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AIDS study shows limits of circumcision's benefits

A number of studies showing that circumcision among men reduces their risk of infection with the AIDS virus has raised the hope that the procedure would also benefit their female sexual partners.

But the expectations were challenged on Sunday by a new study showing that male circumcision conferred no indirect benefit to the female partners and, indeed, increased the risk if the couples resumed sex before the circumcision wound was fully healed, usually in about a month.

The study did confirm the benefit of male circumcision in lowering the incidence of herpes and other genital ulcers among men.

Findings of the study, which was conducted in an area of high incidence of HIV, the AIDS virus, were reported at the 15th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

Although the findings did not reach statistical significance, they still underscore the need for more effective education among men who undergo circumcision and their female partners, the authors of the study said.

The study, conducted by a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Uganda, is believed to be the first clinical trial to provide scientific data on the effects on women of circumcision in their male partners.

In the study, all the men and women agreed in writing to participate after they were informed about other ways to prevent HIV infection, wound care and abstention from sex after the surgical circumcision.

The men were offered free condoms and the couples were counseled and tested for HIV.

There were 1,015 HIV-infected men who agreed to having circumcision immediately or waiting two years for purposes of a scientific control group. The timing was chosen at random, researchers said.

The analysis focused on the 161 couples who enrolled at the same time and in which the men were infected but their spouses were not.
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