About Circumcision and STDs -Health post-Vestigial organs and evolution

Well, this ECOLOGY AND HEALTH blog was CREATED to  include my entry on health and healthier lifestyle patterns in addition to my ecology posts. I have so far ignored this aim of mine on this blog.
This prolly is the first of my health blogs on this blog.
I just left a comment on WHITE COAT UNDERGROUND on his blog post about circumcision and how it might just be unnecessary as a routine elective in newborns.
As a physician myself, I left my two cents there on his blog.Thought I might share my comment here with my own readers.
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Here goes my comment:(As of oct 2013,I have slightly modified the ACTUAL comment I posted on his blog .I have also PARAPHRASED and added a wee bit extra to my original comment )

About circumcision
It is a procedure that is devised with the premise that the foreskin is an unnecessary part of the body( a vestigial organ if you may) , something we could do without.

At this rate , a kidney is one too. A vestigial organ that is.
Afterall , we can do without a pair. A single functioning kidney is actually enough TO KEEP A HUMAN ALIVE and functioning normally!


coming back to the point in question.

For some reason, I fail to accept the theory of vestigial organs altogether.

You see, I don't think that centuries and thousands of years of evolution would allow for vestigial organs to remain in our bodies at all. Obviously,each organ,we ASSUME is vestigial,IS NOT vestigial at all.It has functions,that we as a medical and research community HAVEN'T figured out yet.

It just is that we as scientists haven't yet figured out the biological function of say The appendix or the foreskin or thymus or other such organs,which we often discount as dispensible organs.

Like you said, the best way to prevent STD's is a condom (male and female condoms) and also perhaps abstinence and single sexual partners.

Circumcision of the newborn,assuming that newborn  brain won't retain the memory of SURGERY OR SURGERY ASSOCIATED PAIN,is UNSCIENTIFIC. and definitely NOT a smart way to prevent STDs.Like I said,let an adult use condoms to prevent STDs..


 With regards to all those other problems associated with an intact foreskin or prepuce, like phimosis, I think, a good genital hygeine and prevention of accumulation of stuff between the foreskin and shaft is so important to prevent such diseases instead of doing DRASTIC PROCEDURES like newborn circumcision.

Yes,we do perform circumcision,IN A CHILD, who comes to the clinic,with a case OF PHIMOSIS..because obviously,the parent is INCAPABLE of giving the kid clean baths and keeping the kid's genitalia clean.
Dear parents of male children who are not yet capable of taking their own baths,please retract the prepuce whatever little you can,clean with mild soap and warm water while giving a bath to your male kid.

I always tell my male patients to retract and clean while in the shower just so that things or secretions don't first accumulate there and then lead to infections and then finally we end up doing emergency circumcisions in adults. I am sure the body needs the foreskin  to protect the penile tip,which has thinner skin than the rest of the penis too.
Also,women, while taking showers,must make it a point,to use their fingers to slightly separate their labia majora and minora and clean with MILD soap and warm water too.
GENITALIA HYGEINE is a great way to avoid URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS AND some genital infections  too.k?

Tags: #genitalia,#circumcision_in_newborn, #elective_surgical_procedures_in_newborn, #vestigial_organs,#evolution, #std, #how_to_clean_genitialis,#how_to_give_male_toddlers_a_bath