Circumcision Reduces Cervical Cancer Risk, Study

A cervical cancer study suggest that women who have sex with circumcised men have lower rates of cervical cancer, and the men themselves are less likely to develop genital warts. The study says that men with intact foreskins were three times more likely than circumcised men to be infected with the human papillomavirus. That, in turn, may increase the risk of passing the virus on to their sex partners.

The study, conducted by researchers in the Philippines, Spain, Brazil, Colombia and Thailand looked at 3,800 women, half of whom have cervical cancer, half of whom were cancer-free. The researchers found that women whose high-risk partners who were not circumcised were five times more likely to get cancer than those whose partners were circumcised. High-risked men were defined as those who had at least six sex partners and started having sex before 17. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.