Chelsea Kaplan’s Musings About Life... After Birth

Reader Fiona in New Orleans asks, “Medically, is it an OK choice to not circumcise your son?”

We asked our on-call pediatrician, Dr. Reva Snow, for her thoughts on the (delicate) matter:

In short—absolutely yes. You should feel comfortable with whatever decision you make on the issue.  The decision of whether or not to circumcise your son is a very personal one that involves religion, culture and ethnicity in addition to any medical concerns. If you’re trying to make the decision based mainly on the health perspective, I’ll go over the known health benefits and risks to circumcision.

Benefits:

1) A lower risk of urinary tract infection in infancy. Circumcised boys under a year have about a 1 in 1000 chance of having a UTI, while the chance for an uncircumcised boy is about 1 in a hundred.  Bear in mind though that UTIs are, generally, very treatable with a low risk of any future problems.

2) A slightly lower risk of STDs. Studies have shown that circumcised adults are somewhat less likely to acquire or transmit HIV and other STDs. However, uncircumcised men can lower their risk through proper hygiene.  And while we’re on the subject, though it’s impossible to think of your baby boy ever being a teenager, talking to him then about safe sex and condoms can go a long way towards keeping him healthy!

3) A lower risk of developing penile cancer as an adult. Now, “cancer” is never a word you want to hear, but penile cancer is actually pretty rare (about 10 in a million) so whether or not your baby is circumcised, he probably won’t be up against this particular disease.

4) Less chance of minor and manageable issues like foreskin infections and phimosis (a too tight foreskin).

Risks:

1) It is a painful procedure. Anyone who performs a circumcision in this day and age should be using some form of pain control.

2) Complications of the procedure.  These are most often minor and might include bleeding, infection, leaving too much or too little foreskin, and problems healing.  It’s a somewhat more involved and risky procedure in older boys, so it’s recommended to do it in the newborn period if you’re going to do it.

You might hear people say that circumcision diminishes male sexual pleasure. There’s really no research supporting or disproving that claim, not to mention it’s a pretty subjective outcome, no?
Bottom line (to quote to American Academy of Pediatrics): circumcision is not essential to a child’s health. Take all the facts and your personal influences into account and make the decision that makes sense to you.

(Editor’s Note/Chelsea’s take: Do it, Fiona. You don’t want all the chicks in the sorority house making fun of your kid one day. Then again, if all the chicks in the sorority house are talking about his penis, perhaps he’s doing something right…....).