CDC: Circumcision Benefits Outweigh Risks

[FunkyLeprechaun]

263. And they're usually laughed out of the room

Regarding your last sentence, did you even read the literature where some, if not most, European countries have at least a 10% circumcision rate in each country and a much much lower incident of HIV and STD rates?

The number of AIDS cases per 100,000 has continued to decline in Western Europe with the number stabilising in Central Europe. This is largely a result of the widespread availability of antiretroviral drugs in these regions. In Eastern Europe, the number of AIDS cases has been rising since 2009. - See more at: http://www.avert.org/european-hiv-aids-statistics.htm#sthash.4l2LnrQq.dpuf

Caveat, I live in the UK and it's one of the countries with less than 20% of the population circumcised (it's at 9% of the population circumcised) and a much lower incident of HIV than the US. It's beneficial to read those articles in terms of your arguments for circumcision because with those articles included the following doesn't make any sense at all-

1) Circumcisions prevent STDs/HIV- if this was true, why do populations of certain countries of Europe, with a very small circumcised population, not have higher HIV rates than the US? This part of the argument is baffling to me because this information is very very easy to look up and refute the AAP/CDC's argument. Even the European doctors' response to the AAP's position is confused by the AAP's stance- http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/03/12/peds.2012-2896.full.pdf

2) Circumcisions prevent UTIs- my father is uncircumcised (I changed my language from earlier because "intact" was an offensive term) and he's 71 and has had no UTIs and my husband is uncircumcised and he's 34 and has had no UTIs. I have had UTIs (I'm female) and I keep wondering why males shouldn't get the same antibiotics as I do and usually my UTI clears up after a week. The rest of my family, bar my brother in law and my nephew, are all uncircumcised and, excluding the females, the males (19 males in all) have had no UTI problems and we are very open about these things (I'm an American-born woman of Irish parents). It doesn't make any sense to me to get antibiotics as a female and in the US, a male getting a UTI gets circumcised instead of being prescribed antibiotics.

3) Circumcision preventing HPV- Here's one thing about HPV- it's pretty much the common cold of the STD world. Lots and lots of men and women are infected with HPV without showing symptoms, either circumcised/uncircumcised or sexually voracious/choose not to have sex. Men and women have had HPV at one point or another in their lives and can even carry different strains of HPV. People can get infected with HPV by shaking hands with someone who has touched their genitals- it's the kind of STD that can be transmitted without being sexually active. It usually clears on its own with or without treatment but it's good to take cautions (regular pap smears and vaccines for example) as it is one of the causes of cervical cancer.

I have had suspected HPV (mild dysplasia) and I got it before I had any type of sexual activity (which is why it's suspected) and I got a pap smear at the age of 20 and they spotted abnormal cells in my cervix. They lasered off my abnormal cells and gave me antibiotics and my suspected HPV had completely cleared. I have, since then, had pap smears as a precaution and they have always been clear (I'm now 33). To me, it's laughable that it's believed that circumcision can prevent HPV when it's nearly impossible to be prevented without the vaccine.