Need impartial opinions about my blog post

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I wrote a post about circumcision on my blog today and tried to present some rates and probabilities about HIV infection in the US.

If you have some time, would you mind reading it and letting me know if what I wrote makes sense?  (Not necessarily if you agree or disagree - although you can include that too)

It's more of a personal blog entry, but since my blog is public, I want to make sure an entry on such a controversial topic is at least understandable and not too inflammatory (friends and family read my blog and I want to be educational without starting a war).

Thank you.

pixieprincss

This is a topic that I truly enjoy talking about the ethical dimensions of, but even with that interest your post was too long for me. If your readers are number-based people than it will be probably be fine. If they are not then it may be overwhelming.

Food for thought--not that these numbers exist right now-- I'd love to see some info on how condom use, sexual education, and sexual culture (number of partners, monogamy vs. serial monogamy vs. promiscuity, etc.) play into this as well. (For example, does the US' culture of condom use pretty much wipe out the benefit of circumcision?) . It will be interesting to see what else we learn as our little boys grow up and have kids of their own (should they so choose). It is a fascinating topic!

lolagrinnin

1 - Very well written. I get horribly confused if I think too hard about statistics, and I understood it.

2 (and the real reason I'm replying) - Love your siggy pic - you have a crazy cute family.

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pixieprincess - yes, it is long - so boredom to quit reading is better than anger to quit reading, but I'll see what I can do to make it less text heavy.  Thanks.

 lolagrinnin - thank you for your compliment!  Your daughter is very cute too.

Allie30

nice post. i remember this topic coming up a lot on the pregnancy boards, and i never understood it. if i were a circumcised male, i STILL would not be relying on that surgery to (somewhat) protect me from the threat of hiv. condoms are cheap and easily acquired.

my children are getting safe sex drummed into their heads so hard they'll never think about going to bed without it. i didn't have sex without a condom until i was married. the first time i had sex without using birth control i got pregnant -- even my doctor was shocked by how quickly we conceived. (and we've been together nine years -- take THAT safe sex naysayers). if my kids have fertility like my husband and me, they'll be careful!

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fredalina:

I thought it was well-written and understandable, but I'm a numbers nerd.

I do have a question about the study (and consequently the math), though. Is it true that in the study they were certain the men all had sex with infected women? I haven't read the study but that seems highly unethical if so. If not then wouldn't the portion of the equation that dealt with the likelihood of sex with an infected woman (in Africa) already be included in the infection rate? Not that it changes the overall answer.

You also don't address the other major health "benefit" often cited by pro-circ people, which is increase in UTIs and "risk of infection" due to cleanliness in general.

No the probability of infection was estimated from the data - the researchers weren't making anyone sleep with anyone else.  I haven't researched the UTI argument as much, but I'm not sure if there's conclusive evidence.  I think it might be a correlation type thing: people who don't wash well get uti's.  uncirc'ed men have more to do to stay clean and a higher % don't wash well. therefore, uncirc'ed men get more uti's.  But it's the washing that affects the uti, not the circ'ing.  But this is just a guess, I haven't read any actual literature on this.

Ananke

I think it was written well, and was easy to understand, but I also have a background in mathematics. 

The one thing that bothers me is that you use only HIV as a public health issue, when there are many other public health issues that concern circumcision, including what a pp mentioned as well as other infections and cancer, for both the male and female partners, and how the procedure is different (both physically and emotionally) as an adult vs. as a baby.  Yes, much of the risk for cancers and UTIs and such have to do with cleanliness, but that is a problem if it leads to other issues!  I'm not saying circumcision is right or wrong and am not trying to start a debate, but to talk about "public health issues" and only discuss one problem doesn't help your argument. 

I know that circumcision is a highly personal and touchy subject, and like I said, I'm not trying to sway anyone one way or another - I know there are studies that show results favoring both camps, I just wanted to mention that if you are going for an argumentative type post, you might want to mention some of the other types of health issues as well.

 BTW, I like the look of your blog - it's simple and classy.