Changes

* [[HIV ]] / AIDS: in the recent past, the argument that circumcision could help to contain the spread of [[HIV ]] has been stated numerous times.

*:Secondly, the assumed protection would only affect healthy men who have intercourse with an infected woman. An infected man can infect a women by transmission of his bodily fluids, so that his circumcision status is irrelevant. Therefore, the use of condoms remains vital in containing the spread of [[HIV]], which in return renders circumcision unnecessary

}}</ref>, which investigated the effectiveness of circumcision as a means of reducing the spread of [[HIV ]] from infected women to heterosexual men in African high risk areas, have been repeatedly subjected to strong criticism. Both studies were ended prematurely, which distorted the results. The men who had been circumcised for the study had to stay sexually inactive during the wound healing, which gave the intact control group more relative opportunity to become infected. These African randomized clinical trials have been demonstrated to have very serious methodological and statistical errors that distort the results in favor of circumcision.<ref name="boyle-hill2011">{{BoyleGJ HillG 2011}}</ref>

The fact that the USA has both the highest rate of circumcised males in the western world, as well as the highest [[HIV ]] infection rate, makes the studies look dubious. Besides that, several other studies concluded that circumcision does not have a significant impact on the risk of infection with [[HIV]].<ref>{{REFjournal

The benefit of easier cleaning must be balanced against the risk of promoting serious infections - among others [[HIV ]] - during the operation. In parts of Africa, several dozen of one tribe's boys die each year as a result of their circumcision.

Newborn circumcision remains an area of controversy. Social, cultural, aesthetic and religious pressures form the most common reasons for non-therapeutic circumcision. Although penile cancer and UTIs are reduced compared with uncircumcised males, the incidence of such illness is so low that circumcision cannot be justified as prophylaxis. The role of the foreskin in [[HIV ]] transmission in developed countries is unclear, and safe sexual practice remains the cornerstone of prevention. There remains a lack of knowledge regarding what constitutes the normal foreskin both among parents and among primary care providers. This lack of knowledge results in a burden of costs to our health care system in the form of unnecessary urological referrals, expansion of wait times and circumcisions. Routine circumcision of all infants is not justified from a health or cost-benefit perspective.<ref>{{REFjournal