Questions tagged [circumcision]

Use this for male circumcision. For female genital mutation, use "female-genital-mutilation". Circumcision is the surgical removal of the foreskin from the penis for any of a number of medical or cultural reasons.

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1 answer
2k views

Male circumcision causes eardrum to burst?

I have seen a post circulating Facebook which is also cited by this source: http://joseph4gi.blogspot.com/2017/09/drs-may-ask-if-baby-is-circumcised-for.html (The source is clearly biased against the ...
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

Is the foreskin of a baby connected to the glans in a similar way to a fingernail on a finger?

Seen on Facebook. I'm not so interested in the "steel rod" claim. I'm interested in the anatomy claim: that the foreskin of a baby is attached to the glans by a membrane, in a similar way to the that ...
39 votes
3 answers
2k views

Does circumcision reduce HIV risk?

I've seen numerous claims that circumcision reduces HIV risk, both on TV and online. Have there been any studies to verify if circumcision does or doesn't reduce HIV risk in a statistically-...
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

Did Jewish ritual circumcision become a more invasive procedure in 140 CE?

One can envision two different methods to circumcize a penis based on where the cut is placed. The first method involves placing the cut after the glans and the second placing it before the glans. The ...
11 votes
1 answer
750 views

Does the practice known as MBP cause HSV-1 in infants?

To introduce this question, there is an ongoing lawsuit in NYC about the religous practice of "metzitzah b’peh". From the city's info page about it: Health Department investigations of newborns ...
74 votes
6 answers
7k views

Does circumcision lead to a net increase in quality of life?

I was recently surprised to learn that many Americans have been circumcised even though their parents had no religious motivation to go through with it. This in strong contrast with my home country ...
2 votes
1 answer
263 views

Did UNAIDS and the CDC recommend circumcision for African countries?

In this article in the Israeli daily, Ha'aretz (Hebrew; may be paywalled), Prof' Bentowicz, head of the Center for Tropical Diseases and AIDS in the faculty of Health Science in the Ben-Gurion ...
4 votes
2 answers
2k views

Does circumcision cause autism?

I got this on my Facebook wall this morning, titled Circumcision, Pain, and the Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders The Findings Across the entire sample, the risk of developing an ASD is 46% higher ...
17 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is the practice of circumcision in the US an attempt to stop masturbation?

This collegehumour video claims that the practice of circumcision in the US, outside of Jewish and Muslim religions, comes from the puritanical Victorian era, where it was seen as a measure to ...
30 votes
1 answer
6k views

Was it common to perform surgeries on babies without anesthesia because doctors felt they weren't "conscious enough to feel pain"?

The claim was made on parenting.se that "not so long ago, babies were operated on without anaesthetic because they weren't considered 'conscious' enough to feel pain".* A Google search revealed ...
9 votes
1 answer
1k views

Does unanaesthetized circumcision result in neurogenic shock?

Similar to this question on Reddit, which asks for sources, I've heard various claims that during unanesthetized, ceremonial circumcision, the boy can go into neurogenic shock. For example, this ...