An illustration of a woman performing fellatio on a manįellatio (also known as fellation, and in slang as blowjob, BJ, giving head, or sucking off) is an oral sex act involving a person stimulating the penis of another person by using the mouth, throat, or both. The PARTNER 1 and PARTNER 2 studies showed that HIV is not transmitted through condomless vaginal or anal intercourse when a person with HIV is taking antiretroviral treatment and has a fully suppressed viral load (Rodger).Īs the risk of transmission through oral sex is estimated to be much lower than for vaginal and anal intercourse in the absence of antiretroviral therapy, it is implausible that the risk of transmission through oral sex is not affected in the same way as other sexual transmission risks when effective treatment suppresses viral load. When HIV is not fully supressed, the risk of HIV transmission through the mouth is certainly smaller than through vaginal or anal intercourse. The latest news and research on sexual transmission If undamaged, the tissues of the mouth and throat are thought to be less susceptible to infection than genital or anal tissues, and an enzyme in saliva also acts to inhibit HIV. Very few cases of transmission through oral sex have been reported amongst gay men despite the continued practice of oral sex (often with ejaculation into the mouth) by large numbers of men over many years. Infection via receptive fellatio (‘doing it’) is biologically plausible and may happen occasionally. However, infection via insertive fellatio (‘having it done to you’) is probably exceedingly low risk. There are no reliable reports of HIV being transmitted from the mouth to the genitals.Ĭases of transmission via cunnilingus are extremely rare, and the reliability of these reports is questionable. How could HIV infect the mouth and throat? There are no reported cases of HIV transmission through kissing.
HIV is not able to infect most cells in the mouth. Only one cell type found in the mouth is vulnerable to HIV infection (Campo). The tissue of the mouth and oesophagus is also very thick compared with genital tissues, and fluids stay in contact with it for a very short time because swallowing clears the mouth regularly.