Male Circumcision Does Not Protect Women

New research suggests that circumcising HIV-positive men does not reduce the risk of their female partners becoming HIV-infected.

The findings, reported in the British medical journal, The Lancet, emerged from a clinical trial in Rakai District, southern Uganda, involving 922 HIV-infected men and 163 of their HIV-negative female partners.

Half the men were circumcised at the start of the two-year trial; the other half, who made up the control group, were circumcised at the end of it. Their uninfected female partners were followed up after six, 12 and 24 months to determine whether they had acquired HIV from their male partners.

The findings reinforced the need for men undergoing the procedure to receive extensive counselling about the importance of delaying sex for at least six weeks afterwards, the continued need to use condoms, and to reduce partner numbers.

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