In Australia today, fewer than 20 per cent of boys are circumcised. When considering circumcision for your child, you should be aware of the possible risks and benefits.
Most boys born in Australia around 1950 were circumcised. Since then, there has been a big move away from circumcision. Now less than 20% of Australian boys are circumcised. The only major western country where circumcision is very common is the United States.
Present. Rates vary widely, from over 90% in Israel and many Muslim-majority countries, 86.3% in South Korea, to 80% in the United States, to 58% in Australia, to 45% in South Africa, to 20.7% in the United Kingdom, to under 1% in Japan and Honduras.
Bivariate analysis. Almost 60% of men reported that they would prefer to be circumcised and 76% of women stated a preference for circumcised sexual partners.
But also, uncircumcised penises are completely normal.
Since babies are born with their foreskins intact, uncircumcised penises are actually the biological default. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with circumcised penises—just that there's nothing wrong with uncircumcised penises, either.
Circumcised men take longer to reach ejaculation, which can be viewed as "an advantage, rather than a complication," writes lead researcher Temucin Senkul, a urologist with GATA Haydarpasa Training Hospital in Istanbul, Turkey.
For Muslims, male circumcision is performed for religious reasons, mainly to follow the sunnah (practice) of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Moreover, there are attempts to label it as a contributor to cleanliness / personal hygiene.
In Japan, routine male circumcision has never been implemented for newborns and children, and adult males are mostly circumcised at aesthetic clinics. However, media reports indicate a trend of Japanese mothers willing to have their sons circumcised.
The estimate indicates that circumcision is higher among countries where the Muslim or Jewish faith are commonplace, such as Iran (100 per cent), Iraq (99 per cent), West Bank (99 per cent), Yemen (99 per cent), Indonesia (93 per cent), Syria (93 per cent), and Israel (92 per cent).
Circumcision is a common procedure carried out around the world. Due to religious reasons, it is routinely done in Bangladesh, by both traditional as well as medically trained circumcisers. Complications include excessive bleeding, loss of foreskin, infection, and injury to the glans penis.
In the middle of the last century, most Canadian boys were circumcised. However, the rate of neonatal circumcision has declined over time to the current Canadian average of 32%, with significant regional variability.
According to studies, most Canadian boys were circumcised in the middle 1900's, but the procedure has declined since the turn of the century to an average of about 32 per cent of newborns in Canada having the surgery. The Canadian Paediatric Society does not recommend routine circumcision for every newborn boy.
Australia has seen a decrease in circumcision rates over the last 70 years or so. Back in the 1950s, roughly 80 per cent of Australian men and boys were circumcised. That rate has steadily decreased and now, around 20 per cent of Australian newborns are circumcised.
Most circumcisions are performed for family, cultural or religious reasons. In Australia today, fewer than 20 per cent of boys are circumcised. When considering circumcision for your child, you should be aware of the possible risks and benefits.
The Royal Australasian College says routine infant circumcision is not warranted in Australia or New Zealand; but it also recognises the procedure continues as a religious or cultural ritual.
Although circumcision in South Korea is not of a religious nature and has been strongly influenced by Americans, it has never been predominantly neonatal. The circumcision age has continued to decrease, and boys are now circumcised at around age 12.
However, in China, MC is not a common practice; less than 5% males are circumcised and many of these procedures were carried to alleviate medical complaints such as tight foreskin [12].
Male circumcision is strongly identified with religion in India. It is only practised among Muslims, who constitute over 13% of the population, which amounts to a large number in a country of over one billion people.
Circumcision is also standard in the United States and parts of Southeast Asia and Africa, but is rare in Europe, Latin America, and most of Asia. A personal preference in favor of circumcision is more common in Anglophone countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Sikh infants are not circumcised. Sikhism does not require circumcision of either males or females, and criticizes the practice.
Today, many Christian denominations are neutral about ritual male circumcision, not requiring it for religious observance, but neither forbidding it for cultural or other reasons.
Is male circumcision for babies common in the UK? It's estimated that approximately 20% of males in the UK are circumcised (Morris et al, 2016). Circumcision is more usual in certain cultural or religious communities.
Before that, 1800s American doctors also recommended circumcision to American families, mainly for cleanliness and reduction of infections. It's popular because the health benefits are more well understood and appreciated.
About 9% of men in the UK are now circumcised according to WHO figures (other estimates are slightly higher). Meanwhile in the US, circumcision came to be so widespread, "it became part of how people viewed the normal body," says Gollaher.