To the Editor:
The Collegian’s presentation on sexual facts and issues was
interesting. But discussion of unplanned pregnancies and Sexually
Transmitted Diseases missed a startling fact: the United States’
incidence of both is far, far higher than that of other comparable
countries. And the acceptance and usage of condoms, the only method
of birth control that can also reduce the spread of STDs, is far,
far lower here. STDs and unwanted pregnancies have high personal
and social costs in both dollars and changed lives.
What’s so different here as compared to these other nations? A
major difference is the mass medical circumcision of males
practiced here, which removes the mobile, sliding/gliding and most
highly sensitive nerve tissue of the penis, a practice rare in
Western Europe, Japan and Canada. This significantly reduces and
dulls a circumcised man’s sensitivity and response. Perhaps
circumcised men consciously or unconsciously avoid putting a layer
of latex over a penis whose responsiveness has been so damaged.
Some men do find that larger-sized condoms, which fit tightly on
the penis shaft and loosely over the glans, a kind of temporary
foreskin, do feel better.
The present generation of men ages 17 to 25 were born when the
U.S. rate of circumcision peaked at 85 to 90 percent, after
steadily rising for over 125 years since U.S. mass medical
circumcision began. The rate has dropped to 50 to 60 percent
nationally now, but that still means over a million medical
circumcisions annually at a cost of more than $300 million.
Hopefully the circumcision rate will continue to drop and with it
the rate of STDs and unwanted pregnancies.
Chester McQueary
National Organization of Circumcision Information Resources
Center-Colorado
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