CDC Considers Counseling Males Of All Ages On Circumcision

Submitted by Mastodon on Fri, 2014-12-26 12:16

Article here. Excerpt:

'Draft federal recommendations don't usually raise eyebrows, but this one certainly will — that males of all ages, including teenage boys, should be counseled on the health benefits of circumcision.
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But the pediatricians' focus was on parents considering infant circumcision. The CDC's proposal opens the door to circumcision becoming a topic of conversation any time an uncircumcised male goes to a medical appointment.

Groups opposed to circumcision, such as Intact America, say the health benefits of circumcision in the U.S. remain unproven, and that the CDC is relying too heavily on studies done in Africa that may not be relevant here. The procedure, which removes the foreskin, has been criticized because infants can't consent to it.
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The CDC's draft recommendation, which is open for public comment for 45 days, suggests that teenage boys be counseled along with their parents on the option, which presumably would give boys the option to say yea or nay.
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"I want to emphasize that it's a voluntary procedure, and really requires conversation between the doctor and the patient," says Dr. Eugene McCray, director of the division of AIDS prevention at the CDC. "Our role is to insure that physicians have the information that they can then use to counsel or inform patients about the risk and benefits."..."It's really important to emphasize that circumcision doesn't protect somebody from contracting any STD," Diekema says. "It simply reduces risk." In other words, sexually active men still need to use condoms or other methods if they want to avoid exposure to HIV and other STDs.'

IA has a page here that will help you in submitting a comment to the CDC regarding this topic.

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Circumcision is getting official CDC endorsement, and it's seriously controversial

"While the issue of circumcision is an oft-debated one, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are recommending it for teenage boys. According to The New York Times, the CDC is proposing new recommendations for new parents and uncircumcised teenagers, which would include circumcision counseling that outlines the benefits of the procedure. The agency's studies show that circumcision helps prevent HIV and STD contraction in sexually active men, which led to these proposed recommendation guidelines.

The practice of circumcision has come under fire despite these supposed benefits, with many opposers describing infant circumcision as genital mutilation. Likewise, the legitimacy of the CDC studies has been called into question. "Critics who oppose circumcision pointed out that the randomized clinical trials on which the CDC is basing its recommendations were done in sub-Saharan Africa, where heterosexual transmission of HIV is far more common than in the United States," reports The New York Times. The issue is also passionately debated on web forums like Reddit, where many "cut" and "uncut" men grapple with pros and cons of the procedure."

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Submitted by Matt on Sat, 2014-12-27 09:31