MALE circumcision is associated with lower odds of women developing various cervical lesions, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis. The authors said the findings suggest male circumcision could be a way to prevent lesions, particularly in regions with a high cervical cancer burden.
Circumcision in male partners reduces a woman’s risk of acquiring oncogenic HPV genotypes. Yet analyses of the effect of male circumcision on the development of Cervical Cancer, a tumor type commonly caused by HPV, have generated mixed results.
While researchers have published related systematic reviews, the uncertain conclusions led the authors of the latest paper to identify a need for an updated analysis that looked specifically at male circumcision and cervical cancer.
Linking Circumcision to Reduced Cancer Risk
The authors searched for studies that could help answer the question of whether male circumcision lowers the risk of cervical cancer in a man’s female partners. After screening and assessing 380 potential papers, the authors identified 19 studies to include in their final analysis.
Unadjusted odds ratios (OR) calculated for the individual studies showed an inverse association between male circumcision and cervical cancer. However, the association was not statistically significant in some studies. Other studies fell short of the threshold for statistical significance after adjusting for confounding variables.
The association was statistically significant, with an OR of 0.65, in a meta-analysis of the studies. Male circumcision was also significantly associated with reduced risk of three types of cervical lesions, namely cervical dysplasia, carcinoma in situ, and invasive cervical cancer. The subgroup ORs ranged from 0.65 for the precancerous condition cervical dysplasia to 0.71 for invasive cervical cancer.
The Implications for Public Health Programs
While the design of the studies limited the ability to assess causality, the authors concluded that voluntary male circumcision programs could potentially reduce the incidence of cervical cancer in the absence of an HPV vaccination program.
Ethical and feasibility constraints limit the ability to run experimental studies that could deliver more conclusive results. In the absence of such research, the authors recommend well-designed longitudinal studies exploring the association.
Reference:
Qurieshi MA et al. Association between male circumcision and cervical cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis of analytical studies. JCO Glob Oncol. 2025;11:e2500126.
Author
Emily Hayes, Freelance Writer and Editor
