Will circumcision save your skin? That’s still a question following the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) circumcision statement in March. AAP’s new head count concluded that although cut men may be at reduced risk for HIV, behavior is a “far more important” factor, and the potential benefits are not significant enough to recommend a routine clip. “The data is compelling in the HIV area,” said the AAP task force’s Alan Fleischman, MD. “But circumcision should not be considered a primary method of decreasing HIV transmission.”

AAP’s 1989 task force chairman, Edgar Schoen, MD, isn’t folding his hand, however: “There are 40 studies showing that [uncut] men are at three times the risk of contracting HIV,” he said. Ronald Goldman, author of Circumcision: The Hidden Trauma, said AAP’s 1989 statement was widely misinterpreted as an endorsement of circumcision when in fact its position was neutral.