Circumcision: Why It's Done, Risks and Recovery
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/302234.php
Circumcision is one of the oldest and most commonly performed of all the surgical procedures. Decisions to carry out a circumcision can be religious, social, medical or cultural.
In this article, we will look at how a circumcision is conducted and what can be expected after the event.
There is a fair amount of controversy surrounding this simple procedure and its prophylactic benefits. We will touch on areas of dispute when relevant.
What is a circumcision?
Circumcision is the removal of the foreskin of the penis. The foreskin is the shroud of skin that can be gently pulled back to uncover the head of the penis.
The procedure is relatively simple in surgical terms. The foreskin is freed from the head of the penis and, in a child, it is clipped off. In adults, it is removed with a scalpel.
The wound is then either cauterized or stitched with dissolvable sutures.
Circumcision of a baby takes between 5-10 minutes while an adult's operation takes around 1 hour.
Circumcision: who and where
The World Health Organization (WHO) state that around 30% of men have been circumcised globally. Of these, 70% are Muslim. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 58% of American newborns were circumcised in 2010.
Circumcision soon after birth (neonatal circumcision) is most common in Israel, the US, Canada, Australia and across much of the Middle East, Central Asia and West Africa. In contrast, the procedure is quite rare in East and Southern Africa, Latin America and throughout Europe.
The reasons for this disparity in usage vary but the predominant reason is religion. Disagreements as to the medical benefits of circumcision also play a part, however.
Non-religious circumcision appears to be declining in the Western world. In America, the rate dropped from 68% in 1979 to 58% in 2010.2 Neonatal circumcision in Canada fell from about 20% in 1996/97 to 9.2% in 2005. Australia has also followed suit, dropping from 49% in 1973/74 to around 10.8% in 2013.
A brief history of circumcision
The exact date of the first circumcision will never be known. Some experts believe the operation dates back as far as 15,000 years and slowly spread throughout a variety of cultures.
Egyptian mummies from 2300 BC are found to circumcised, so the procedure clearly has an age-old pedigree. Circumcision is also mentioned liberally throughout the Bible, hence its modern day usage within the Jewish population.
Some believe that circumcision was first popularized in the ancient world as a public health measure. It is theorized that it became popular as a way of preventing balanitis (a condition where the head of the penis swells up and prevents the foreskin from returning to its normal position), caused by a build up of sand under the foreskin.
This is not just wild conjecture. The Australian military, fighting in arid conditions during World War II, reported that balanitis caused by sand under the foreskin reached "epidemic" proportions.
Circumcision did not become popular in the Western world until the late 19th century. Rather than being performed for medical reasons, the procedure was carried out in an effort to prevent masturbation.
Before the 20th century, masturbation was believed to be the cause of a whole manner of physical and mental illnesses, including epilepsy, paralysis, impotence, gonorrhea, tuberculosis, feeble-mindedness and insanity.
Over time, the medical reasoning behind circumcision changed and developed. The operation became incredibly popular and recommended in much of the English-speaking world.
After World War II, Britain moved to a nationalized health care system; as part of a cost-cutting exercise and because there was little compelling evidence of circumcision's benefits, the procedure was dropped from its recommendations.
This explains why today there is a large difference between circumcision rates in the UK (less than 3% of newborns in 2000) and the US (58% of newborns in 2010).
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