Circumcision: Why Are We Doing This?

This week, we’re entering the foreskin firestorm. We’re asking: what are the risks of circumcision? And are there any medical be

This week, we’re entering the foreskin firestorm. We’re asking: what are the risks of circumcision? And are there any medical benefits? To find out we talk to pediatric urologist Andrew Freedman, HIV researcher Godfrey Kigozi, and sex researcher Caroline Pukall.

Check out the full transcript here.

Selected readings: 

• The American Academy of Pediatrics technical report, which Andrew helped write
• A thoughtful opinion piece from Andrew
• The trial in Uganda that Godfrey co-authored
• Caroline’s team’s penis-poking study
• Another paper from Caroline’s team on how men feel about their circumcisions

Credits: 
This episode has been produced by Rose Rimler, with help from Wendy Zukerman, along with Shruti Ravindran and Meryl Horn. Our senior producer is Kaitlyn Sawrey. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Additional editing help from Caitlin Kenney. Extra thanks to Soraya Shockley and Saidu Tejan-Thomas. Fact checking by Michelle Harris. Mix and sound design by Emma Munger. Music written by Bobby Lord and Emma Munger. Recording assistance from Gideon Brower, Ryan Delaney, Tom Wayne Harris, and Bahizi Ignatius. For this episode, we also spoke to Dr. Jenn Bossio, Dr. Aaron Tobian, and a bunch of folks at the CDC. Thank you so much. A special thanks to the parents and circumcised men who spoke with us for this story, as well as Frank Lopez, the Zukerman Family, and Joseph Lavelle Wilson.

There are a lot of fads, blogs and strong opinions, but then there’s SCIENCE. Science Vs is the show from Gimlet Media that finds out what’s fact, what’s not, and what’s somewhere in between. We do the hard work of sifting through all the science so you don't have to. This season we tackle alcohol, fasting diets, DNA tests, race and the fertility cliff.