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Women with circumcised partners less likely to have HIV, no less likely to use condoms
Gus Cairns, 2014-03-19 08:20:00
A study from Orange Farm near Johannesburg in South Africa, the area that hosted the first-ever randomised controlled trial of male circumcision for HIV prevention, which concluded in 2005, has found evidence that women who are partners of circumcised men are less likely to have HIV themselves.
A 2009 meta-analysis (Weiss) of the benefits to women of circumcising men found no evidence that having sex with a circumcised, rather than an uncircumcised, man reduced the risk of HIV infection to women, though there have been studies that show that male circumcision reduces the risk of human papillomavirus (HPV) and genital herpes (HSV2) in women.
But this is the first study to provide convincing evidence that male circumcision offers a degree of protection to their female partners too – although the benefit is quite small, in the order of a 15% reduction in prevalence in women who only have sex with circumcised men.
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