From Guy Cox
While you report the medical benefits of male circumcision (25 November, p 8), I was a little taken aback by the discussion of its downsides in the boxed article “To snip or not to snip”.
You are right in saying that there has been relatively little research into the effects of circumcision on sexual pleasure, though you omit to mention that there has been one recent and substantial contribution on this topic. This was the Australian survey of over 10,000 men by Juliet Richters and colleagues, which showed that circumcised men were much less likely to experience pain in intercourse, and were also less likely to have sexual difficulties after the age of 50. What is clear is that few though these studies are, they all show that circumcision is sexually beneficial.
Sydney, Australia
