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There are a number of reasons that brought circumcision to prominence in America in the early 20th century.

# Circumcision as a cure for maladies. In 1870, Dr. Lewis Sayre of New York (and vice president of the newly-formed American Medical Association), examined a boy who was unable to straighten his legs and whose condition had so far defied regular treatment. Upon noting that the boys genitals were inflamed, Sayre hypothesized that chronic irritation of the boys foreskin had paralyzed his knees via reflex neurosis. Sayre circumcised the boy, and within a few weeks he recovered from his paralysis. After additional positive results, Sayre began to promote circumcision as an orthopedic remedy, and his prominence within the medical profession and the newly formed AMA allowed him to reach a wide audience. Over the next decades, the list of ailments reputed to be treatable through circumcision grew to include hernia, bladder infections, kidney stones, insomnia, rheumatism, epilepsy, asthma, erectile dysfunction, syphilis, insanity, and a handful of other syndromes.