Male Circumcision Leads to Worsened Sex Life (Study)

Couple holding stop sign in bed

Male circumcision is a controversial subject. Religious traditions, misleading pseudo-science, and societal myths and legends associated with the subject certainly don’t help matters.

Recently, some 5,000 sexually active men and women were surveyed about their experiences and possible problems with their sex lives. With a specific focus on circumcised men and their women, the results are startling.

If a man is circumcised, he faces an increased risk of experiencing delayed orgasm, and his female partner has an increased risk of not feeling sexually fulfilled.

This is the clear-cut conclusion of a new Danish research article, which has received international attention.

Circumcised men are three times as likely to experience a frequent inability to reach an orgasm – Associate Professor Morten Frisch from Danish Research Enterprise SSI

Male Circumcision’s Effect on Women

This is one of only a few studies of the sexual consequences of male circumcision, and in one area in particular it is groundbreaking:

“Previous studies into male circumcision have looked at the effects it has on the men. But scientists have never really studied the effects this has on the women’s sex lives,” says Frisch.

It appears that women with circumcised men are twice as likely to be sexually frustrated. They experience a three-fold risk of frequent difficulties in achieving orgasm, and an eight-fold risk of feeling pain during intercourse – also known as dyspareunia. – Frisch

women-upset-after-sex

But Why?

There appears to be a very simple reason why circumcised men and their partners are having problems with their sex lives.

The circumcised man develops a thin layer of hard skin on his penis head, which decreases the sensitivity. This means that in order to reach an orgasm, he needs to work harder at it, and that can lead to a painful experience for the woman.

“We conducted a survey, but the data does not explain why these problems occur. There are, however, some good suggestions in the scientific literature,” he explains.

When the penis enters the vagina, the foreskin is pulled back. And on its way out again, the foreskin goes back to cover the penis head. This way the foreskin stimulates both the man and the woman.

The gliding in-and-out movement of the foreskin, combined with the in-and-out movement inside the vagina, constitutes what is known as ‘the gliding movement’.

When a circumcised man moves in and out of a woman without ‘the gliding movement’ caused by the foreskin, it can have a painful effect on the woman’s mucous membrane. This could explain the pain and the tendency towards dryness that some women with circumcised men experience. – Frisch

09-unhappy-couple-in-bed-main

Possible Sources of Error

The study did not involve many religiously circumcised men – Jews and Muslims, for example. But even with these factors taken into account, the data pointed in the same direction. The statistical analyses also took a long list of additional relevant factors into account, including:

  • Age
  • Cultural background
  • Religious background
  • Marital status
  • Levels of education
  • Household income
  • Age at first intercourse
  • Number of sex partners
  • Frequency of sexual activity with one partner in the past year

We adjusted for all these factors in an attempt to ensure that circumcision is the actual cause, and that the link isn’t attributable to other factors. – Frisch

Clear-cut Results

Frisch mentions an example of how things get muddled up if researchers do not adjust for possible sources of error when they work with statistics:

If, for instance, you look at people who drink lots of beer, you’ll see that they face an increased risk of developing lung cancer, compared to those who don’t drink much. But it’s not the drinking itself that causes the lung cancer. There just happens to be a correlation between drinking and smoking, and it is actually the smoking that causes the lung cancer. – Frisch

These kinds of error sources were taken into account, and the bottom-line results were clear:

We’re seeing a consistent picture. Even though most circumcised men – and their women – do not have problems with their sex lives, there is a significantly larger group of circumcised men and their female partners who experience frequent problems in achieving orgasm, compared to couples where the man is not circumcised. – Frisch

In addition, there are significantly more women with circumcised men, who experience vaginal pains during intercourse or feel that their sexual needs are not met.

Couple ignoring each other-1443818

Further Studies Required

Frisch hopes this new study will be replicated by researchers in other countries and cultures.

“That way we can ascertain whether this phenomenon applies to Danes only or whether it extends into other cultures too,” he says. “All in all, I have a humble approach to our findings, so I would also like to see whether other Danish studies would reach the same conclusions.”

International Attention

According to Frisch, the study has received a great deal of international attention. For example, he has been contacted by politicians in California, who are very pleased with the results of the study because they want to ban circumcision in their federal state.

Others are less excited, saying the research is controversial.

This is a highly sensitive issue, and some people oppose the publication of this kind of research. Some people have actually tried to stop the publication of our article – Frisch

Ethical Questions

Certain groups and individuals are lobbying in favour circumcising all men, explains Frisch. Not necessarily out of religious concern, but because they believe that circumcision has a health-promotional effect. In Africa, for instance, there are indications that circumcision could reduce the risk of HIV infection.

dv267027d

> Circumcised Men Have Bad Sex Life | Science Nordic

5 Replies to “Male Circumcision Leads to Worsened Sex Life (Study)”

  1. When is lasting longer a negative trait for a man to have? Women around the world want to know……

    1. They last longer because they FEEL less pleasure. And over time pleasure decreases. Some circumcised men I know report having ZERO sexual pleasure by their 30s and 40s.

    2. I think most women with experience with circumcised men who have very little feeling left, would agree that having the man struggling to maintain his erection and achieve orgasm is NOT at all sexy!

  2. I absolutely respect the way this was carried out, by controlling variables! I love your analogy of men who drink beer being statistically more likely to get lung cancer, but that it is not actually because beer is a lung cancer risk factor, but that there is a higher rate of smoking among frequent beer drinkers. The same can be said for the African studies that are being used as proof that circumcision prevents the spread of HIV/AIDS. There are a tremendous number of differences between Americans and others in the industrialized world, and even between the groups of African men surveyed. There is no way to know which of those variables makes the difference. Circumcision proponents choose to assign the blame to foreskins, in a lame attempt to excuse something they don’t want to stop doing. Actually, if they would compare rates of HIV/AIDS between the USA, where most men are circumcised, and the rest of the industrialized world, where few men are circumcised, they would see that the rates in those countries are similar, or LOWER than in American!

    As far as sex, I’ve only been with two men, one circumcised and one intact. The circ’d one was the first. His penis wasn’t that large, but there were times right after intercourse that I would experience some of the worst pain I’ve every had! When I realized that the second man had a much larger penis, I was expecting more severe pain than I’d had earlier. I didn’t experience ANY pain, though! At first, I was puzzled, but then I realized that it was because he had his foreskin and that made it so that there was much less friction during intercourse.

Comments are closed.