On the "health benefits" of circumcision:

> It reduces the spread of HIV

This is kind of like when cheerios sponsors a study to prove that cheerios are good for your heart. It's very under-handed.

The claim is that less mucus membrane, that is allowed to dry out, is less absorptive. Which is not wrong, but it's also not that effective. Whereas a condom is perfectly effective.

The second reason why this is under-handed is because spreading HIV is REALLY HARD. In the worst case scenario (a man with HIV ejaculates inside of you), your risk of catching it is 1 in 20. Any sexual contact less than that, the risk is even lower.

And that's just for one person to contract it, for it to actively spread through a community, the amount of promiscuity needs to be so high that circumcision is just not going to change the outcome.

> It reduces the risk of penile cancer

Well, not really. It eliminates the possibility of a condition called phimosis, which is a risk driver for penile cancer.

Phimosis is a condition where the foreskin remains too tight to retract into adulthood. This is a relatively rare condition and is addressable in a number of different ways including steroid creams, stretching, minor surgical interventions - and of course adult circumcision.

Men with phimosis SHOULD get it treated, but it's rare and not that hard to deal with. There are so many other "rare and not that hard to deal with" conditions out there, that singling out phimosis as the one you want to prevent doesn't really make any sense.