Circumcision Doesn’t Make the Cutting Edge of Pediatric Recommendations

Whether or not parents opt for circumcision to be performed on their newborn sons has long been an issue of heated debate. In one corner are parents who believe that the elective procedure offers medical benefits, while in the other stand those who deem it both medically unnecessary and painful, as well as others who maintain that it adversely affects normal sexual pleasure and performance. In addition, many parents outside the ring of debate simply allow circumcision to be performed on their newborn boys as a matter of common practice in the long-standing acceptance of the procedure as a medical standard.

Just what do the experts recommend? At least one major organization of pediatricians, known as the American Academy of Pediatrics, has now taken a totally neutral stance on the matter, just as two new reviews of previous research come to conflicting conclusions. According to Dr. Douglas S. Diekema, a pediatrician at the University of Washington and a member of the task force formed to help define new recommendations of the academy, “There is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the risks and benefits of circumcision.... There are some clear benefits to circumcision,” yet he then added, “There are some risks to circumcision, although the significant ones appear to be rare.”

However, in one of the new reviews of existing research on circumcision, Australian researchers analyzed eight studies and found that risks of major complications range from 2 percent to 10 percent. According to the study’s lead author, researcher Caryn Perera of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons said, “These may be considered unacceptable for an elective procedure.” In regards to any medical benefits of circumcision, she noted that there is “a lack of consensus and robust evidence.” Of the studies analyzed, two involved neonatal circumcision, while the other six involved males ranging in age from 14 to 49 years.

Other findings of the review suggest that the circumcision procedure may be psychologically harmful, and that there is no evidence to support having an infant boy circumcised will lessen his risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases later in life. The report was recently published in the Annals of Family Medicine.