BENEFITS DURING ADULTHOOD: Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) Local Problems- Phimosis, Balanoposthitis, and Hygiene and Cleanliness HIV Infection/AIDS Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) Women's Preference, Sexual Activity, Psych Effects

Uncircumcised boys are about 10 times as likely to get serious kidney infections in the first year of life as are circumcised infants; even in adults circumcision protects against UTIs. These kidney infections are most dangerous in the first 3 months, during which time they often lead to hospitalization and can result in overwhelming blood infection and other serious infections. Kidney scarring has been shown to occur later. There is concern that future kidney failure and high blood pressure may follow infantile UTIs. Abnormal kidney function and hormonal secretion can occur with infant UTIs. Fecal contamination of the moist inner foreskin layer with bacterial attachment leads to these kidney infections.

Local foreskin infections (balanoposthitis) can occur at any age in uncircumcised males, but are most common at age 2-5 years, an age when the foreskin has often not yet completely separated, cannot be fully retracted, and genital cleanliness is more difficult to accomplish. In addition between 0.5% and 1% of boys will never be able to retract their foreskin due to a pinpoint opening at the end (phimosis) and will have to be circumcised at a later date when the procedure is more complex and difficult, and about 10 times as expensive. Phimosis becomes most troublesome beginning with puberty; painful erections occur since the foreskin can't retract over the glans. An incomplete form of phimosis, called paraphimosis, occurs when the foreskin is tight but can be retracted over the glans. The glans may then become trapped resulting in severe pain and swelling. Newborn circumcision leads to improved genital hygiene throughout life, but most importantly in infancy, early childhood and old age when personal hygiene may be inadequate. Uncircumcised males are more likely to develop a wide variety of skin disorders including psoriasis, lichen planus, and seborrheic eczema.

Uncircumcised men were first shown to be more likely to acquire heterosexual HIV infection over a decade ago, in articles in the leading medical journals "Lancet" and "New England Journal of Medicine". Since then over 40 separate studies have shown that uncircumcised men are more likely to become infected with HIV on heterosexual exposure. The ease with which the foreskin tears during intercourse, leaving mini-abrasions through which the virus enters, can lead to the infections. It has recently been shown that certain specialized cells in the foreskin, Langerhans cells, can trap the HIV virus and promote infection.

As with HIV, mini-abrasions of the foreskin during intercourse is the explanation for the fact that uncircumcised men are more likely to acquire certain (though not all) STDs. The STDs for which uncircumcised men are at greater risk include syphilis, chancroid and genital herpes, all of which involve ulceration of the penile surface through which the infection enters.

Sexual function is not adversely effected by newborn circumcision. On the contrary, published evidence shows that circumcised men have a wider variety of sexual activity, and women prefer circumcised men, mainly because of better genital hygiene.