Right ‘circum’ stance
By Dr Ramesh Ramayya
An Australian physician has triggered a debate in medical circles through his claim that men who are circumcised are seven times less likely to contract the dreaded HIV virus. The benefits of circumcision do not end with that. Professor Roger Short of Melbourne University told a medical conference last month that women who have a circumcised spouse are less likely to develop cervical cancer. The men themselves are protected to an extent from penile cancer.
Some of the benefits of circumcision were known to doctors. But what has provoked dissenting murmurs is Short’s enthusiastic recommendation for large-scale circumcision. The human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes penis cancer and cervical cancer, resides in the foreskin. Circumcised men will not be carrying HPV. Circumcision also helps in preventing inability to retract the foreskin, infections, injury during sexual intercourse, and difficulty in passing urine.
Also, the HIV virus enters the penis through the inner part of the foreskin and circumcised men have a kind of natural protection. However, that does not mean that you can throw away your condom pack. The physician is talking about relative safety. But do the health benefits warrant universal circumcision? Doctors have their doubts.
