Zimbabwe: Circumcision helps stem cancer: Khupe

It's always something. Now, it's get circumcised to be of benefit to women. Funny, people rarely suggest that if women get parts of their genitals cut off, it'll save men from getting HIV, etc. Not that it'd matter anyway since...allow me to repeat myself yet again:

###### Circumcision.Has.No.Effect.At.All.On.The.Transmission.Of.STDs ######

UNLESS it's from circumciser to infant. Then, yes, it does.

I have a background in biology and I believe circumcision does effect the spread of some STD's. Viruses and bacteria are very different especially how they travel within the body. Viruses are extremely specialized and generally live within the cells, while bacteria generally live within inter cellular tissue. For bacteria to travel from one person to another, they just need the right living condition, men and women are somewhat opposites in this regard (men are "outies" while women are "innies") often their opposite conditions make it difficult for some bacteria to transfer from men and women during P>V sex. However, viruses such as HIV and HPV are totally different, they only need to come in contact with tissue of the same cell wall structure (viruses infiltrate the cell wall and take over the nucleus). The cellular structure of male foreskin and female genital tissue is quite similar.

But enough with the biology lesson.....

When discussing infant circumcision, the points I bring up is that STD are a sexually active adult's concern. It is up to an adult to decide as to what type of risk/benefit they want. For most men the slight STD prevention circumcision provides may not be worth it, especially when there are other options such as condoms.

Also removing female tissue would also likely hinder the spread of STD's , however there is not a sample group of circumcised females to collect any data and no one seems interested in implmenting female circumcision.

(edited a sentence for clarification)

I think it is true that circumcision can stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

But there is another, more efficient way.

I refused to have my son cut (though I was). Since he was four years old, I made sure to teach him how to clean himself. I held his penis, pulled back the skin. He would breath heavy when that happened... like it was kind of painful, but fun: he would almost scream, but then he would giggle. He was particulary frightened when the head of his penis finally popped out.

Now he does it to himself. I told him to enjoy his penis.

So that other way? Teach fathers to teach their sons to clean and enjoy their penis.

It would probably be less expensive then the first method.

I heard that a good way to avoid foreskin injury is not to retract your son at all. The only one who should retract it is the owner. This is due to the foreskin being fused to the head until a certain age. An overwhelming majority of foreskin problems are due to forced retraction.

Normlly, you are right. I should have been more clear... I am sorry.

I made sure to get the advice of his doctor. I asked the doctor to step me through the process. He told me to do it very slowly and over the course of a long time. And that the real purpose was to teach him how to do it.

We practiced... my son giggled... and the entire retraction process took us about two years. It was not every day. It was more like once every few weeks.

During that time, we laughed and touched. And now he is on his own.