The Real Reason You're Circumcised

[Steven_Draker]

http:// http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6966989/the-real-reason-youre-circumcised

[tyro]

Yeah.........but unlike the gals in the video, I don't think all dicks look weird!

T

[+ Axiom2001]

Yeah.........but unlike the gals in the video, I don't think all dicks look weird!

T

 

 

I highly concur with your take on this!

[Epigonos]

From the American Academy of Pediatrics

 

Policy Statement

Circumcision Policy Statement

 

TASK FORCE ON CIRCUMCISION

 

 

Next Section

Abstract

 

Male circumcision is a common procedure, generally performed during the newborn period in the United States. In 2007, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) formed a multidisciplinary task force of AAP members and other stakeholders to evaluate the recent evidence on male circumcision and update the Academy’s 1999 recommendations in this area. Evaluation of current evidence indicates that the health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks and that the procedure’s benefits justify access to this procedure for families who choose it. Specific benefits identified included prevention of urinary tract infections, penile cancer, and transmission of some sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has endorsed this statement.

[+ Funguy]

From the American Academy of Pediatrics

 

Policy Statement

Circumcision Policy Statement

 

TASK FORCE ON CIRCUMCISION

 

 

Next Section

Abstract

 

Male circumcision is a common procedure, generally performed during the newborn period in the United States. In 2007, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) formed a multidisciplinary task force of AAP members and other stakeholders to evaluate the recent evidence on male circumcision and update the Academy’s 1999 recommendations in this area. Evaluation of current evidence indicates that the health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks and that the procedure’s benefits justify access to this procedure for families who choose it. Specific benefits identified included prevention of urinary tract infections, penile cancer, and transmission of some sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has endorsed this statement.

 

While I totally agree with the above I also add that many Pediatricians will recommend that the child be like his father. It eliminates confusion when the child is older and father and son may take a shower in the presence of one another. If dad is circ'd and kid is not, or vice versa, there can be a lot of confusion as to "Why am I different from Daddy?"! The issue in high school showers is resolving itself slowly as more and more kids are uncircumcised.

[Steven_Draker]

All complaints should be sent to CollegeHumor.com

[+ azdr0710]

along with the health and Daddy reasons, I also just think a cut dude looks neater and cleaner.....half-seriously, I can't quite get past the fact that all that extra skin is hiding all sorts of dried urine and semen in the nooks and crannies....ha....pretty ignorant of me, eh?!

[marylander1940]

Male circumcision per country.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Circumcision_by_Country.png

 

Circumcision video, I'd rather not uploading it directly, it's gross!

 

[Newly]

Guess it is what you're used to. Having grown up in areas where circumcision is rare I think that circumcised dicks look mangled, and if you prefer uncircumcised escorts they're hard to find. Of course, I'm not fond of shaved escorts either - but finding natural escorts is next to impossible. Sometimes with the amount of manscaping going on I think I should just be with women.

[Samai139]

Funguy--I agree that it is preferable that father and son be the same in regard to circumcised penises---as far as boys sharing showers and comparing their equiment? Don't know what goes on where you are, but here in New York State, boys sharing showers in school is almost unheard of today---not sure when the required shower after PE class disappeared, but it is definitely a '50s, 60's thing.

Newtothis--you are right on-- uncut myself, that's what I am used to seeing---maybe spent too much time checking out my own penis---and also cringe when I see some cocks that look like they were caught in a grass trimmer. Also prefer pubic hair and armpit hair---but as you said, individuals' tastes.

[Steven_Draker]

F.Y.I.

 

Steep Drop Seen in Circumcisions in U.S.

By RONI CARYN RABIN

 

Despite a worldwide campaign for circumcision to slow the spread of AIDS, the rate of circumcision among American baby boys appears to be declining.

 

A little-noted presentation by a federal health researcher last month at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna suggested that the rate had fallen precipitously — to fewer than half of all boys born in conventional hospitals from 2006 to 2009, from about two-thirds through the 1980s and ’90s.

 

Last week, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautioned that the figures in the presentation were not definitive. But they are already stirring a sharp debate on the Internet.

 

The numbers were presented to the AIDS conference by a C.D.C. researcher, Charbel E. El Bcheraoui. The presentation was not covered by any mainstream news outlets, but a report by the news service Elsevier Global Medical News, along with a photograph of a slide from the presentation, quickly made the rounds of the blogosphere.

 

The slide portrays a precipitous drop in circumcision, to just 32.5 percent in 2009 from 56 percent in 2006. The numbers are based on calculations by SDI Health, a company in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., that analyzes health care data; they do not include procedures outside hospitals (like most Jewish ritual circumcisions) or not reimbursed by insurance.

 

Andrew Kress, the chief executive of SDI Health, cautioned that the data had not yet been published and was still being analyzed, but he confirmed that the trend had been toward fewer circumcisions each year.

 

He added that measuring the circumcision rate was not the purpose of the study, which was designed to measure the rate of complications from the procedure.

 

Opponents of circumcision hailed the trend as a victory of common sense over what they call culturally accepted genital mutilation. For federal health officials, who have been debating whether to recommend circumcision to stem the spread of AIDS, the news suggests an uphill battle that could be more difficult than expected.

 

C.D.C. officials last week declined requests for interviews about the study, but a spokeswoman, Elizabeth-Ann Chandler, answered questions by e-mail. She reiterated that the agency used the SDI figures to calculate the rate of complications, not of circumcisions.

 

“C.D.C. was not involved in the collection of the data that was cited, nor has C.D.C. undertaken any review of this particular data for the purpose of calculating rates,” she wrote. “As such, we cannot comment on the accuracy of this particular estimate of infant male circumcision.”

 

But she did not dispute the waning popularity of circumcision. “What we can tell you is that male infant circumcision rates have declined somewhat in this decade,” she wrote.

 

The study found a very low rate of complications associated with newborn circumcisions; most were considered mild and no babies died.

 

Organizations opposed to circumcision said parents may be responding to the message their groups have been spreading through their Web sites and a video distributed to childbirth educators.

 

“Word has gotten out that it’s not necessary, it’s harmful and it’s painful,” said Georganne Chapin, executive director of Intact America, a nonprofit organization based in Tarrytown, N.Y.

 

Greater awareness about female circumcision may have influenced parents as well, she said, asking, “How can you think it’s O.K. to cut little boys, when you are horrified by the idea of cutting little girls?”

 

Both the C.D.C. and the American Academy of Pediatrics have been reviewing the scientific evidence on circumcision with an eye to issuing new policy recommendations, but so far neither body has done so, although the federal agency was to have issued its new recommendations by the end of last year.

 

Officials from the pediatrics academy said its new policy would be issued by early 2011; a task force that studied the topic has completed its report, which is being reviewed by several other committees, said Dr. Michael Brady, chairman of pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, who served on the task force. The academy is likely to adopt a more encouraging stance than its current neutral position and to state that the procedure has health benefits beyond H.I.V. prevention, Dr. Brady said.

 

The World Health Organization in 2007 endorsed male circumcision as “an important intervention to reduce the risk of heterosexually acquired H.I.V.”

 

“No one is going to tell a parent, ‘You have to circumcise your child.’ That would be foolish,” Dr. Brady said. “The key thing physicians should be doing is providing information on both risks and benefits and allow the parent to make the best decision.”

 

Several state Medicaid programs stopped covering circumcision after the academy issued its current policy in 1999, and Dr. Brady said that may be one reason fewer parents opt for the procedure. Other possible reasons include a growing Hispanic population that has traditionally been disinclined to circumcision, as well the anti-circumcision movement and a broader trend among parents to spurn medical interventions like vaccination.

 

Some 80 percent of American men are circumcised, one of the highest rates in the developed world. Yet even advocates of circumcision acknowledge that an aggressive circumcision drive in the United States would be unlikely to have a drastic impact on H.I.V. rates here, since the procedure does not seem to protect those at greatest risk, men who have sex with men.

 

And while studies in Africa found that circumcision reduced the risk of a man’s becoming infected by an H.I.V.-positive female partner, it is not clear that a circumcised man with H.I.V. would be less likely to infect a woman.

 

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/health/research/17circ.html?_r=4&

[Steven_Draker]

Explaining the Drop in Circumcision Rates

By Alexandra Sifferlin

published Aug. 22, 2013

 

In the U.S., fewer newborn baby boys were circumcised before leaving the hospital compared to 30 years ago. What’s going on?

 

In 1979, close to two-thirds of boys in the West underwent a hospital circumcision after birth, but by 2010 that percentage dropped to around 58%.

 

The numbers come from the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) report, which shows circumcision rates have dropped by 10% overall in the 32 year period. And it’s not just the U.S. that is experiencing fewer circumcisions; western nations in general are seeing drops, but the CDC analysis also shows that rates have fluctuated widely in the U.S., and that there are regional differences in the popularity of the operation.

 

One reason for the ups and downs in surgery rates may have to do with flip-flopping guidance from experts about whether circumcisions are worthwhile.

 

http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/fig2-copy.jpg

 

 

The rates started dropping in the 1980s, but picked back up in the 1990s, only to drop again at the start of the 21st century. Those dips and peaks may reflect the fact that in the 1970s, the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) task force reported that there was no medical evidence that routine circumcision was needed[/b] for newborns. It revised this opinion in 1989, citing some potential benefits for the the procedure. In 1999 the Academy once again released a policy statement summing up the potential benefits of the surgery — lower rates of urinary tract infections as well as sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV — but was still reluctant to advocate circumcision, saying that more evidence was needed to justify such a position from a medical perspective. The AAP advised parents instead to make the decision based on their cultural or religious beliefs.

 

In August, the Academy confirmed this stance by saying that while the benefits outweighed the risks, the decision should be made by individual parents who consider the medical pluses and the potential side effects, which include bleeding, infection at the circumcision site and irritation of the glans, located at the tip of the penis.

 

 

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

“I’ve been in practice for over 40 years and there wasn’t any question about whether to circumcise in the ‘good old days’ because parents were worried about what might happen in the locker room in middle school or high school,” Thomas McInerny, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told Bloomberg News. “But circumcision is less frequent in Europe and Asia, so in time as more immigration has occurred, there are more uncircumcised floating around in locker rooms, so you’re not going to get an embarrassing situation.”

 

 

But there are may be other factors at work as well. As Reuters reports, a Medicaid program that covers low income patients no longer pays for circumcisions in 18 U.S. states, and insurers are slow to cover it without significant medical justifications. There is also the possibiity that more women are giving birth and having procedures outside of hospital settings; the NCHS report did not include these procedures, nor did it include those done, after discharge, as part of religious ceremonies in the Jewish and Muslim faiths. More women may simply be choosing to give birth outside of the hospital, or shortened hospital stays after delivery may make it easier to perform circumcisions at clinics.

 

In the developing world in particular, however, circumcision is encouraged as a way to cut down on infectious diseases — specifically, HIV. The World Health Organization includes circumcision as one of the ways to fight spread of HIV, and cite studies that found the operation can lower risk of infection by up to 60%. The most recent, published In April, reported that circumcised Ugandan men harbored less bacteria in their penile environment that can transfer the HIV virus. The men also had 81% less bacteria overall compared to those who weren’t circumcised, and that could dramatically improve their ability to fight infections.

 

In the U.S., the CDC says circumcision rates are highest in the Midwest, where about two-thirds of newborn boys are circumcised before being discharged, and most varied in the West, where San Francisco and Santa Monica have even proposed banning the procedure. The governor signed a bill prohibiting such bans, and rates have been inching up again since hitting a low of 31% in 2003.

 

source: http://healthland.time.com/2013/08/22/explaining-the-drop-in-circumcision-rates/

[Newly]

Thanks Steven. I guess I have something to look forward to if I'm still hiring when I'm in an old folks home! Now if guys would just stop shaving themselves as if they were poodles!

[Steven_Draker]

A poignant testimony by a gentleman recounting a story of the first time he learned he was circumcised, and how he asked his mother about this:

 

[video=youtube;ZLVGFF8UKzA]