Michael Douglas shared response to finding out he had throat cancer caused by oral sex
Most people don't realise there could be life-threatening consequences to participating in oral sex, and that originally included Hollywood legend Michael Douglas.
A lot of people presumed that the 81-year-old's throat cancer might have been related to his former affinity for smoking and drinking, but he later revealed that cunnilingus was the likely cause.
He was diagnosed with stage four squamous cell carcinoma oral cancer back in 2010, which he claimed spawned from him contracting human papillomavirus (HPV).
"Without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV (human papillomavirus), which actually comes about from cunnilingus," Douglas told The Guardian in 2013.
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He admitted that his treatment - which involved a 'sh*t-pot of chemo and radiation' - was a 'rough ride' and 'made him very weak', but ultimately saved his life.
The Fatal Attraction star, who has been married to Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones since 2000, explained he came clean about the intimate source of his terrifying illness to raise awareness.
A year after making the announcement, he was invited to an International Federation of Head and Neck Oncologic Societies (IFHNOS) event in New York as the guest of honour.
There, he told thousands of medical boffins attending the global oncology conference about his shock diagnosis, how he was 'misdiagnosed' and his incredible comeback.
"It all started out pretty innocently with a soreness of my gum behind my last molar," Douglas said. "And being pretty diligent about my health, I went to see my general practitioner, who thought I had an infection and so was prescribing antibiotics, which, being a good patient, I took.
"And then I saw an ear, nose, and throat specialist, and then I saw a periodontist."
The Oscar-winner said he suspected something more sinister might be going on after the 'supposed infection hadn't gone away after a number of months and multiple rounds of treatment'.
Douglas eventually received the devastating diagnosis from a doctor in Canada, as he joked: "We had one of those 'uh, oh' moments - which is never a good thing to hear from your plumber or mechanic, but is a really bad thing to hear from your doctor.
"When I learned that I had stage IV cancer, I’m pretty sure that my eyes rolled into the back of my head and from what little I knew, this wasn’t good, and I think that was probably the scariest moment I faced."
The father-of-three heaped praise on his medical team who aided his recovery, while admitting the treatment he underwent was no walk in the park.
He continued: "I went through 7 weeks of radiation and chemotherapy, which somehow seemed very accurately mapped to the seven cycles of hell, and each week I sank a little lower and I felt a lot worse.
"I had been given a choice of having a feeding tube put in my stomach, which would have had consequences for swallowing and taste later on or refusing that and dealing with that as best I could, which is what I did. And I did lose 40 pounds as a result. But I had been prepared for all that."
Thankfully, doctors later gave Douglas the all clear from throat cancer - and he subsequently become the poster boy for raising awareness of the consequences that HPV can have.
Symptoms of oral HPV
It is important that you see a doctor if you notice these symptoms persisting, or if they are starting to worry you:
- Long-lasting sore throat
- Hoarseness
- Ear aches
- Swollen lymph nodes
- Pain when swallowing
- Unexplained weight loss
Some people have no symptoms, according to the US Centres For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), though serious cases of HPV can cause warts or cancer.
Why are men more likely to be diagnosed with HPV oral cancers than women?
Around two in three new HPV-related head and neck cancer cases in the UK are in men.
Karis Betts, a cancer epidemiologist from Cancer Research UK, previously told LADbible that 'it can take decades' for HPV to show up.
On why men often face higher rates of HPV cancers, the expert said: “There are studies that look at risk for different people. Straight women who have sex with men have a higher risk than women who have sex exclusively with women. And men who have sex with men have higher risk than straight men.
“The HPV vaccine is also available up to age 40 for men who have sex with men because the risk is slightly higher. Men have higher rates of head and neck cancers than women. This kind of historically links to other risk factors as well.
“If you look a few decades ago, there were really high rates of smoking in men, high rates of alcohol, and they’ve consistently been higher than women.
“Men have higher rates of head and neck cancers, particularly in the mouth and throat, and these cancers are also caused by other things that are more prevalent in men.”
She stressed that 'smoking and alcohol are going to be much bigger drivers of head and neck cancers than HPV'.
How to avoid HPV-related throat cancer
HPV spreads through close skin-to-skin contact, including vaginal, anal and oral sex, touching, and sharing sex toys. While condoms can help, 'they’re not 100 percent effective'.
“The big kind of preventable measures against HPV in the population are vaccination and cervical screening,” Betts said.
“Vaccines kind of work best, and that's why they work best at that school age, because it's before people have had any exposure to the virus.
“If people are worried about their cancer risk, the best things that they can do, especially for head and neck cancer, is to not smoke, or stop smoking, and reduce their alcohol intake.
“Things like that will have a much bigger benefit on your cancer risk than kind of worrying about an HPV infection.”
She stressed that 'the advice isn’t going to be stop having sex', adding: "People should live and enjoy their lives, and sex is part of that."
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week.
Topics: Celebrity, Health, Cancer, Sex and Relationships
Olivia Burke