An HIV transmission question

D_Miranda_Wrights

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Now here's a question - and this goes to the cut v uncut debate which I really don't mean to stir but... Can the virus be more easily transmitted through the more porous foreskin tissue versus the keratinized tissue of a cut cock?

Another thing that's hard to test. We're reasonably sure the explanation is Langerhans cells, because we understand how those cells work and how HIV works. However, keratin would not be a matter of observable cellular behavior, but rather a matter of cellular layers forming a 'crusty' barrier that could be hard for the virus to pass through. Explaining why this is tough to test requires cellular biology information no one here probably cares about. Suffice to say that this is not something easily inferred without clinical testing, and that clinical testing would be tough because there's no way to control purely for "keratinization."

However, I doubt it. Keratin is a fibrous protein. HIV isn't a small bug, but it's not that small. If keratin were thick enough to be a meaningful barrier against HIV, my intuition is that the effect on sexual pleasure would be so great that a lot more circumcised men would be protesting.
 

erratic

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Now here's a question - and this goes to the cut v uncut debate which I really don't mean to stir but... Can the virus be more easily transmitted through the more porous foreskin tissue versus the keratinized tissue of a cut cock?

Haha, if you didn't want to stir it up why'd you ask it? ;)

There are lots of threads about this, and there's lots of competing research that doesn't add up logically - it might be a slight factor for heterosexual men, but it's not at all for queer tops.

If anyone out there thinks it's going to save them from HIV, just ask one of the many, many circumcised men who's positive what he thinks.

Edit: I just thought...if it really made a difference wouldn't France be an endemic nation?

/kidding
 
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