The surgical procedure of the removal of the foreskin covering the tip of the penis, also called circumcision, has been a common and rather widespread practice for decades. On the other hand, recently some new trends have manifested a different approach to the issue. Is an uncircumcised penis all that bad? Does circumcision really bring such benefits as people used to think about? More and more men are beginning to have some doubts in this regard.
A vivid illustration to that trend is, for example, a national survey of adult men regularly conducted over the past decades. According to the survey, during the seventies the number of newborn males that were circumcised reached a whopping 91% of the total. But as early as in the eighties the number significantly dropped to 83% among all newborn male persons.
Another evidence of falling popularity of circumcision is the striking data obtained from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample survey. This regular survey covers five to seven million of total inpatients of the USA hospitals and clinics. In the process of survey it was discovered that the share of circumcisions that was solidly nailed down at 61.1% in 1988, somehow decreased to as little as 48.3% 1997.
The Nationwide Hospital Discharge Survey revealed additional evidence to support the existence of the above-mentioned trend. The survey was arranged among 320,000 inpatients in 426 non-Federal hospitals in 2003. The figures, discovered by the inpatients survey, show indisputably clear tendency towards decrease of circumcision cases: in 1980 the circumcision rates were at 64.7%, the share dropped to 59% in 1990, in 1995 there was a rise to 64.1% and in 2003 the number was down to as low as 55.9%. It was also mentioned that on the whole, more and more American parents are perfectly satisfied to see their sons having an uncircumcised penis than the other way around.
The development of affairs with the dilemma of uncircumcised penis versus a circumcised one has prompted many to take a closer look at the issue of what actually are the main differences between the former and the latter.
So far, the main issues that lie behind the generally accepted advantages of a circumcision could be divided into three main groups. Firstly, it is believed that a person acquires better hygiene of his manhood thanks to penis circumcision because a circumcised penis can be cleaned better and is less prone to bad smell etc. Secondly, a person with circumcision is considered to be less prone to infectious by penile disorders like penile cancer, urinary tract infections, as well as diseases that are transmitted during sexual intercourse, for instance, HIV (the slaughterous virus that causes deadly AIDS) and HPV (also known as human papillomavirus, it causes cases of genital warts and, in most severe instances, can lead to cervical cancer).
At the same time, there are obvious disadvantages to the circumcision operation, among which the most common are as follows:
- The surgical procedure is always connected with risks. Many male persons find it horrifying even to imagine the lancet of a surgeon approaching their precious manhood jewel, to say nothing about actually undergoing the operation. There is no arguing, mistakes always happen even with most experienced surgeons. The possibility of excessive bleeding and infection cannot be counted out as well. Another reason is possibility that the incision of the foreskin is made mistakenly too short or too long. And something will prevent the wounds from healing in a regular way. Which is even worse, there are reported cases when the remnants of the cut out foreskin somehow reattached themselves to the glans (a medical term for the head of the penis). Alas! Here you got a case of another surgery.
- The surgical procedure of circumcision is rather painful. There is no denial to this fact. It really hurts a lot. In fact a circumcision is hardly possible without ample dosage of anesthesia to numb the sensations of the nerves during surgery.
- The effect of circumcision is a permanent one. After the circumcision procedure your manhood is to remain like that to the end of your days. But it does not work for 100% of cases and sometimes what is gone is gone forever.
- Rather significant expenses on the surgery. Whether you take it or leave it, but the fact remains the fact: male circumcision has never been done for gratis. What is even worse, the insurance companies very often dismiss the claims to cover the funds spent on circumcision surgery.
Finally, we have come to the key question of circumcision versus retaining an uncircumcised penis. The truth is that there are no clear proofs of the actual benefits of circumcision. Of course, if it is done from some religious reasons, because of family traditions or out of medical necessities etc, it would be a completely different story.
No wonder, the medical associations of the USA, UK and Canada seem to have come to the mutual agreement as far as this important question is concerned. According to members of the British Medical Association, it is still being argued if there exist any overall beneficial effects of circumcision. It has not been decided yet unambiguously, if this procedure is useful, neutral or harmful. All the considerations related to circumcision that you can find in the medical literature on the health, including sexual health, are quite contradictory or clearly biased.