The Facts Behind Circumcision
Newborn male circumcision is the most common surgical procedure performed in the U.S. It's a common misconception that there are tangible health benefits to male circumcision, but the truth is no medical society in the world recommends it. This invasive procedure carries serious health risks, including infection, hemorrhage, surgical mishap, and death.
Yet, despite these risks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is developing public health recommendations that could mislead more parents into agreeing to circumcision for their newborn baby boys. Intact America is demanding that the CDC issue a truthful statement on the risks and harms of newborn male circumcision.
Get the facts behind circumcision below, then take our interactive quiz and test your knowledge!
Myth – Circumcising baby boys is a safe and harmless procedure.
Fact – As with any surgery, surgically removing part of a baby boy's healthy genitals causes pain, creates immediate health risks and can lead to serious complications. Risks include infection, hemorrhage, scarring, difficulty urinating, loss of part or all of the penis, and even death. More than 100 circumcision-related deaths are estimated to occur every year in the United States, but the number may be even higher. Circumcision complications can and do occur in even the best clinical settings.
Myth – Circumcision is just a little snip.
Fact – Surgically removing part of a baby boy's healthy penis is far more than "a snip." First, a doctor or nurse places the baby on his back, and straps his arms and legs onto a molded plastic board. In the most common method of infant circumcision, the doctor then attaches two hemostats to the foreskin, and inserts a metal instrument under the foreskin to forcibly separate it from the glans (head of the penis). The doctor then slits the foreskin in order to widen its opening for insertion of the circumcision device, against which the foreskin is crushed and then cut off. This operation takes up to fifteen minutes. The amount of skin removed from an infant in a typical circumcision is the equivalent of 15 square inches (the size of a 3 x 5 index card) in an adult male.
Myth – Circumcision is routinely recommended and endorsed by doctors and other health professionals.
Fact – No professional medical association in the United States or anywhere else in the world recommends routine circumcision as a medically necessary procedure. The American Medical Association calls it "non-therapeutic." At no time in its 75 years has the American Academy of Pediatrics ever recommended infant circumcision.
Myth – The baby does not feel any pain during circumcision.
Fact – Circumcision is painful. Babies are sensitive to pain, just like older children and adults. The younger the baby, the more intense the experience of pain. The analgesics used for circumcision only decrease pain; they do not eliminate it. Furthermore, the open wound left by the removal of the foreskin will continue to cause the baby pain and discomfort, especially during urination and defecation, for the 7-10 days it takes for the wound to heal.
Myth – If I don't circumcise my son, he will be ridiculed.
Fact – Times have changed and so has people's understanding of circumcision. Today, half of all baby boys born in the United States will leave the hospital "intact." The circumcision rate is already estimated to be as low as 30% in the Western United States, and the rate across the United States continues to decline as well. Most medically advanced nations do not "routinely" perform surgical operations to remove healthy flesh from newborn babies, and most have laws to protect girls from genital modification. Approximately 75 % of men in the world are not circumcised and remain intact.
Myth – A boy should look like his father. My husband is circumcised, so my son should also be circumcised.
Fact – Children differ from their parents in all kinds of ways, including eye and hair color, body type, and (of course) size and sexual development. If a parent were missing an eye or had a large birthmark, nobody would suggest that the baby's eye be removed at birth, or that he be tattooed with a "birthmark" to look like his parent. If a child asks why his penis looks different from that of his father (or a sibling), parents can offer a simple explanation such as, "Daddy (or brother) had a part of his penis removed when he was a baby, but now we know it’s not necessary and we decided not to let anyone do that to you."
Myth – Routine circumcision of baby boys cannot be compared to Female Genital Mutilation, either as a cultural or medical practice. Female genital cutting is an unjust and inhumane practice, but circumcising boys is justifiable.
Fact – The rationales offered in cultures that promote female genital cutting are similar to those offered in cultures that promote male circumcision. These include hygiene, disease prevention, improved appearance of the genitalia, and social acceptance. Whatever the rationale, forced removal of healthy genital tissue from any child – male or female – is unethical. Boys have the same right as girls to be spared this inhumane, unnecessary surgery.
Myth – To oppose male circumcision is religious and cultural bigotry.
Fact – Many who oppose the painful, risky and permanent alteration of babies' or children's genitalia do so precisely because they believe in universal human rights. People of many different religious and cultural traditions agree that all children – regardless of race, ethnicity, or culture of origin – have the right to be protected from bodily harm. In our society, parents have the right to raise their children in accordance with their own cultural and religious standards. However, that right is not limitless. Parents must not (directly, or through the agency of a medical or religious practitioner) inflict irreversible harm on a child.
Myth – Circumcising newborn baby boys produces health benefits in later life.
Fact – Despite common perception, there is NO conclusive link between circumcision and better health. In fact, performing medically unnecessary surgery on a baby boy's genitals creates immediate health risks. Circumcision-related risks include infection, hemorrhage, scarring, loss of part or all of the penis, and even death. These dangers exist in even the best clinical settings.
Myth – Male circumcision helps prevent HIV.
Fact – Only abstinence or the use of condoms can prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Moreover, condom usage protects women as well as men. Even if circumcision were effective for preventing disease, removing part of a baby boy's penis at birth to prevent the potential for disease in the future makes no more sense than "routinely" removing healthy gall bladders at birth to prevent the potential for gall stones in later life, or removing healthy teeth to prevent dental caries.