Michael Douglas has made an astonishing claim to the Guardian, that performing oral sex on women gave him Stage 4 mouth cancer.
The actor, who was diagnosed with the cancer in August 2010, says that the cause of his cancer was not from smoking tobacco or his recreational drinking habits — but a strand of HPV he acquired through cunnilingus.
After going to a friend’s doctor in Montreal, an examination found a walnut-sized tumor in his mouth, which was removed by burning his palate.
Through his treatment ordeal he lost 45 pounds — through chemo and radiation that made him sick and removed all the nutrients from his body.
According to the American Cancer Society, the kind of cancer and where it was located meant that without treatment, Douglas’s five-year survival rate was 37 percent.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, HPV is the most commonly known sexually transmitted disease. There are over 40 types of HPV viruses, and most people harbor the virus by the time they’re 25 years old and don’t even know it.
In recent years a vaccine was created to be given to young girls in the UK and United States. There has been much discussion that boys should be vaccinated as well.
The vaccine we are have in the United States is called Gardasil and its slogan is “One Less.” It became increasingly popular in 2006.