Last year, a study in the British Journal of Urology showed uncircumcised men reported a slight decrease in sensitivity. But research published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine noted that few men report sexual functioning problems or decreased sensitivity. The American Academy of Family Physicians has concluded: "The effect of circumcision on penile sensation or sexual satisfaction is unknown."
Regarding the surgical procedure, however, studies agree: It is painful for infants and should always be done with anesthesia.
Studies concerning circumcision and sexually transmitted diseases have made headlines worldwide. Last year, three studies on circumcision's relationship with HIV in three African countries prompted the United Nations and the World Health Organization to recommend that adult men in Africa get circumcised to reduce the rate of HIV transmission.
Dr. Ronald Gray, professor of reproductive epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the lead researcher in one of the studies, found that circumcision reduced the rate of HIV infection by nearly 60 percent. The reason is complex, but has to do with the area beneath the foreskin having a higher density for target cells for HIV infection.
But is data a world away relevant to moms and dads here deciding whether to circumcise their sons? Gray says that while few comparisons can be made with Africa, given the AIDS epidemic there, parents may want to consider the data taken together with other information.
Ryan McCallister, the founder of NotJustSkin, an anti-circumcision and parent resource group in Takoma Park, fears parents may be influenced by such studies and little else.
"People are frightened of HIV, and parents want the best for their children," said McCallister, whose group is a local chapter of the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers, or NOCIRC. "If they get a set of information that doesn't discuss the risk and complications, and they are hearing it can prevent the spread of HIV, then it probably sounds like a no-brainer to them to circumcise."
Gray said opponents to circumcision have attacked his research as inaccurate, but maintains that their arguments "are not scientific."
"I think you present parents with all the information, benefits and potential risks - and you say what do you want to do," he said. "But I don't think you should prevent parents from taking that position, on the basis of anti-circumcision propaganda."
