The Risks of Circumcision

Circumcision nowadays is thought to be a very safe surgical procedure. It is certainly very common among people of many ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds. There is only a risk in a circumcision operation if it is poorly carried out.  Unfortunately if somebody who is not professional carries out a circumcision who happens to bungle the procedure somehow the resulting post-operative bleed and infection can be fatal.

According to the American Medical Association bleeding and infection are the most common problems associated with circumcision. However in most of the cases the bleeding is minor and is stopped within minutes by applying pressure to the wound. More serious complications can be cysts, lymph problems, lumps, ulceration of the glans, loss of the penis due to necrosis, impotence and the removal of too much tissue causing pain during future erections.  These types of conditions tend to occur when a surgeon or urologist does not conduct the operation. A common result of circumcisions done out of a doctor’s office is a condition where the cut scene does not heal neatly. There are minor plastic surgery procedures that can correct this if this does happen.

Just how many penises are lost during circumcisions?  According to a study done in Israel one penis in one million is lost to circumcision.  The American Academy of Family Physicians says the risk of death due to circumcision is twice that at on in five hundred thousand.

The American Medical Association quotes a complication rate due to circumcision of 0.2%–0.6%. However the American Academy of Family Physicians quotes a range that is much higher saying that as many as 35% of circumcisions result in problems. The Canadian Pediatric Society elevates this number even more saying that 55% of circumcisions end up with complications.

However the benefits of getting your child circumcised far outweigh its risks. For one thing it keeps the entire pubic area cleaner and there is less risk of infection (especially in the urinary glans.) Men who have circumcisions also don’t tend to suffer from yeast infections like uncircumcised men do. 

Recently research by the World Health Organization published in the United States Public Library of Science Medicine Journal in July 2006 gave evidence that men who have been circumcised have a lower risk of contracting and also spreading AIDS. The study then went on to postulate that if all men in the world were circumcised over the next ten years then two million new cases of AIDS could be avoided.  This possibly could mean that circumcision could be used in the near future as a means of mandatory plague prevention.

Yet an even bigger plague could be prevented if all men were circumcised.  Many studies have shown that men who are uncircumcised men are at greater risk of human papilloma virus (HPV) infection, which is transferred to women. Women then develop warts, which lead to cancer. It is estimated that 94% of women in the United States have already contracted this virus thanks to sex with male carriers.