circumcision news

[mellowtigger]

It's been known for a while now that circumcision reduces rates of HIV infection in men. It has something to do (so the thinking goes) with the loss of softer tissue which is an easier route of transmission for the virus. What caught my interest, though, was this BBC report that a new study also says there is no detrimental effect on enjoyment of the sexual experience.

That result seems profoundly counter-intuitive to me.  I found the abstract for the article, but I can't afford access to read the actual study itself. I'd like to know more detail about the kind of experiences they were asking about. Especially since their results seems to contradict other information about loss of sensitivity and even measurable loss of satisfaction in 20% of men circumcised after age 20.   All that in addition to an understanding of circumcision as a painful process that amounts to genital mutilation.

This "oh, it doesn't affect sex at all" conclusion seems more like wishful graham cracker puritanical thinking to me.  Call me skeptical.

Comments

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

I would tend to agree with your last remark - though I'd perhaps even take it a bit further.

The biggest problem - as I understand it - with HIV transmission related to uncircumcised men is in impoverished parts of the world where condoms are unavailable, or there's significant cultural resistance to their use. The paranoid part of me is thinking that this anomalous "finding" is an attempt to pave a path to getting a lot of those men circumcised without a lot of hue and cry over it.

[dangerdhotrod.livejournal.com]

i think sex is so much in the mind that it probably doesn't matter that much what your equipment is like. but i still don't quite get where it circumcision came from. it's a bit weird eh?

[mellowtigger]

Yeah, the brain is definitely the most important sex organ. :) I can understand circumcision for religious reasons, but the health benefits (HIV, cancer) seem way overstated for a process that costs a limited supply of ever-so-pleasant nerve endings.