Thursday, March 15, 2012

Circumcision and the hygiene argument....

Oh my....(found via reddit):
Variability in penile appearance and penile findings: a prospective study - R.S. VAN HOWE - Department of Pediatrics, Marshfield Clinic, Lakeland Center, Minocqua, Wisconsin, USA - 1997

The circumcised penis requires more care than the intact penis during the first 3 years of life. Parents should be instructed to retract and clean any skin covering the glans in circumcised boys, to prevent adhesions forming and debris from accumulating. Penile inflammation (balanitis) may be more common in circumcised boys; preputial stenosis (phimosis) afects circumcised and intact boys with equal frequency. The revision of circumcision for purely cosmetic reasons should be discouraged on both medical and ethical grounds. [...] One of the most frequently cited reasons for neonatal circumcision in the USA is for a boy to ‘look like his father’ [Brown MS, Brown CA. Circumcision decision: prominence of social concerns. Pediatrics 1987; 80: 215–9]. [...] When discussing the advantages and disadvantages of neonatal circumcision, parents need to know that the circumcised infant requires more attention and penile hygiene than the uncircumcised infant; circumcision does not prevent phimosis and circumcised boys are more likely to develop balanitis, meatitis, coronal adhesions and meatal stenosis.

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