Male circumcision has been a customary practice in ancient history depicting cleanliness of a group of people and as part of rituals and ceremonies, religious affiliations and culture.
Most circumcisions are commonly performed during adolescence to take part of the rituals of manhood, but doing it right after birth became popular in practice.
There is however, a growing controversy on the performance of neonatal circumcision.
So, if you are pregnant with a male infant and are seriously considering neonatal circumcision here’s an outline of the benefits and risks.
Benefits of Neonatal Circumcision:
- It provides important health advantages, prevents infections such as urinary tract infection (UTI)
- It has no effect on sexual function in adult years
- Low complication rate if done by an experienced surgeon
- Significantly reduces the risk for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases in adult years
- Self-report of circumcised adult men indicated less sexual dysfunction and satisfactory sexual practices
- Reduces the incidence of infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) and genital warts
- Neonatal circumcision confers some protection from penile cancer
Risks of Neonatal Circumcision:
- It adversely affects the penile function and sexual pleasure
- Is extremely painful
- Only provides minimal protection from HIV
- Psychological and emotional issues
- Thousands of fine touch receptors and other highly erogenous nerve endings are lost during circumcision
- Lifelong physical, sexual, and sometimes psychological trauma
- Presents a human rights violation since the infant is infringed from individual autonomy
- The overall evidence of the benefits and harms of circumcision is so evenly balanced that it does not support recommending circumcision as a routine procedure for newborns.
After carefully weighing the benefits and risks of neonatal circumcision, it is time to make a lifetime decision for your kid, or wait until he is of age to make his own decision.
