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  • We ALL know the penis is a sensitive organ, and yet there are many who choose cut off

  • a chunk of their kids' manhood -- but what does this DO to

  • the penis?

  • The practice of circumcision dates back thousands of years, popping up in ancient cultures in

  • Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas independently, before any knew the other existed.

  • It's practiced in Muslim, Christian and Jewish populations.

  • Worldwide rates vary, but in the U.S. from 1980 to 1999, 65 percent of babies were cut,

  • and today, it's closer to 56 percent; rates have been falling since 1960.

  • Nationally, three out of four babies getting the procedure in the Midwest, two thirds in

  • the Northeast, a little over half in the south, and only a fifth in the West!

  • Circumcision is the act of slicing the foreskin off the penis.

  • A natural penis has skin covering its head, but a circumcised one does not.

  • A DiscoveryNews.com article describes the foreskin as an "eyelid for the penis," which

  • is a weird analogy but they are similar in that there's a mucous membrane on the inside.

  • The adult foreskin is about 12 square inches, of skin containing specialized nerve endings.

  • From a sexual standpoint, circumcision removes one third of the erogenous tissue of the male

  • genetalia -- as the penis and clitoris come from the same fetal tissue, the analogous

  • organ to the foreskin is the clitoral hood!

  • Obviously, there is a TON of debate as to the real benefit of circumcision; and it doesn't

  • help that the policies keep shifting.

  • In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement calling the practice into

  • question, saying the risks didn't outweigh the benefits, but now a new compilation study

  • done by the Mayo Clinic claims the benefits outweigh the risks 100 to 1!

  • According to their findings, over their lifetime half of all men will require some kind of

  • foreskin-related medical attention; circumcision reduces risks of "urinary tract infection,

  • prostate cancer, sexually transmitted diseases" and the risk of cervical cancer is reduced

  • for the female partners of cut men.

  • In fact, the World Health Organization recommend the procedure for any country attempting to

  • battle HIV infection.

  • Now you might be thinking, wait, the United Nation's World Health Organization has a pruned

  • penis policy?

  • Yeah, it does.

  • And a 2010 study from Plos ONE explains why

  • See, the foreskin isn't just an extra bit on the bits.

  • Because the foreskin is a protective, mucous-membrane layer, it also attracts bacteria -- actually,

  • according to the study, the foreskin has it's own microbiome!

  • For the study, researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health looked under

  • the hood of uncircumcised penises, and found anaerobic bacteria, those are bacteria which

  • live without oxygen.

  • Studying Ugandan men before and after circumcision, they discovered, that this previously unknown

  • anaerobic bacteria disappeared in the year they were cut; forever altering the individual

  • microbiome of the male penis.

  • It is known from other studies that Langerhans cells normally live under the foreskin as

  • well, and are commonly attacked by HIV, so perhaps that's why HIV transmission is so

  • much lower with circumcised men?

  • They're still figuring this out.

  • In the end, the practice is ancient and fascinating, but is it necessary?

  • Not at all, and there's still a roaring debate about removing a third of the penile erogenous

  • tissue, issues of cleanliness, not to mention possible side-effects the major trauma!

We ALL know the penis is a sensitive organ, and yet there are many who choose cut off

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