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Before the 19th century, circumcision existed only as a ritual for some cultures and religions. However, the belief that Jews were immune to masturbation because of their circumcision, led to the inclusion of circumcision among the plethora of genital surgeries.
The late 19th century and early 20th century saw the first opponents of medical circumcision, such as Herbert Snow, Elizabeth Cromwell, first female MD<ref>{{cite bookREFBook | last1 last= Blackwell | first1 first= Elizabeth | year=1884 | title = The human element in sex: Being a medical enquiry into the relation of sexual physiology to Christian morality | chapter = | volume = | editors = | publisher = | date = 1884 | year = 1884 | location = | pages = 35-6 | url = http://www.historyofcircumcision.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=7&id=72&Itemid=51 | accessdate editor= | edition= | volume= | chapter= | pages= yyyy35-mm-dd6 | location= | publisher= | isbn =
}}</ref>
and Ap Morgan Vance MD<ref>{{cite bookREFBook | last1 last= Vance | first1 first= Ap Morgan | title year= Surgical Fanaticism1900 | chapter title= Surgical Fanaticism | volume url= http://www.circumstitions.com/Chronology.html | editors editor= | publisher edition= | date volume= 1900 | year = 1900 | location chapter= | pages = | url location= http://www.circumstitions.com/Chronology.html | accessdate publisher= yyyy-mm-dd | isbn =
}}</ref>. But by changing the rationale for the procedure, circumcision survived the transformation from the reflex neurosis theory to the germ theory. What started as circumcision of children, became newborn circumcision during and after the World Wars.
In the UK, an article by Douglas Gairdner led the NHS to stop coverage of circumcisions in 1949.<ref>{{cite journal | title = The fate of the foreskin | journal = Br Med J | date = 1949-12-24 | first = Douglas ouglas | last = Gairdner | coauthors = | volume = 2 | issue = | pages = 1433-7 | id = | format = | url = http://www.cirp.org/library/general/gairdner/}}</ref>. Ironically, the prevalence of circumcision in the United States kept growing, with rare opposition.
Female genital mutilation never became prevalent, although its practice remained more or less hidden in different places as a punishment for masturbation. However, since the 1950s, medicine started targeting babies born with atypical genitalia or atypical reproductive organs (intersex) for non-consensual "normalization" surgeries and treatments, some of which have been compared to female genital mutilation. In general, these procedures are now referred to as Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM) by the intersex community.