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Introduction: The frequency of adverse events (AEs) is a widely used indicator of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) programme quality. Though over 11.7 million male circumcisions (MCs) have been performed, little published data exists on the profile of AEs from mature, large-scale programmes. No published data exists on routine implementation of PrePex, a device-based MC method. Methods: The ZAZIC Consortium began implementing VMMC in Zimbabwe in 2013, supporting services at 36 facilities. Aggregate data on VMMC outputs are collected monthly from each facility. Detailed forms are completed describing the profile of each moderate and severe AE. Bivariate and multivariable analyses were conducted using log-binomial regression models. Results: From October 2014 through September 2015, 44,868 clients were circumcised with 156 clients experiencing a moderate or severe AE. 96.2% of clients had a follow-up visit within 14 days of their procedure. AEs were uncommon, with 0.3% (116/41,416) of surgical and 1.2% (40/3,452) of PrePex clients experiencing a moderate or severe AE. After adjusting for VMMC site, we found that PrePex was associated with a 3.29-fold (95% CI: 1.78-6.06) increased risk of experiencing an AE compared to surgical procedures. Device displacements, when the PrePex device is intentionally or accidentally dislodged during the 7-day placement period, accounted for 70% of PrePex AEs. The majority of device displacements were intentional self-removals. Overall, infection was the most common AE among VMMC clients. Compared to clients aged 20 and above, clients aged 10-14 were 3.07-fold (95% CI: 1.36-6.91) more likely to experience an infection and clients aged 15-19 were 1.80-fold (95% CI: 0.82-3.92) more likely to experience an infection, adjusted for site. Conclusions: This exploratory analysis found that clients receiving PrePex were more likely to experience an AE than surgical circumcision clients. This is largely attributable to the occurrence of device displacements, which require prompt access to corrective surgical MC procedures as part of their clinical management. Most device displacements were self-removals which are preventable if client behaviour could be modified through counselling interventions. We also found that infection after MC is more common among younger clients, who may benefit from additional counselling or increased parental involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the moral aspect of male and female genital reshaping in Kenya in response to a paper by Brian Earp on moral relativism involving female genital mutilation (FGM). Earp's arguments about FGM are supported based on various contexts including the use of surgical reshaping of the genitals as a social practice acceptable to the community, the adoption of the enhancement principle as a global standard, and the hipocrisy among activists opposing the procedure.

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The article discusses the contribution of historian Xanthus to the history of history of Lydia known as Lydiaca. Topics discussed include attributes of Xanthus like the very first person to make eunuchs of women, preservation of the fragment in the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus of Naucratis, Lydian practice of female circumcision, and the enterpretation of ethnologist George Devereux regarding the cauterization and scarification of the external genitalia.

Objective: To report on the prevalence and demographic variation in circumcision in Australia and examine sexual health outcomes in comparison with earlier research. Methods: A representative household sample of 4,290 Australian men aged 16-64 years completed a computer-assisted telephone interview including questions on circumcision status, demographic variables, reported lifetime experience of selected sexually transmissible infections (STIs), experience of sexual difficulties in the previous 12 months, masturbation, and sexual practices at last heterosexual encounter. Results: More than half the men (58%) were circumcised. Circumcision was less common (33%) among men under 30 and more common (66%) among those born in Australia. After adjustment for age and number of partners, circumcision was unrelated to STI history except for non-specific urethritis (higher among circumcised men, OR=2.11, p Conclusions: Circumcision appears to have minimal protective effects on sexual health in Australia. Key words: circumcision, male, Australia, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual behaviour, sexual dysfunctions, psychological sexual dysfunction. Aust NZ J Public Health. 2010; 34:160-4 doi: 10.1111/j.1753-6405.2010.00501.x

Background: The success of health programs is influenced not only by their acceptability but also their ability to meet and respond to community expectations of service delivery. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) have recommended medical male circumcision (MC) as an essential component of comprehensive HIV prevention programs in high burden settings. This study investigated community-level perceptions of MC for HIV prevention in Papua New Guinea (PNG), a setting where diverse traditional and contemporary forms of penile foreskin cutting practices have been described. Methods: A multi-method qualitative study was undertaken in four provinces in two stages from 2009 to 2011. A total of 82 in-depth interviews, and 45 focus group discussions were completed during Stage 1. Stage 2 incorporated eight participatory workshops that were an integral part of the research dissemination process to communities. The workshops also provided opportunity to review key themes and consolidate earlier findings as part of the research process. Qualitative data analysis used a grounded theory approach and was facilitated using qualitative data management software. Results: A number of diverse considerations for the delivery of MC for HIV prevention in PNG were described, with conflicting views both between and within communities. Key issues included: location of the service, service provider, age eligibility, type of cut, community awareness and potential shame amongst youth. Key to developing appropriate health service delivery models was an appreciation of the differences in expectations and traditions of unique cultural groups in PNG. Establishing strong community coalitions, raising awareness and building trust were seen as integral to success. Conclusions: Difficulties exist in the implementation of new programs in a pluralistic society such as PNG, particularly if tensions arise between biomedical knowledge and medico-legal requirements, compared to existing socio-cultural interests. Community participatory approaches offer important opportunities to explore and design culturally safe, specific and accessible programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background Circumcision is efficacious in reducing HIV acquisition in heterosexual males. The South Africa government has been reluctant to adopt a national circumcision programme, possibly due to concerns that circumcision may result in decreased condom use.Objective To identify the determinants of demand for male circumcision, to examine variations by ethnicity, and to determine whether it is demanded to avoid condom use.Methods 403 parents and 237 sons in Johannesburg, South Africa, were recruited through a randomized household survey, with oversampling to balance between blacks (n = 220), ‘coloured’ (mixed ethnicity) (n = 202) and whites (n = 218). The demand for male circumcision was estimated using a conjoint analysis, with each respondent randomly receiving four tasks comparing seven possible benefits—six identified through key informant interviews and one for condom avoidance. Respondents’ choices were analysed using logistic regression, including stratified analyses to test for homogeneity.Results Overall, circumcision’s beneficial effects on HIV transmission (P < 0.001), sexually transmitted infection (STI) transmission (P < 0.001), hygiene (P < 0.05) and sex (P < 0.05) were identified as determinants of demand, but the condom avoidance hypothesis was rejected as it was ‘repulsive’ to respondents (P < 0.001). Consistent results were found for blacks (P < 0.001) and coloured (P < 0.001), but not for whites who found condom avoidance attractive (P < 0.04), a result not explained by variations in wealth, age or paternal circumcision status.Conclusions Male circumcision programmes should be tailored to accommodate variations in the determinants of demand across the target population. We find that circumcision’s protective effect against HIV acquisition in men is the only determinant to be found consistently across all ethnic groups in Johannesburg. We also find that concerns over condom avoidance may have been overstated. This said, male circumcision strategies should reinforce a range of HIV prevention strategies, including condom use, as we find evidence that whites may view circumcision as a means to avoid condom use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1960s in the northern Cameroon, the Nyam-Nyam (or Nizaa) performed rites of passage, where boys were circumcised and underwent lengthy initiation rites. Since the rituals are no longer performed, several occasions are described and the question of their demise is examined. (Rites of passage, circumcision, identity, Nyam-Nyam/Nizaa, Cameroon) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes and analyses an umgidi, a celebratory feast that usually accompanies the final 'coming out' phase of circumcision, among farm workers in the Sundays River Valley, Eastern Cape. Anthropological monographs describing circumcision rituals among Xhosa-speakers appear not to discuss such a feast at all, despite this event being familiar to most rural and urban Xhosa-speakers, particularly in the western half of the Eastern Cape. In the absence of comparative information, this article introduces an umgidi feast as a multi-vocal event that comments on the spatial, performative and practice-oriented elements of life among workers in the Sundays River Valley. I show that farm workers have a definite sense of identity and place connected to the occupation of land as labour tenants and later as labourers. Their conservative rural values are closely associated with the memories of previous land occupation, but are also combined with experiences of displacement, so that memories of lost land directly inform the creation of current identities. An umgidi feast allows the unification of fragmented groups of kin and clan, and provides an opportunity for workers to articulate the pressures of modern farm employment. The prominence of female workers at umgidi feasts also heightens the use of domestic space as an idiom for commentary on experiences of disruption and labour domination. Broadly, the article contributes to an understanding of ritual among displaced communities in southern Africa, particularly labour tenants and farm workers on white farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue Anthropologie et Sociétés is the property of Anthropologie et Societies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article investigates the history of whether male circumcision should be promoted as a preventive measure against the transmission of HIV. The section aims to analyze whether such a procedure would be safe and secure or not, and if it is the best alternative available in particular communities. The author argues that the issue cannot be easily decided through the employment of unclear clinical-scientific principles, and it cannot replace the real need for thorough social and behavioral changes to retard the spread of HIV.

DESPITE GLOBAL CONCERN about the harmful effects of female genital mutilation (FGM), some still believe that it is a tradition that must be upheld. Male involvement in the practice has been debated over the years. This paper has two objectives: first, to present the views of men about their intention to circumcise their daughters in the future; and second, to identify factors associated with their intention to do this. To investigate this, the study analyzed cross-sectional data on FGM collected in the Kassena-Nankana District of northern Ghana in 1998. The study found that 14 percent of male respondents expressed their interest in circumcising their daughters in the future. Regression analysis showed that the odds of intending to circumcise one's daughter in the future were higher among those practicing traditional religion and the less educated, than among those professing Christianity and the highly educated The results call for intensification of efforts to eradicate the practice of FGM particularly in settings where every critical event in the life cycle of individuals is accompanied by rites involving soothsayer (ancestral) consultation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on an ethnographic research that examined how the Maasi people in Africa and their youth perceive and adapt to changes in their material and social conditions. According to the article, the economic and political realities of the 21st century are pressuring and changing life for the Maasai in multiple ways. It is noted in the article that in Kenya, the most prevalent discussion of cultural loss surrounded circumcision ceremonies. The research concluded that the emphasis on education in Kenya as an integral part of development and the expense that it may be having on cultural identity is a complicated one.

In a generation, Australia has changed from a country where most boys are circumcised in infancy to one where circumcision is the minority experience. Proponents argue that routine circumcision is desirable because it protects against a number of conditions. Yet circumcision can be seen rather as a sociocultural intervention with post hoc medical justification. As a form of body modification, it serves to exaggerate the visual difference between male and female. Reducing the ambiguity and untidiness of the penis turns it into a neat phallus more specifically fitted for what is seen as its purpose in a gendered sexual culture focused on coitus. Does circumcision reduce penile sensitivity? Applying the methods of evidence-based medicine to this question has problems, centrally that of how 'sensitivity' is to be measured. The nature of the loss is in a sense 'unspeakable' and for many people unimaginable, because the reception of delicate sensation is not part of their notion of masculine sexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social and cultural integration of hemophilic boys into society is one of the most important cornerstones of modern hemophilia therapy. Circumcision, a traditional procedure, is an important ritual for Muslims and Jews and an important social problem for the hemophiliac patient and his family. The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychosocial dimension of circumcision and the opinions of parents and children. A total of 105 hemophiliac patients and parents were interviewed and surveyed. Of these, 94% of the parents of uncircumcised patients wanted circumcision for their children. Most parents saw circumcision as a mandatory procedure. Hemophilic boys (60%) and their parents (82%) have an inferiority complex because the boys are unable to be circumcised. Bleeding risk is the primary reason of anxiety (70%). The parents of all the circumcised patients were happy after circumcision. In conclusion, circumcision is an important social problem of hemophilic patients that needs to be solved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of routine medical circumcision of newborn male infants remains the norm in the United States, occurring to more than one million baby boys annually. This article examines the [...]

The authors examine evidence on circumcision as a method of lowering levels of pheromones in pubescent males. The cultural and religious aspects, previous studies, and consequences of circumcision are examined.

Discusses the medical transformation of circumcision in the United States. Circumcision as a ritual; Role of Lewis Sayre in the prevalence of neonatal circumcision in American clinical medicine in the 1870s; Beliefs concerning circumcision; Circumcision as a preventive operation during the 1880s and 1890s; Social aspects of circumcision Reinforcement of the social meaning of circumcision.

The dominant discourses surrounding male and female genital cutting are explored. Suggestions state that certain problematic understandings of male and female sexuality are deeply implicated in the dominant Western discourses on genital surgery.

The scare over HIV-AIDS is the main reason why circumcision is on the rise today, even in parts of the world where it had never been thought of. A tabular data of the incidence of HIV infection and male circumcision in selected countries are analyzed.

During three years of follow-up, a cohort of HIV-negative Ugandan men who underwent circumcision did not appear to compensate for taking this preventive measure by adopting riskier sexual behaviors to [...]

The author presents a history of circumcision from the Bible and from Jewish culture, and offers his own perspectives on the procedure upon refusing to have his sons circumcised when they are born.