Patient observed sterile treatment for male circumcision
Why?
This page is included because some religious traditions promote circumcision, so men may not easily be able to refuse. From 2008, a massive pro-circumcision effort has been been fueled by foreign money and justified by badly-reported (incompletely-reported) research. Circumcision involves a lot of possible blood exposures through instruments and injections. In addition, removing the foreskin effects men’s sensitivity and sexual experience. Circumcision may (for the sake of argument) reduce a man’s risk to get HIV during sex, but to be 100% safe men would still need to use condoms with known or potentially HIV-positive partners. Other pages on this website discuss the ongoing controversy related to foreign funding and promotion of circumcising men in Africa.
Risk to get HIV from a circumcision
If your provider reuses a syringe and/or needle from an HIV-positive person without any effort to clean, and takes local anesthetic from an opened multi-dose vial, your risk to get HIV from an injection of local anesthetic may be estimated at 3%-10% (see sections on injections and blood-borne risks). If the provider reuses other instruments from an HIV-positive man without any effort to clean, your risk to get HIV from a circumcision could exceed 10%.
Leaving aside controversies, if you want to be circumcised, don’t get HIV from the procedure:
| POST for male circumcision |
| 1. Avoid skin-piercing procedures |
You can choose not to be circumcised. |
| 2. Use new disposable instruments |
If your provider cooperates: (a) Agree that the instruments will be new disposables – razor, surgical blade, etc. This applies to both traditional circumcisions outside medical settings and circumcisions in clinics. (b) Make sure the provider uses new disposable gloves. If you are circumcised with other men, make sure the provider puts on new gloves for you. (c) If the provider is going to use anesthetic, ask him or her to take the syringe and needle from a new package in front of you and to take anesthetic from a single-dose vial; or ask if you can buy and bring (see Injection section).
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| 3. You sterilize the instruments |
If you are circumcised at home, and the provider uses a special instrument, you can boil this before the event to be sure it is sterile. |
| 4. Ask providers how they sterilize instruments |
If the provider cooperates: Ask if and how he/she sterilized reused instruments. |
Evidence that men have gotten HIV during circumcision
Several papers report evidence boys and men got HIV and other blood-borne infections while getting circumcised in medical clinics or from traditional procedures.
Bloodborne HIV: Don't Get Stuck! 