The CDC is pondering whether to recommend universal circumcisions for boys in America as a way to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS. It has been shown that circumcised men are at lower risk (but not necessarily gay men) of contracting HIV than men who still have their foreskin.
Obviously this would be a controversial recommendation as the exact benefits of circumcision are still debated. Many also think it's wrong to surgically remove a natural part of the body without consent of the person. I personally think circumcisions are overrated, but my opinion isn't really based on health-related issues.
Also, shouldn't curbing HIV be about safe sex and not a false sense of security in being circumcised? What do you guys think?
– Andy
If you’re having safe sex, then the foreskin has nothing to do with it. If you wash your penis right after sex, then your chances decrease as well. I think that the CDC needs to work on sexual education, instead of allowing abstinence only bullshit.
How exactly does having a foreskin result in a higher risk of contracting HIV/AIDS?
What Mike said: condom use is significantly more important than condom use when it comes to HIV transmission.
Recommending circumcisions for everyone is unlikely to help as much as increasing the prevalence of condom usage.
I think you’re right in saying that circumcision would lead to a false sense of security. What they’re trying to do may in fact have the adverse effect, because those men think they have less of a chance of getting HIV, they may be less likely to practice safer sex and actually put themselves more in harms way in terms of STI’s.
I’m uncircumsized, and wouldn’t have it any other way. I have safe sex and protect myself. Spherical Time is right with his comment, those men would be less apt to practice safe sex. Plus, I think circumcision is an atrocity, and unfair, as those boys don’t have the choice.
Let’s call circumcision what it really is – ritual genital mutilation. It’s a barbaric religious practice that should have been banned centuries ago.
I’m generally opposed to medically unnecessary procedures on someone who can’t consent BUT…
The research does seem to support the logic behind circumcision reducing STI-transmissions. The foreskin is a thin membrane more easily penetrated by microbes than other types of skin. Couple that with the fact that it envelops the penis trapping those microbes against this membrane, and you can see the increased risk.
I also highly doubt that it will discourage circumcised men from practicing safe sex. I am cut, and I’ve never once thought “well since I don’t have a foreskin, I can just skip the condom.” And I am aware of these studies, which I’m sure most people aren’t.
If you really want to reduce HIV transmissions, you should fight the stronghold faith-oriented persons and groups have in policy making. After all, they’re the source of opposition to sex education and condom distribution, and we all know the religious history of circumcision.
rubbish
If kids are circumcised before they know about it, how will that lead to a false sense of security? Who would want to get circumcised when they would know about it? (ouch!) Just for the false sense of security?
And keep in mind… it’s not SAFE sex, it’s SAFER sex. You’re always at risk if you do something risky. Minimize, not eliminate.
Instead of supposing or assuming, someone needs to do a correlational research study comparing, say, the Jewish (circumcized group)population with another ethnic demographic group that is mostly an uncircumcized population (Would that be Italians, maybe?). Or they could even use the medical records of a balanced large group of cut & uncut men from various locations to make a good comparison.
Too many guys are already biased when it cums (pun intended) to the cut or uncut penis theory.
Next time you do a story on this subject may we please see a picture of a large, thick, flaccid, uncut cock. Woof!
Gov’t should keep their hands off the penis’. It’s up to the parents.
it’s funny that they say circumcision is helpful only to heterosexuals…so no matter what, the homos are doomed by god? stupid article
The study about heterosexual benefits of circumcision was conducted in Africa, the study about homosexual benefits was done in US. Africans are notorious for having sex with both genders, calling themselves straight, and genital mutilations on both men and women. I’d always believe a study done in US where it found out theres really no connection of circumcision and HIV
Read more http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7656229.stm
Personally, I would have my children circumcised based on the fact that I am. Sure there’s nothing wrong with uncircumcised and it’s ethically wrong to force my choice on my children, but the fact is I grew up so uninformed about the differences between cut and uncut. All I learned in health class was that cut and uncut penises look a little different when flaccid, but work and feel the same. Nothing about how it’s recommended to clean out underneath the foreskin when shower if uncut or how many surgical complications can arise after a circumcision. I just last year found out I have a skin bridge when some guy I had sex with asked me what it was and I couldn’t tell him at the time. So I may be ethically wrong by forcing circumcisions on my boys but with as little information there is out there on the risks, complications, and differences between cut and uncut, I would feel better having my boys cut so if a problem would arise I would at least have my personal experience to rely on.
@Lost: I am sorry that you grew up so uneducated about the difference of cut and uncut penises. But that doesn’t give you the right the force circumcision on your children just because you are. It is cruel to the child as they do not use anesthesia. Also, you are cutting 95% of the sensation away from the penis.
I am cut and if I had the choice, I would choose to be uncut. The skin was put there for a reason and not for us to mess with.
Just because YOU grew up uninformed about circumcision, doesn’t mean your kids would have to. You could teach them the difference and what it would take to keep it clean. Don’t punish your kids just becuase you weren’t properly educated on something. You have the knowledge and power know to teach them.
Rubbish – absolute rubbish.
You pro-circumcision people realize you’re talking about chopping part of your child’s dick off, right? You also know that they don’t anesthetize babies for circumcision, right? Like – at all. Think about how it’d make you feel if you were strapped to a table, wide awake, while someone took a scalpel to your dick and started sawing away. Seriously – visualize someone coming at your penis with a razor blade and stabbing it into the skin, and then cutting at it until part of your dick is removed and tossed in a waste bin. Can you imagine that kind of pain? Internalize it for a moment. Does it hurt yet? If you won’t even imagine doing it to yourself (again), where do you get off *actually* doing it to your kid?
Stop advocating this barbaric nonsense. Teach your kids safer sex practices, they’re still going to catch HIV if they’re not using a condom either way. If, at some later point in life, your kid decides to chop it off that’s up to them, but at least then they’ll know what they’re doing, and what they’ll be missing out on.
stop trying to keep doctors rich by perpetuating this barbaric practice – the rest of the world has pretty much stopped for medical reasons and we should do the same – embrace your foreskins men and get over it – this is the way God made us and I’m proud of it