GirlWritesWhat: I know you are okay with your circumcision, but...

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There is very strong evidence that infancy is the best time for circumcision. Published in Australia (where circumcision is not the norm) last month.

Quote:

Infancy presents a “window of opportunity” for circumcision. It is associated with substantially lower costs, lower risk of complications when performed by an experienced operator in a clinical or other appropriate setting, and lower lifetime risk of a variety of adverse conditions and infections [186]. The health benefits include protection against urinary tract infection and thus permanent damage to the still-developing kidney, reduced likelihood of penile inflammation, and elimination of risk of phimosis, which impedes micturition and results in difficult and painful erections in adolescence and adulthood. It also means tearing of the fragile foreskin and frenulum is avoided. Circumcision means an assurance of greatly reduced risk of penile cancer later in life, no smegma, better hygiene, and lower risk of various STIs. These not only include HIV that is an epidemic in some locations, but also oncogenic HPVs and genital herpes that are an epidemic worldwide. In the future female sexual partners of males, infant MC means they too will be at reduced risk of STIs and cervical cancer.

Some of the arguments against waiting until later to circumcise are:

•Protection against UTIs and damage to the fragile pediatric kidney is lost. •Infant MC eliminates risk of phimosis and balanitis in childhood and after puberty. •If circumcision is performed after boys become sexually active benefits associated with STI prevention are delayed. •The risk of complications is higher for later circumcisions. •The cost (to the individual or the public purse) is much higher, and often unaffordable, for later circumcision. •Educational resources for boys to make an informed decision are quite limited. •Large-scale adolescent circumcision would strain medical resources. •Boys who later choose circumcision will likely wish it had been circumcised in infancy. •Many older boys and men may not want to face an operation even though they wish to be circumcised. •The momentum amongst major international and American health and medical organizations towards encouraging circumcision, especially in infancy

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Choke on these scientific reviews.

Royal Australasian College of Physicians

After reviewing the currently available evidence, the RACP believes that the frequency of diseases modifiable by circumcision, the level of protection offered by circumcision and the complication rates of circumcision do not warrant routine infant circumcision in Australia and New Zealand. (Page 5)

[download link to PDF file] http://www.racp.edu.au/index.cfm?objectid=65118B16-F145-8B74-236C86100E4E3E8E

British Medical Association

The medical evidence about its health impact is equivocal.

[..]

Nevertheless, normal anatomical and physiological characteristics of the infant foreskin have in the past been misinterpreted as being abnormal. The British Association of Paediatric Surgeons advises that there is rarely a clinical indication for circumcision.

[..]

The medical benefits previously claimed, however, have not been convincingly proven, and it is now widely accepted, including by the BMA, that this surgical procedure has medical and psychological risks. It is essential that doctors perform male circumcision only where this is demonstrably in the best interests of the child.

[..]

Best interests

-Doctors must act in the best interests of the patient.

-Even where they do not decide for themselves, the views that children express are important in determining what is in their best interests.

-The BMA does not believe that parental preference alone constitutes sufficient grounds for performing a surgical procedure on a child unable to express his own view. Parental preference must be weighed in terms of the child’s interests.

-The courts have confirmed that the child’s lifestyle and likely upbringing are relevant factors to take into account. The particular situation of the case needs to be considered.

-Parents must explain and justify requests for circumcision, in terms of the child’s interests.

http://www.bma.org.uk/ethics/consent_and_capacity/malecircumcision2006.jsp

Canadian Pediatric Society

Recommendation: Circumcision of newborns should not be routinely performed.

Validation: This recommendation is in keeping with previous statements on neonatal circumcision by the Canadian Paediatric Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The statement was reviewed by the Infectious Disease Committee of the Canadian Paediatric Society. The Board of Directors of the Canadian Paediatric Society has reviewed its content and approved it for publication.

http://www.cps.ca/english/statements/FN/fn96-01.htm

Koninklijke Nederlandsche Maatschappij tot bevordering der Geneeskunst (Royal Dutch Medical Society) or KNMG

This viewpoint by the KNMG is jointly endorsed by the following scientific associations:

The Netherlands Society of General Practitioners
The Netherlands Society of Youth Healthcare Physicians
The Netherlands Association of Paediatric Surgeons
The Netherlands Association of Plastic Surgeons
The Netherlands Association for Paediatric Medicine
The Netherlands Urology Association
The Netherlands Surgeons’ Association

There is no convincing evidence that circumcision is useful or necessary in terms of prevention or hygiene. Partly in the light of the complications which can arise during or after circumcision, circumcision is not justifiable except on medical/therapeutic grounds. Insofar as there are medical benefits, such as a possibly reduced risk of HIV infection, it is reasonable to put off circumcision until the age at which such a risk is relevant and the boy himself can decide about the intervention, or can opt for any available alternatives.

[..]

Non-therapeutic circumcision of male minors conflicts with the child’s right to autonomy and physical integrity.

[..]

Non-therapeutic circumcision of male minors is contrary to the rule that minors may only be exposed to medical treatments if illness or abnormalities are present, or if it can be convincingly demonstrated that the medical intervention is in the interest of the child, as in the case of vaccinations.

[..]

The fact that this is a medically non-essential intervention with a real risk of complications makes the quality of this advice particularly important.

[download link to PDF file] http://knmg.artsennet.nl/web/file?uuid=579e836d-ea83-410f-9889-feb7eda87cd5&owner=a8a9ce0e-f42b-47a5-960e-be08025b7b04&contentid=77976&elementid=771754

Also reported by BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15486834

National Coalition for Men, America comments:

"Throughout the world, medical associations have found no medical justification for male circumcision. The British, Canadian, South African, Australian, Dutch, and New Zealand medical associations all found the purported medical benefits to be unfounded, and that the risks and complications outweigh any benefits. The Dutch and South African medical associations even declared infant male circumcision to be harmful, unethical, and a violation of a child's right to bodily integrity....... Religious, cultural, and parental rights end when it comes to someone else's bodily integrity. It's his body, and his choice."

The circumcision as AIDS prevention tool myth has been debunked outside of USA --->

"Our conclusion is that such proposals ignore doubts about the robustness of the evidence from the African random-controlled trials as to the protective effect of circumcision and the practical value of circumcision as a means of HIV control; misrepresent the nature of Australia's HIV epidemic and exaggerate the relevance of the African random-controlled trials findings to it; underestimate the risks and harm of circumcision; and ignore questions of medical ethics and human rights. The notion of circumcision as a ‘surgical vaccine’ is criticised as polemical and unscientific..... Circumcision of infants or other minors has no place among HIV control measures in the Australian and New Zealand context; proposals such as these should be rejected." - Public Health Association of Australia

"That the relationship between circumcision and transmission of HIV is at the very least unclear is illustrated by the fact that the US combines a high prevalence of STDs and HIV infections with a high percentage of routine circumcisions. The Dutch situation is precisely the reverse: a low prevalence of HIV/AIDS combined with a relatively low number of circumcisions. As such, behavioural factors appear to play a far more important role than whether or not one has a foreskin." - Royal Dutch Medical Association

Source: both quotes published in Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health

The Journal of Law and Medicine also trashed those studies - claiming selection bias, inadequate blinding, problematic randomization, experimenter bias, lead time bias, supportive bias, participant expectation bias, time-out discrepancy, and lack of investigating of non-sexual HIV transmission among other confounding factors and problems.

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Actually, my main problem is that I will rattle off a list of 20 disadvantages men face that women do not, and circumcision is one of them. 10 seconds in a 20-minute video, and then 2/3 of the comments end up responses to men who only seemed to hear "blah blah blah, circumcision, blah blah blah".

It distracts from all the other issues, and when half of them are asking "can we stop making such a big deal of it?" when I have no intention of doing that, it's counterproductive and derailing.

If a given man cannot see WHY it's an MR issue--even if they disagree with the primary MR stance on it--then that's a problem.

Edit: I have no problem with people debating circumcision or posting those kinds of comments in places where circumcision is what's being discussed, because those are discussions ABOUT circumcision. And you'll notice, I haven't blocked anyone or deleted comments, just asked if we could avoid that one issue taking over the comment threads of videos where it was mentioned for a matter of seconds in a larger context.

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You can consider them uninvited to comment on how it feels to be cut. It's a perfect equality. What one person thinks about the other position that they can not possibly have other experience of may be relevant in some situations, but not in this one. She wants to start a different conversation.

Here, imagine this:

"I've never been married, but I don't think married couples should complain about not being able to get divorced."

Except that was consensual.

"I wasn't blinded in an accident, but I don't think blind people should complain about not being able to function in society without certain aids.

Except that was unintentional.

"I've never been stabbed in the gut by a jerk, but I don't think injured people should be able to complain about the lateness of the police force to the scene after they called."

Except that offers a chance for the person to know what it is like not to have been stabbed.

"I've never had fetal alcohol syndrome because my mother didn't drink when I was in the womb, but ..."

There you go, now we are closer to an equal level. Do you see why this opinion isn't relevant to the issue?

Pro-circ people can offer any argument: "it makes one immune to STDs", "babies don't feel it", "nothing could go wrong", etc, and then people can debate about them till they are blue in the face. That's what she wants.

[–]Bartab -5 points-4 points-3 points 14 years ago (0 children) | Copy Link

Title	GirlWritesWhat: I know you are okay with your circumcision, but...
Author	JohnAdamZiolkowski
Upvotes	57
Comments	65
Date	March 7, 2012 12:11 AM UTC (14 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/qkwuz/girlwriteswhat_i_know_you_are_okay_with_your/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/girlwriteswhat-i-know-you-are-okay-with-your.1026486 https://theredarchive.com/post/1026486

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