The prostitutes of Manzini, Swaziland refuse to have sex with circumcised men or demand double compensation for their time. Why? Circumcised men take far longer to climax, according to the sex workers, and prostitution is a business, not a charity. They did, however, say that they might be interested in a cut boyfriend or husband, but they didn’t cite any particular reason.

The so-called foreskin, which is really just healthy skin, blood vessels, and nerve endings, contains 75% of the erogenous nerve endings in the penis, including specialized touch-receptors called “Meissner’s corpuscles”, which are concentrated in a ridged band just under the tip of the penis. These are the most sensitive part of the penis, and circumcision, or penile reduction surgery, removes these parts. The frenulum is also mostly lost. These sensitive parts are the key to triggering orgasm in men, and damage or removal of the foreskin makes sex less pleasurable and leaves the body without the direct trigger for orgasm that nature intended to exist. The circumcised men of Swaziland take longer to orgasm with damaged sex organs, so the sex workers don’t want their business.

The article goes on to cite the importance of circumcision as a part of a complete HIV reduction program. However, on-the-ground interviews reveal that many men believe that they cannot catch HIV after penile reduction, and so they sign up for the surgery in hopes of never again wearing a condom. Furthermore, the 60% reduction in HIV transmission cited by the article is a calculation of relative risk reduction, not absolute risk reduction! An honest assessment of penile reduction surgery would state the risk change as a reduction from 1.7% transmission over a study’s period to 0.7%, for an actual risk reduction of 1%. Penile reduction surgery cannot stop the spread of HIV in Africa, and since men are getting cut to stop wearing condoms, and since money spent on surgery cannot be spent on condom distribution, the millions of dollars pouring into Africa for elective genital surgery will result in a net increase in HIV rates.

Male genital cutting cannot reduce HIV transmission, and I feel sorry for any men who signed up for this surgery in the hopes that they would get out of wearing condoms. Surgically modified genitals must still be protected with condoms, and the circumcised penis is less sensitive than a whole one. These guys have been tricked into giving the most sensitive parts of their sex organs by Western circumcision advocates and fetishists, and now they get turned down by sex workers for their troubles.