Hygiene: Difference between revisions

The word '''hygiene''' comes from Greek, and it means "the protection and promotion of health." It has been mis-understood to mean ''cleanliness''. Keeping the body clean is only part of what it takes to be healthful. In some cases, excessive washing can actually cause health problems.

Victorian doctors falsely believed that thinking immoral or impure thoughts could cause neurological disorders such as feeblemindedness or epilepsy. They also believed that [[masturbation]] would cause one to think immoral or impure thoughts that would cause brain damage. Therefore, the [[foreskin]] and masturbation were viewed as unhygenic. So when a Victorian doctor spoke of [[circumcision]] being hygienic, he meant mental health, not physical cleanliness.

Misinformation abounds regarding the hygiene of the [[intact]] [[penis]]. In the [[United States]], especially, doctors tend to be ignorant, misinformed, or simply uninformed concerning the hygienic care of [[intact]] men and boys, and this happens for a variety of reasons. As of  now, America is primarily a country where circumcision is [[United_States_of_America#Prevalence_of_circumcision| prevalent]], and thus intact male genitals are unfamiliar to many Americans. Many American medical doctors, are ignorant of the subject because they are themselves [[circumcised]], wives to circumcised men, and/or mothers to circumcised children. Additionally, care of the intact male genitals is rarely mentioned in medical school. The [[foreskin]] and the proper care for [[intact]] genitals tends to be absent in pediatric literature.<ref name="osborn1981">{{REFjournal

One of the most common justifications cited for non-therapeutic [[circumcision]] of a boy is that it is supposed to facilitate hygiene. However, according the "Circumcision Policy Statement" produced by the "Task Force on Circumcision" appointed by the [[American Academy of Pediatrics]], which was published in ''Pediatrics'' in 1999 and reaffirmed on September 1, 2005, "there is little evidence to affirm the association between circumcision status and optimal penile hygiene".<ref name="aap1999">{{REFjournal

}}</ref> The foreskin is self-cleaning, so no further cleaning is necessary. The first person to retract a boy's foreskin should be the boy himself.<ref>{{REFjournal

The information provided by supposed authorities regarding when the foreskin of a boy becomes retractable is usually wrong. The foreskin may be become retractable after a few years, but it usually does not. Thorvaldsen & Meyhoff (2005) conducted a survey of young men in [[Denmark]] where boys are preserved intact. They found that the average age of first foreskin retraction is 10.4 years.<ref name="thorvaldsen2005">{{REFjournal

By the onset of puberty, most, but not all boys, have a retractable foreskin. Boys with a retractable foreskin should retract and wash their foreskin when they bathe. Excessive washing and use of soap, shampoo, and body wash on the [[mucosa]] inside the foreskin should be avoided because it dries the oils from the [[mucosa]]l tissue.<ref>{{REFjournal

|DOI=10.1136/sti.69.5.400

}}</ref> Warm water is sufficient for cleaning, which should not be done to excess.