A questions about circumcision?!

A questions about circumcision?

What's the point of circumcision? And besides religious beliefs, why do some people do it and others not?

Besides religious reasons most people do it because "it's the thing to do" culturally or socially. Basically for aesthetic reasons. Outside religious reasons, there are several claims to circumcision that many (if not most) people believe that have been proven rather false.

Some people believe the circumcised penis is cleaner or more hygienic, requiring less maintanence. In actuality, the uncircumcised penis is very easy to clean and keep clean (link 1). Furthermore, the newly circumcised penis in infants requires constant care and monitoring for the first 2 weeks or so, to make sure there's no complications or infections (assuming the procedure goes well).

Some people belive that a circumcised guy is less prone to infections and/or STDs. Most studies actually show no significant difference between a circumcised and uncircumcised guy in regards to getting STDs. There have been recent studies that say circumcision may decreas the rate of getting HIV, but other studies show that proper genital hygiene essentially negates this supposed benefit of circumcision on HIV (link 2). So it can be seen that good genital hygiene can prevent/minimize a lot of later problems, and can even be consider the great equalizer.

At one time people believed that circumcision was an ultra-cure because it prevents masturbation, doing so by decreasing the sensitivity of the penis. This was when masturbation was blamed as the source of many diseases including epilepsy and insanity. While circumcision does decrease sensitivity (link 3) - and also potentially the satisfaction/pleasure of everyone (link 4, 5) - it does nothing to even decrease the frequency of masturbation.

But, there are some valid reasons to get circumcised. Sometimes, albeit rarely (in less than 5% of uncircumcised men), there may be problems involving the foreskin that can't otherwise be remedied. Such cases involve extreme phimosis (where the foreskin opening is so tight/narrow that it can't be pulled back and erections are painful) and recurrent & frequent irritations/infections.

So other than religious reasons, a lot of people are erroneously circumcised out of a wrong belief that the circumcised penis is cleaner, less prone to infections/STDs, and is simply better. Most studies show that it either makes to no difference or it's the exact opposite (well, the foreskin's probably there for a reason).

And lastly, it might be worth mentioning that about 70-80% of the world's male population is uncircumcised, a fact that many people/societies that circumcise either don't know or find surprising. See the remaining links for further discussion on the issue.