The Best websites for medical info on circumcism

[dmpmercury]

My friend has an OB who is actually a decent one as far as natural birth goes and is willing to look at research. Right now he performs circumcism and hasn't thought of the medical reasons not to and cited the risk of penile cancer as one reason for doing it. He willing to look at reasearch and would consider stopping performing them. I want to only send the best sites that are researched properly that shows the effects of circumcism (drying of glands, cutting out thousands of nerve endings, the lubrication it provides, callousing that comes from being exposed to air, the gentle gliding action it provides etc) Since this will be for a doctor it has to be good research and have good sound reasons why it should not be performed. Thanks.

[Quirky]

www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org

www.cirp.org (refer him especially to the BJU papers by Taylor et al.)

www.nocirc.org

[glongley]

The starting point is to educate him about the anatomy and functions of the foreskin. Most doctors are taught very little about this, and are left with the impression that the foreskin is an expendable, unimportant part of the body. Once they start to learn that it is a unique, complex, specialized part of the body with multiple protective and sexual functions, they may start weighing the acceptability of circumcision and the ethical rights of the child in a different way. Here are some key resources about foreskin anatomy and function from the medical literature:

http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/taylor/
http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/cold-taylor/
http://www.nocirc.org/touch-test/bju_6685.pdf

A video on the anatomy and function of the foreskin:
http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcisi...o/prepuce.html

A summary article of decades of literature of what is known about the anatomy and function of the foreskin:
http://www.coloradonocirc.org/files/...Physiology.pdf

The other big piece that is probably missing from his medical education, is the ethics of infant circumcision. Circumcision is just presented as "something health professionals do" and "the parents' choice." But when carefully analyzed, circumcision fails the test of any principle of medical ethics or human rights. This has almost certainly never been brought to his attention. Doctors Opposing Circumcision has fully documented the ethical problems of infant circumcision here:
http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcisi...hicsReport.pdf
http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcisi...ghtsReport.pdf

There are several Genital Integrity Position Statements that lay out a fully documented case for not circumcising baby boys, both from the scientific and ethical point of view. He may get the most out of reading one or the other of these first, and then going to some of the above more specific references.
http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcisi...yStatement.pdf
http://www.icgi.org/Downloads/ICGIoverview.pdf

The best overall sites for looking at the literature that supports not circumcising are:

The Circumcision Information and Resource Pages http://www.cirp.org
This award-winning site is a comprehensive compilation of a huge amount of the medical literature about circumcision and the foreskin, organized by literature review articles on a wide range of subtopics. Listed as a resource site by the British Medical Journal.

Circumcision Information - Australia http://www.circinfo.org
Well-written site from Australia, covers all issues in a very rational, and well-documented way. Co-written by an Australian pediatrician.

Thank you for educating this fellow. Hopefully he will have an open mind.

Gillian

[PlainandTall]

http://www.cirp.org/library/statements/sask2002/

I love this memo from a Canadian medical society... it says it all so clearly.

[beru]

Does someone have the recent Dutch statement on Circumcision? It is great. A search of this message board may find it. Also, There is an old memo from the American Cancer Society to the American Academy of Pediatrics stating that circumcision should not be recommended as a cancer preventative. This memo may be on nocirc's website. If no one else can think of where these are located off the top of their heads, I will do a search later.

I think educating him about the physiology of the foreskin is absolutely the first step. The prepuce video presentation at doctors opposing circumcision is great.

[glongley]

Originally Posted by beru

Does someone have the recent Dutch statement on Circumcision? It is great. A search of this message board may find it. Also, There is an old memo from the American Cancer Society to the American Academy of Pediatrics stating that circumcision should not be recommended as a cancer preventative.

Here's the new statement from the Royal Dutch Medical Association which is unequivocal that there is no medical reasons for circumcising boys, and that there are multiple ethical problems. They even say it should probably be made illegal.
http://circumstitions.com/Docs/KNMG-policy.pdf

Also there is a summary of the key points of the Dutch policy here:
http://circumstitions.com/news/news37.html#dutch-policy

The American Cancer Society memo is indeed old, so I would not use that one on him, myself. If you go to the ACS website, they generally take the view that routine male circumcision is not necessary for prevention of cancer in the US, but they have weasled being "uncircumcised" into their lists of risk factors of certain genital cancers. There are of course arguments against this stance, but you shouldn't have to fight each medical rationales blow by blow. The point is that the potential benefits do not clearly outweigh the risks, that there are less invasive and more effective ways to prevent any disease circumcision might be purported to prevent, and babies are not at risk for most of the diseases circumcision is said to prevent (e.g. STDs) so it can be left as a decision for the boy when he is old enough to decide for himself.

Gillian

Gillian

[~Adorkable~]

To me that Dutch study is the best one to start with, i have now shown it to a few medical trained folks including my husband and it really went over well. It is written and presented like a professional medical journal is expected to be. While the DOC site has great info, they need a new webdesigner badly, it shouldn't matter but I think they look less professional than I'm sure they are.

The bonus if the Dutch one is that as a well formatted PDF it can be printed out really nice and passed around and kept in a doctors office!

[~Adorkable~]

I also really like the concise info that was given at the hearing for the MA MGM Bill, the text of which can be read here. There is some weight surounding it as these were folks testifying.

http://www.mgmbill.org/hearing.htm

[MyBoysBlue]

This is a great link from the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) very detailed.

Neonatal circumcision revisited
http://www.cps.ca/english/statements/FN/fn96-01.htm