I won't be circing and don't believe there is a medical reason to. I work in clinical trials for a living and reading that article caused me to ask tons of questions about the populations these studies were conducted in, and how could they apply to me. Without going into too much detail (although I am sure I will), I wouldn't trust a study to apply to me unless the population were in American males (preferable all white, because that is what I am), 50% circed and 50% not, also stratified equally in both groups between homosexual and heterosexual, socioeconomic status and of a younger age. The reason for this is mainly cultural, the cultural standards for personal care and sexual activity are very different in different countries/backgrounds/times - we also have a lot more available to us now than we did 50 years ago in terms of protection/education/risk.
Just because these studies show a correlation, does not mean they show a cause. What about the culture of the subjects? The first hole I saw was that most of these studies were conducted in Africa, where there is a huge AIDS epidemic. Is there one here? No. Why? Because our culture is one that has increased awareness, education, protection and a different sexual culture. If the same amount of men were exposed to an STD, but the circumcised ones tended to have/pass the infection more often, why do you think that is? Because the foreskin is retaining the disease longer, right? Because we know circed men can carry/pass diseases too. OK, well bring that to a culture who has running water in every home, a culture of showering on a daily basis, and availability of STD education and protection, then do this study. I'll bet you don't see the same results. Sure, the foreskin is harboring disease if you are exposing yourself to it and not taking care to wash thoroughly, you could apply that to the female labia as well. But our culture doesn't have the same factors in terms of health that are also negatively affecting the spread of disease. When you look at the numbers in the US, there is a slight disparity across race, which can also indicate different cultural and/or socioeconomic norms.
Anyway, that is my top-line opinion of this article. I don't think the main studies take enough into account for it to apply to us. The US data is thin, and doesn't seem very well distributed - the sample size doesn't give us a good comparison, nor does it take into account other important factors for preventing the spread of disease. I think this issue is very similar to the HPV vax in girls. Exposure is #1, you can prevent (or at least minimize) that, and a circ or vax won't guarantee protection. Education and personal care are of utmost importance to keep yourself healthy in millions of ways - just think of how far we have come since hand washing became the norm - that to me is more important. I think our culture has gotten used to circing and keep looking for reasons to continue doing it, none of which I personally see holding much water.
If people have strong beliefs based on religion or culture to circ, that is totally different, but medically, I haven't seen anything to convince me that it is necessary.
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