Nuvaring and oral sex

September 23, 2008 4:29 PM

Is my partner ingesting any amount of estrogen from my Nuvaring?

Common sense says it's safe for a guy to give oral sex to a girl using Nuvaring, but I wonder...if one were using this method of birth control for years, and had the same partner and regular oral sex, would the partner end up ingesting just a bit more estrogen compared to pills or other methods? Is the hormone not very concentrated in vaginal secretions, meaning it's basically impossible to transmit via oral sex?

My paranoid thinking goes like this: they tell you not to dispose of the ring except in its foil pouch, because they don't want estrogen leaking into ground water, right? Then how is it safe to have oral contact across mucus membranes with it? Obviously it must be safe, but why?

posted by slow graffiti to health & fitness (5 comments total)

I would figure this way: the ring is in you 24x7 whereas your partner is exposed for some fraction of that time (the math left to the user). Plus his contact is indirect vs. your direct contact, so factor in a large reduction there.

For easy math let's say 7 hours cunnilingus per week plus a 20-fold reduction for indirect contact (personally I would guess even more than 20-fold), then he gets 480 times less hormone than you.

Probably nothing to worry about - males have some estrogens naturally to begin with.
posted by exogenous at 4:52 PM on September 23, 2008

7 hours a week?
God Damn!

That being said, I really would be shocked if he was ingesting any more estrogen than normal. Estrogen is a lipid, meaning that it isn't soluble in mucus. So unless he's licking on the ring, I don't think much is going to happen.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 5:13 PM on September 23, 2008

Go Ask Alice: Contraceptive ring and oral pleasuring: Will the hormones affect oral sex giver?

In short, don't sweat it.
posted by meta_eli at 5:20 PM on September 23, 2008

I have nothing to add here but: exogenous, I hope your partner appreciates you.
:)
posted by 8dot3 at 6:56 AM on September 24, 2008

"So unless he's licking on the ring"

Which would be quite impressive, really.
posted by toomuchpete at 9:14 AM on September 24, 2008