Circumcision (adult content alert)

the American Academy of Pediatrics has been trying to outlaw circumcision for twenty years.
Now it seems that it decreases HIV transmission. Duh.
Hate to get into this in a family blog, but certain cancers (now known to be due to viruses) are also lower where men or their consorts are circumcized.
However, here in the Philippines, they use a dorsal slit...

LINK by a pc group that was trying to outlaw it. This group claims the Catholic church forbids it, which was news to me and other docs who trained at Catholic hospitals. Catholics forbid mutilation, not thing done for social customs (e.g. tatoos, ear piercing) or for theraputic reasons (hysterectomy, mastectomy, amputation).
The PC call it mutilation, similar to the campaign against female circumcision...however, most female circumcisions are much more extensive and dangerous.

LINK2 is by a Filippino......usually the pre pubescent boys get together and arrange it on their own ...but at the farm, Lolo just did one for the oldest boy...who had planned to go with the local boys, but the mom was worried about infection and when she found out asked Lolo to do it.
The government also arranges "free" clinics for this.

In Africa, some tribes do it at puberty, mostly Muslims...but also the pagans in the Chibi area near our hospital did it, but not those in Chilimanzi, where I worked. So we saw a lot of balanitis.
Once you've seen balanitis and other problems, you can see why "primitive" people in dry climates "invented" the procedure...

However, as a female doc, I don't usually see such things unless I'm the only one around...