One -- nay, everyone -- really has to wonder why the same, tired group of American/Australian/Canadian middle-aged researchers are on a lifelong crusade to find any obscure justification for circumcision. They never do evidence-based analyses (Does circ really make a difference to health outcomes where it's practiced?[no] Is it safe? [so-so] Have the UK, Oz, NZ and Canada seen a spike in UTIs, cancers or HIV since circ has fallen out of favor? [no, not at all] Has even one single study proven a net benefit to America from the roughly 80 million infant circumcisions it's carried out over the past 130 years? [sadly, no, and it's staggeringly cost-INeffective]).
Instead, it's always "Well, in a test-tube in Uganda it was seen that some bacteria that were once shown in an obscure Tasmanian study to be vaguely associated with certain types of infections usually only seen in Cypriot left-handed midgets (but theoretically possible in all American infants) could be isolated and grown in an anaerobic environment to create a host culture in which it is hypothesized that HIV could live. Or not. By attaching to and burrowing through human tissue. Or not. Thus, circumcision saves lives! We must restore funding to circumcision!"
While this has become rather tiresome, if not confusing, for American audiences, most of the developed world quite sensibly is having none of it.
Circumcision health benefit virtually nil, study finds
Little evidence that world's most common surgical procedure can prevent sexually transmitted infections, urinary tract infections and penile cancer
Globe and Mail Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010
While it is the most common surgical procedure in the world, there is virtually no demonstrable health benefit derived from circumcision of either newborns or adults, a new study concludes.
The research, published in Tuesdays edition of the Annals of Family Medicine, shows that, despite claims, there is little evidence that circumcision can prevent sexually transmitted infections, urinary tract infections and penile cancer. There are also risks to the surgery that, while rare, range from sexual dissatisfaction through to penile loss.
Patients who request circumcision in the belief that it bestows clinical benefits must be made aware of the lack of consensus and robust evidence, as well as the potential medical and psychosocial harms of the procedure.
The new study mentioned above is a thorough meta-analysis of the last couple of decades of published findings about circumcision.
