Is Circumcision a Health Necessity or is it More like Male Genital Mutilation?

First I will admit that I don't have a penis or a kid and thus I never conducted much research on circumcision, prior to writing this article. I didn't know a great deal about foreskins, lack of foreskins and how that relates to health risks or health benefits.

I started out by asking the opinions of some male friends - and then I conducted some research from medical personnel.

1. Male Opinions/Thoughts/Feelings about Circumcision

While asking men to reveal their opinions about circumcision, I was surprised by the powerful amount of different strong feelings related to whether or not they thought circumcision was good, bad, or ugly - healthy or not.

I'm not sure why I was so surprised because my research indicated that, "It is one of the most commonly performed procedures in American hospitals, and except for abortion, it may be the most controversial".

Some men I spoke with thought it was a definite health benefit; others thought it has no health benefits at all, is very unnecessary, and is cruel.

One individual compared it to cosmetic surgery and another individual went so far as to call it male genital mutilation.

One father shared that his wife had been worried circumcision might harm their son; he was unsure, so he asked others. He said he found out that many young men are uncut these days. He said he also found out that the circumcision process involves strapping the baby to a board and not letting the parents in the room, and also that it takes a long time to heal. Based on what he heard, he and his wife decided not to have their child circumcised.

Other men were fans of the lower maintenance of keeping a circumcised penis clean and thought that the health benefits of circumcision involved decreasing the risk of testicular cancer, as well as substantially decreasing the risk of getting and spreading STDs.

Which of these opinions are true or false from an actual medical standpoint?

2. Medical Information about Circumcision

According to FamilyDoctor.org, "Deciding whether to have your newborn son circumcised may be difficult. You will need to consider both the benefits and the risks of circumcision. Other factors, such as your culture, religion and personal preference, will also affect your decision."

Even medical opinion on circumcision goes both ways - some doctors support it, some doctors oppose it; most doctors do leave it up to the individual parents to make the choice for their own child. In short, circumcision is not terribly risky or painful these days - but that doesn't mean that its benefits definitely outweigh its risks.

-Is the Process of Circumcision Overly Risky or Overly Painful?

It probably used to be quite painful in the past, but since the 1990s, most babies in U.S. Hospitals are anesthetized before being circumcised, so they do not feel much pain. For approximately every 1,500 circumcisions, there may be three complications, nearly all of which amount to a little unexpected bleeding or a treatable infection.

-What are the Health Benefits of Circumcision?

The various studies about Health Benefits of Circumcision have had conflicting results.

I think a Men's Health article phrased the most common results in a good way by stating, "The procedure has long been known to reduce the spread of a few rare, serious diseases, and to prevent a few annoying, uncomfortable ones."

To put it more specifically, the main health benefits of circumcision include decreasing the risk of urinary tract infections - during the first year of life (an uncircumcised baby boy has a 1 in 100 chance of getting a urinary tract infection during the first year of life, compared with a 1 in 1000 chance for a circumcised baby boy), and decreasing the risk of penile cancer in adult men (penile cancer is a rare but serious form of cancer).

It also decreases the risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Different kinds of sexually transmitted infections received between men and their female sex partners are somewhere between 30-50% less common for circumcised men as opposed to uncircumcised men. HIV could be as high as 60% less common for circumcised men, which certainly sounds like a significantly substantial reduced risk.

However, a man's own healthy sexual practices probably have more to do with sexually transmitted infection prevention than whether or not he is circumcised. Also, although genital hygiene may be somewhat easier for circumcised men, most men can be in charge of their own good hygiene and keeping the penis clean can most likely help prevent all of the sexually transmitted infections just as well as circumcision.

-Is Circumcision Necessary, Unnecessary or Up to the Individual?

The American Academy of Pediatrics says the benefits of circumcision are not significant enough to recommend circumcision as a routine procedure and that circumcision is not medically necessary. The American Academy of Family Physicians believes parents should discuss with their son's doctor the potential benefits and the risks involved when making their decision.

When asking men about their opinions on the matter, one of them suggested that he would have liked to have made the choice himself, instead of someone else (his parents) making it for him. I can certainly understand that and agree with it in concept.

In theory though, circumcision is best performed during the neonatal period. A baby's circumcision usually takes about 7-10 days to heal, but a teen or adult male's circumcision can take closer to six weeks to heal.

I think that anyone who is going to have a new boy and is unsure whether or not to have him circumcised should take plenty of time to think about it, research it, and talk to both friends and doctors in order to help them make what they think is the best choice for them and their son.

This should not just be some go with the flow sort of decision.

Research Sources:

-Various Individual Men

-Circumcision(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcision

-Male Circumcision: New Information About Health Benefits(From Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine)- http://archpedi.amaassn.org/cgi/content/full/164/1/104

-Circumcision (From FamilyDoctor.org) - http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/men/reproductive/042.html