Oral sex to blame for rise in throat cancer in New Zealand

Oral sex has been blamed for throat cancer. Photo / Getty

Throat cancer is on the rise in New Zealand and it appears oral sex is to blame.

New data from the New Zealand Cancer Registry shows that the number of New Zealand men diagnosed with cancer has nearly doubled in the last 25 years.

There were more than 100 cases of throat cancer diagnosed in 2013 alone (96 of those were men, 26 were women).

"We're seeing younger professionals who are otherwise healthy (getting cancer)," Dr Julian White told Fairfax.

Oral sex carries the risk of contracting human papillovirus, a common sexually transmitted infection (STI) that has been shown to cause cancer.

"The three main risk factors are: male gender, early age of first sexual encounter, and increased number of sexual partners - in particular, oral sex partners," he added.

Michael Douglas said his throat cancer was caused by oral sex. Photo / Getty

"The mode of transmission is thought to be oral sex... and HPV infection of the genitals area is more common in women than in men."

The link between throat cancer and oral sex first came into the spotlight in 2011 when actor Michael Douglas announced he had throat cancer for that reason.

To try to tackle this issue, a new HPV vaccine is now being offered for free to young New Zealanders.