Christopher Saigal, an associate professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, often sees uncircumcised men in his practice seeking circumcisions for medical reasons, including phimosis, recurring urinary tract infections and genital warts. Occasionally he also hears from men who regret having been circumcised. Though anecdotally men report otherwise, the argument that an uncircumcised penis is more sensitive than a circumcised one is not well supported in the literature, he says. A recent controlled study published in the January issue of BJU International, the British Journal of Urology, looked at nearly 4, Ugandan men, ages 15 to 49, who were all sexually experienced. Researchers randomly selected half to undergo circumcision, and half to have a circumcision in 24 months.

Specifically, the foreskin—that little jigger of skin that is like a hood for the penis head. But now circumcision has come under attack. Others point to the babies who got herpes during Jewish circumcision rituals. Still others have drawn pro-foreskin comics that are a little anti-Semitic. In the midst of the controversy, we took to the streets to ask ordinary people if they liked their cocks circumcised or uncircumcised.

Articles that met the inclusion criteria were rated for quality using the SIGN system. Database searches identified 29 publications with original data for inclusion, including 22 for aim i and 4 of these and 7 others pertaining to aim ii. In the overwhelming majority of studies, women expressed a preference for the circumcised penis. The main reasons given for this preference were better appearance, better hygiene, reduced risk of infection, and enhanced sexual activity, including vaginal intercourse, manual stimulation, and fellatio.