Does sexual function survey in Denmark offer any support for male circumcision having an adverse effect?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Does sexual function survey in Denmark offer any support for male circumcision having an adverse effect?

AU - Morris, Brian J.

AU - Waskett, Jake H.

AU - Gray, Ronald H.

N1 - Funding Information: Without evidence, Frisch et al. argue for reduced penile sensitivity as being responsible for their findings. However, this explanation is questionable since medical MC in Denmark is only partial (CH Anderson, personal communication) and the foreskin is not removed as it is for MC in most other countries such as the USA. Thus, the men who self-reported that they were ‘circumcised’ may still have had residual foreskin tissue and its associated nerve endings. The only exception would have been the 4% who were Muslim and 2% Jewish who had religious circumcisions. In all, 89% of the circumcised men were Lutheran or not religious, i.e. were typical of a traditional Danish population. Moreover, the fact that 85% had their ‘circumcision’ after infancy is consistent with it having been performed for treatment of foreskin pathology such as phimosis (which affects ~10%—not 1%—of boys by their late teens5). Moreover, virtually all credible research,5 including clinical measurements and large randomized controlled trials (RCTs),6,7 that the authors disparage, show no difference in sensation or sensitivity during arousal as a result of MC. Their claim that ‘reduced penile sensitivity [of the circumcised penis is] supported by recent neurophysiological studies’ uses as support a flawed study funded NOCIRC in which a subsequent proper statistical analysis of the data revealed no difference.8 One of the large RCTs, moreover, found that ‘circumcised men reported increased penile sensitivity and enhanced ease of reaching orgasm’.6

PY - 2012/2

Y1 - 2012/2

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84858636376&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84858636376&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/ije/dyr180

DO - 10.1093/ije/dyr180

M3 - Letter

C2 - 22422464

AN - SCOPUS:84858636376

SN - 0300-5771

VL - 41

SP - 310

EP - 326

JO - International journal of epidemiology

JF - International journal of epidemiology

IS - 1

M1 - dyr180

ER -