Experts say that oral sex is causing a “epidemic” of throat cancer that is more common than cervical cancer in the UK and US. Dr. Hisham Mehanna from the University of Birmingham talks about oropharyngeal cancer and how it is connected to the human papillomavirus (HPV).

Mehanna said, “Over the past 20 years, there has been a rapid rise in throat cancer in the West.” She said that HPV was the main cause of this.

The NHS says that HPV, which is a group of more than 100 viruses, usually doesn’t do any harm but can sometimes cause genital warts or cancer. This is what Mehanna says: “The main risk factor is how many partners someone has had oral sex with.” Oropharyngeal cancer is 8.5 times more likely to happen to people who have had six or more oral sex partners in their lifetime.

A small group of people can’t get rid of HPV infections naturally because their immune systems aren’t working right. “In those patients, the virus keeps copying itself, integrating into the host’s DNA and possibly leading to cancer,” Mehanna wrote.