Study: Male circumcision just after birth does not increase autism risk
https://hub.jhu.edu/2026/08/05/male-circumcision-just-after-birth-does-not-increase-autism-risk/Open linkView original on lemmy.worldSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on lemmy.worldhttps://hub.jhu.edu/2026/08/05/male-circumcision-just-after-birth-does-not-increase-autism-risk/Open linkView original on lemmy.world
189 replies
Still genital mutiliation and child sex abuse
Agree. I’m from Europe and I find it very weird how common it is in the US
It's SO common in the US that while growing up I felt ashamed and incredibly self concious of being uncircumsized in high school showers. Life's so strange.
It's not really a thing outside the USA? At least not in Canada anymore. I'm one of a bunch of kids and about halfway through my siblings they stopped recommending it.
Confused the hell out of 8 year old me tasked with giving my 3 year old brother a shower.
Thankfully the millennial generation has started doing away with circumcising our children. Last time I checked, which was admittedly 10 years ago, the circumcision rates were closer to 50/50 in the US.
Update: It's dropped below 50%!
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/2025/09/johns-hopkins-study-newborn-male-circumcision-rates-in-us-dropped-between-2012-and-2022
My husband started out with the "he should look like me.." and then quickly came around after a bit of reading. The Adam Ruins Everything on circumcision is great!
It's good to know it's moving toward not maiming kids. I'm afraid to ask about vaccination rates because my sister's kids are of questionable status on that front, and my sister won't talk about such things. Very alternative hippy type.
I wish the stats were even better than they are now honestly. I think it's a horrendous practice.
Yep, I got teased for it
I feel your pain brother.
I’m from the US and didn’t circumcise my son. It’s really simple. Who doesn’t want more penis? I’d take more penis. Penis is all good. Why subtract penis?
When my older brother had a son he DID circumcise him. When I asked why, he gave me this head shake as if to say “huh? what?” and all he said was “that’s just how they do it at the hospital we went to.”
I mean labor and childbirth are a whirlwind so I don’t blame anyone for losing a detail or two. Unless that detail subtracts a part of my penis. Then we gone fight.
I have a hard time faulting people for following a doctor's recommendation if that's what was going on.
That’s overstating it. There wasn’t even a conversation about it let alone anything as strong as a doctor’s recommendation. More like a default hospital protocol. Which I’m sure you’d agree should be open to question.
The first time I saw an un-circumcised penis was in porn when I was in my early 20s, I think. What little sex ed we had in the rural US in the '80s and early '90s didn't even have an image of one that wasn't circumcised so far as I recall. I thought it was some kind of birth defect or something.
you beat me to that exact phrase 👍
??
I accidentally replied under the wrong comment and deleted within seconds :) Not sure how you managed to reply twice. I see replies sometimes persist in messages/notifications despite being deleted from the thread. Anyway.
lmao... right, carry on!
also, European or not... The US sucks 👍
Yes bit it doesn't cause autism so it's not bad/wrong.
can we still like, stop doing it though ?
No, sorry; tradition.
SKY CAKE
BuT tHe CeReAl MaN sAiD wE sHoUlD!!!1!
It's not mandatory, so... yes!
What kind of craziness would cause a person to think that it might?
Probably the same craziness that causes people to think vaccines cause autism.
I got som’ Tylenol for you if you have coin for me :>
I would hazard a guess, which obviously I don't know if this is what they're really thinking or not, but I would guess that since there are behavioral overlaps between ASD and CPTSD, that somebody might have made the connection.
That being said, there's no evidence that circumcision gives people CPTSD on its own, at least none that I am aware of, and if somebody else knows more than I do, (which is quite easy to do), feel free to educate me.
My partner is triggered if reminded that it's circumcised
Yeah but c'mon, no even halfway-functional adult that doesn't need a constant "breathe in breathe out" soundtrack playing to explain breathing would suspect vaccines of causing autism. That'd be absurd, we all learn their basic workings in middle school or even earlier, they're a very known concept.
Welcome to 2026. Hope your cryo sleep was good. You will find that this kind of craziness is now pervasive.
I. C. Weiner...?
What kind of craziness would cause a person to do it in the first place?
Abusive murderous wizard friend needs his favorite little calamari rings.
I could maybe see how the pain and/or trauma of it could alter how the brain might develop, but even that’s a stretch…
Autism isn't a trauma response!
Especially given the crossover between asd and CPTSD, it doesn’t strike me as an insane thing to look at, but I’m also not surprised it’s not related.
Genital mutiliation and child sexual abuse can have extreme consequences on mental development. It's a (well-intentioned) case of bad cause-effect analysis.
neurospices are stored in the foreskin, when you cut it they get released into the bloodstream! /s
Trauma on infants can cause fears and disorders later in life
You're against circumcision because you believe it causes autism.
I'm against circumcision because I believe genitally mutilating non-consenting infants is an atrocity.
We are not the same.
Well, better than not being against it...
Yeah, honestly if this is a psyop to return a little bit of humanity to the world then I'm alright with it
Agree and all, but to add - I road bike and run ultra marathons. When doing super long distances, you're gonna end up chafing a bit (probably). I would much rather my foreskin get the rub as opposed to THE SENSITIVE TIP OF MY DICK.
You know what really hurts? Water hitting raw skin that's been rubbed in shorts or a bike bib for 4+ hours.
I'm sure it will have negative long term impacts to my ability to be stimulated.
Yeah, something a lot of people don't realize is that circumcized dicks lose a lot of sensitivity due to the excessive friction they go endure throughout each day just by moving around normally.
I read somewhere that intact dicks are basically a mucus membrane underneath the foreskin. That's wild, my dick skin is more like the skin on the back of my hand. No wonder people are so obsessed with sex, it must feel so damn good for uncircumcised people. Something I'll never experience. Damn religion.
i’ve always compared it to eyelids
skin flap helps keep a semi internal organ lubricated and protected
technically not immediately necessary to function but results in major issues after prolonged absence
people get super offended and upset because removing an eyelid would clearly be abuse
lmao fucking americans
This is not even close to the same thing. Your argument is invalid. Stop being so upset about other people's genitals, it is fucking creepy.
It's not the best analogy, sure. Your reaction is worse though. It's like reacting to someone who takes offence at hearing about a knife attack by saying "stop being so upset about other people's internal organs, it is fucking creepy".
hey here’s one in the wild! lmao lmao
Look at it... So twisted in it's view of the world... Fascinating...
So your fine with female circumcision? Or where do you draw the line?
But it does mutilate the child's genitals.
You needed a study to know that circumcising doesn't cause brain structure differences?
This IS idiocracy.
Science!
Fuck yeah!
Who... how could... what?
... ah.
Ah ok I understand now.
"Parents".
Bigotry against autists is so extreme that idiot religious extremists will actually consider one of their more barbaric, senseless, cherished traditions as negotiable, relative to the utter 'horror' of their children potentially being autistic.
Right?‽ the logic of this is just so messed up on both ends
One way or another, they just can't help but to cut you down and fit you into one of their simple little boxes they understand.
No but it is cruel as fuck and rooted in religious bigotry
OK but it is still a barbaric practice and I don't see why we allow it. Just because it is culturally accepted does not make it OK.
No but it is cruel and a gross violation of bodily autonomy that should have huge amounts of jail time attached.
Thank goodness my parents said they would rather have left that choice to me when I was old enough. As an adult, why the fuck would I get circumsized unless you have a specific reason to do it?
I'm jealous that your parents cared enough to let you decide. I wish mine had done the same.
As for why you would do it willingly I don't know either.
I got the last laugh. I was cut as a newborn, but I still didn't end up with the parts my parents wanted. They took a little snip. I went for the full origami of gender reassignment surgery. 🤣
Take it one step further, and invent an entirely new set of genitals just to piss them off!
I went for the pretty standard fem package. But there are folks doing some pretty wild things out there now.
Really? I'm a cis dude and I haven't heard of any of that from my trans friends, I'm genuinely curious. I couldn't imagine what other designs people would go for. Do you like draw it up in CAD before hand or something?
I'm a binary trans woman myself. I just wanted the full standard package.
But there are varieties, mainly spearheaded by the nonbinary community. There's zero depth vaginoplasty, where they make a labia but no vaginal canal. (Easier maintenance, ideal for lesbians with no interest in penetration.) For asexual folks or those with no interest in sex, there's nullification surgery, aka the "Ken doll" method. And for the most exotic, the term you're looking for is "Salmacian."
Here's a subreddit. Obviously NSFW:
https://redlib.catsarch.com/r/salmacian
they could have a "design your own genitals" kiosk like the "design your own building" ones at lumber yards.
I want mine to have pincers!
... To grab someone with?
https://old.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/ccf5xh/oh_it_has_pincers_by_nebezial_on_deviantart/
What else would you use them for?
A friend of mine did it for medical reasons. His foreskin was too tight to pull back, which made it really hard to clean, and I think there were some other problems associated with it as well.
I've never heard about an adult getting circumcised as an adult for religious reasons, but I'm sure some people do it.
And it was his choice so I have no issue with it, forcing it upon someone is what I take issue with.
I've heard that a lot. I've even had someone approach me after taking a public shower before and try to strike up a conversation about my bits. Sorry about your bits, brother.
It is what it is, I've come to accept it but I will never not be mad about it.
Thank you for the condolences.
...did people think it did?
It's such a weird thing to do a study on in 2026 given how many thousands of years of data we already have. Like if it made any difference at all it definitely would have been spotted by at least Roman times.
Can we spread a lie that it does ?
Idk what else will stop people from mutilating their child's genitals.
Culture needs to be developed where parents are explicitly asked are they mutalating their kids and feel the social pressure.
In the UK, the way they made it go out of fashion is make it so the national health insurance didn't cover it anymore.
I think that could work here.
Wait one thing american insurance has no problem covering is penis mutilation? Looking at this more - it is true though not covered by medicaid or if you're an adult. How fucking weird. I genuinely don't understand this but my bad here for trying to rationally explain this.
Jeezus said so, that's why.
If you keep digging and playing an adult game of "why?" you eventually come to that "reasoning." It's ultimately why we can't have nice things because religion falls to critical thinking skills, falls to history, falls to literature, and falls to the scientific method.
It's like any other group of people: it's held up by people who've "paid their dues" and need younger people to buy into the system and feed it so the older folks can coast through the end of their life. The system is brutal to people who don't conform. They usually end up expelled from the group and left without resources to build back up again. It's why there are whole other support groups, as an example, to get people out of the LDS sphere of influence.
And by the way, to you good people helping folks escape from the LDS: you would do well to read all the stories about whole chinese police departments working in North America, and what's going on with Flock, and LLMs gathering up data, and it all being available for purchase. I hope your OPSEC is up to having that light shined on you.
They should make it illegal
It "going out of fashion" didn't stop my Jewish parents in the UK mutilating me
That's a good point. It won't stop Jewish parents. I feel like it would be hard to make it illegal without making a religious exception. But that's what needs to happen.
I don't see it as any different than female genital mutilation, which is banned and illegal in most countries. Most people seem to be in agreement that it's not acceptable. Regardless of religion or cultural views of the individuals doing it. Why is this not applied to boys?
I mean, I personally think allowing harm based on religion is just opening the door for any crime.
"12 year old girls have to first have sex with an older male in their family because it's part of our religious beliefs"
You can literally make up any horrors and say your religion requires it.
*mutilating, fyi
Dear Dr. McGrath,
Which parents?
Sincerely,
Sane people
The ones who wouldn't be persuaded by peer reviewed studies anyway, because they did their research.
Who else is fine with pretending it does if that results in fewer circumcisions?
Nah, there are plenty enough confirmed reasons why this is bad.
But if you know one thing about conservatives, it is that they'll whitewash everything they want. They won't stop even if you say it causes autism, depression, or sudden death.
I'm on board with that.
Well, they answered for "just after birth", but what about a week later? Or two? Or a month? Or 2hours and 12 minutes? We don't know anything that. I would not take that risk.
There surely is a way to cause confusion.
Obviously. Nowhere to hide the Tylenol.
(why am I like this?)
despair?
hmmmm no. Making a jokes about hiding autism inducing OTCs in your foreskin defs comes from different place than that for me
Ah, personal experience!
Nothing beats the personal touch, true
If you can try it with tylonol. I call it the rattle snake
just don't toss it in your salad. made that mistake some time ago... it ain't good!
I usually throw a Claritin in there, or maybe even a Wurther's Original depending on the destination.
Stop cutting bits off children, you complete wrong uns.
fuck AMAB genital mutilation!!! fucking weirdos!!!!!
I mean, I guess, looking at it with our modern understanding. I look at it like leeches - which were once viewed as a way of helping people get healthier, but then we figured out that was wrong.
With circumcision we knew it wasn't for 'hygiene' for quite a long time lol. It's about masturbation. They want men to not be cranking it. They still will tho, that's the lie that everyone knows and everyone just pretends they don't. But it's always been about men jacking it. Can't be petting the snake with God watching.
Uh, I don't think that's why most modern parents go for it. The reason I've heard is "so he looks like his father does."
Do men typically show it to their kids? Why would it matter to the child?
What if the kid has curly hair after the mother's parents? Would they shave it too?
I mean typically I imagine a child sees the parents penis at some point. Either having a bath with the or walking in on them going to the bathroom or even going to the bathroom with them.
My mom, an RN, had me mutilated because "it reduces the risk of transmitting HPV".
Did she also have your spleen removed.
The HPV vaccine is way more effective. Did you give you that?
I know I got it, but I think it was the doctor who gave it to me, I have a fear of needles.
Watch back. See eye to eye. Cocked and loaded
https://www.discovermagazine.com/leeches-and-maggots-are-fda-approved-and-still-used-in-modern-medicine-42068
Genital mutilation.
Tell the religious people that circumcision causes trans women. At least that one could make sense to someone who's afraid of trans people.
Aren't there literally people who were biologically male but raised as a girl due to botched circumcisions?
There's a famous one. He transitioned as an adult and later died by suicide.
I think so. There are also some intersex people who were "modified" as a baby to be female, but heaven forbid waiting for the child to at least be cognizant.
Seems unlikely, it would have to be a really botched tip snip to get the balls.
The brain bone is connected to the..... Dick skin bone?
Well to be fair they do call that bit of it the head so
What? Who are these people that were even linking these two things? I'm actually shocked I can still be surprised by stupidity.
They should still stop doing it though.
I heard if the doctor doesn't click his heels 4 times after cutting the umbilical cord or if it is a woman doctor the baby will get the autism.
It can result in higher rates of herpes in some communities though.
scientific source?
There is none, but here are some that show just the opposite:
Male Circumcision for the Prevention of Acquisition and Transmission of Sexually Transmitted Infections (2010)
Male Circumcision for the Prevention of HSV-2 and HPV Infections and Syphilis (2009)
The Medical Benefits of Male Circumcision (2013)
Circumcision impedes viral disease (2009)
Circumcision Curbs Risk of Genital Herpes and HPV Infection (2009)
I read that there were even neolithic societies already employing circumcision as ritual, long before Western colonization.
I have very very high doubt here
Are you saying the sources are likely fake or false in some way?
False and propaganda from the religious alt right. Also look at how close those dates are. Sounds like a paid-for "science" campaign. If there was a valid medical reason against not circumcising, I'd probably have heard about it by now.
(And yes, in individual cases, a medical circumcision is required, but not for hygiene or STD prevention, and it can never be a general guideline. The damage (loss of nerve sensation, lack of lubrication) is a much bigger problem, including for the female partner.).
What is their play here? Do they have something to gain by men getting circumcised?
religion, power over others, right wing retorica, conservatives, imbeciles, ...
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26407411/ and related articles.
Is it really too much to ask that jewish leaders with herpes not put their mouths on chilren's penises after cutting them? Wow.
Maybe we're just making mountains out of mohels though.
GROSS! I never knew they did that afterwards.
It's forbidden in many States, but it just continued in secret, 'cause tradition.
Not at all what the article says. The herpes connection has nothing to do with the act of circumcision, and was a review of individual case studies, not an overall rate.
I stand corrected, it's totally not weird for some old dude to suck a baby dick and this hasn't resulted in transmission of disease. Well done.
The practice has a body count:
I am aware. Crazy shit, can't believe anyone would defend the practice.
Glad we cleared this up
There is no reason for it either…
Not true. You just want their to be no reason so you can cope easier.
What the fuck are you talking about? Cite any evidence you contend shows a benefit?
It makes it easier to clean. This is why I also had my child's ears surgically removed and their nose widened so I can get a scrub brush up in there.
Never thought it did.
Still ain’t right.
This just in: wisdom tooth removal does not cause autism. Neither does forcibly removing fingernails.
I mean, they’re all things not to do unless there’s a medical reason for it? But while doing it has consequences, they generally have to do with personal (dis)comfort.
That said, I’d be upset if someone tried ANY of those procedures on a baby, as they’re all unnecessary on infants.
"Voting gives you autism!"
"Sorry. We don't read studies anymore. We've found the emotional inner knowledge of hunches and gut feelings appears to get us more money." America under trump.
why the fuck would it? fuck these cunts. Also, quit mutilating kids.
Who the fuck thought it did?
All the people who don't want autism to be genetic.
No no let them keep believing it so they finally stop mutilating kids.
It increases risk of an exposed glans tho
So it's not as bad as Tylenol?
Is there a study to see if it helps with headache since I can't take Tylenol anymore?
God is stupid and can’t create good genitals as is.
I like my circumcised dick. Y'all can downvote me if you want.
Nothing wrong with liking circumcised dicks, but I think we can all agree that chopping off part of a child's genitals for any reason beyond a medical necessity without any input from the child is inherently wrong.
I like your circumcised dick too!
I like any kind of dick, but I still don't approve of pointless cosmetic surgery on infants. If he wants to be circumcised, let him grow up and decide for himself.
So, I actually have a friend who had not been who ended up having to have it done at 30 years old for medical reasons. Apparently the experience was pretty hellish.
I can imagine. The only reason people think it's okay to do to infants is that they cannot complain about it at the time.
I don't defend it being done without need, but I'm still not mad at my parents over mine. It has still served me well for many years and has never received a complaint.
Genuinely curious how the quality of sex diminishes, i’ve heard you lose a lot of sensitivity from it which is a bummer
I've heard that the foreskin acts as "lube" so I've always wondered how that would be. Teenager me had some long weekends where things got pretty chafed down there.
Don't know, but I really can't imagine sex being any more intense. I'm more than content with the me I have to work with and I believe the quality of my sex life is better than average.
A fish cannot experience water.
I was going to put in my two cents (troll), but nearly all of the comments in here make sense. Circumcision is for lazy idiots.
Eh. I like not cleaning smegma out of my uncircumcised dick. I'm totally fine with being circumcised without my permission and with no memory of the pain of the procedure and I'm glad I didn't have to make that decision as an adult.
They also vaccinated me without my persmission. I'm ok with that too. My parents also forced me to get braces when I didn't want to. Glad about that too.
Downvote. I really don't care. I'm kinda just tired of this conversation.
Is that why you came in here and wrote two paragraphs only just barely tangentially related to the article?
Pretty small paragraphs. Took me a whopping 15 seconds for the entire comment cuz I'm on a computer and stuck at work. Rest assured, I wouldn't be bothering if it was a weekend. You can check my comments. I don't do social media on weekends.
I guess I care enough to tell people there are some benefits to circumcision and to stop worrying about it and focus on topics that actually matter. It's very much a "social justice warrior" type thing to give a shit about.
Are you sure you don't want to argue about it more? You really have a lot of "I want to argue about it" energy.
What's to argue? My dick is easier to deal with because it's circumcised. It may not be a lot easier, but it's easier nonetheless. And never once in my life have I suffered repercussions from a procedure I don't even remember.
The argument against is that it's done without the permission of the individual. But that's a stupid argument because all sorts of body decisions are made for us without our permission by our guardians as we grow up. Do you think no one should get braces as a child and the decision should be made when they're adults when it's way harder and takes way longer to re-adjust adult teeth? Do you think children shouldn't be vaccinated at all and that it should only be done once they're adults?
That dumb argument may fly if there were NO benefits to circumcision AT ALL. But there are.
Alright, you definitely want to argue. Let's lock it in.
This is going to shock you, I'm sure, but you must also wash your circumcised dick, and procedure is is roughly the same... Water, soap, rinse dry, whether you've got a foreskin or not. If it takes an extra 2 seconds to wash the extra bits of an uncircumcised penis, the the lifetime "extra cleaning" penalty of not having part of your penis lopped off is ~15 hours. Congrats, we're mangling children at birth to save 15 hrs of their life. What are you doing with those 15 hours? Because from the looks of it, you spent that much time crafting half-assed replies about how you're "so tired of arguing" for circumcisions.
No, that's your argument against it. The actual argument against it is that genital mutilation of a baby is wrong, full stop. Let's be clear here as well, medically necessary procedures are not genital mutilation, and gender affirming care when done with the knowledge and consent of the subject is not genital mutilation either.
Absolutely, part of being a parent is making informed decisions for your child that they are incapable of making. Vaccines are medically necessary, and the parent(s) should be getting their child vaccinated. Braces, are frequently necessary for proper articulation, and properly aligned teeth last longer and make it easier to eat (ask me why I know this), and while not all cases of braces may be medically necessary, you'll note that we aren't gluing orthodontic devices in the mouths of newborns that can't resist the procedure. If you take a child to an orthodontist, and the child pitches a fit, refuses to open their mouth, and in general resists the procedure, I guarantee you, the orthodontist will not treat them, even if the parents come in and physically restrain the child. Your two, (rather shitty) examples simply do not support your claim that other medically unnecessary body-altering procedures are okay to inflict on people who are physically, mentally, and socially unable to resist.
Let's add another layer to it. Do you condone Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)? Do you think it's not a big deal? I promise you, any reason you can find to support circumcisions, I can use to support FGM. If you support cirucmcison on the same grounds, then you must support FGM by the same logic, unless you think the only thing that determines if a procedure is genital mutilation depends entirely on if the gentials are attached to a boy, or if they are attached to a girl.
And "social justice warriors" are very much a "fucking chud" thing to give shit about.
That's a manufactured issue, btw, on the scale of cutting off your big toe so you don't have to figure out which shoe goes on which foot.
It's a space in which things can accumulate that I don't have to worry about because I don't have that space. Not once in my life have I suffered repercussions from not having that space.
Cleaning it doesn't really take any effort. Its not like you need to go digging around in there.
But cleaning it is, in itself, effort. Effort I've never had to put forth.
Are you telling us you never clean your knob?
You know this doesn't actually ever happen unless you never wash yourself, right? In which case you probably have many other problems anyway.
That's what he just said, that he likes not having to clean it.
"I don't want to ever clean my dick"
Uh, ok.
Stupid, simplified argument in which you had to put words into my mouth and quoted something I never said in order to make your argument. Bad form.
Cleaning an uncircumcised dick is harder than cleaning a circumcised dick. Period.
I'm not implying it's a lot harder. It's simply an extra step that I have never, and will never, have to worry about.