The impact of male partner circumcision on women’s health outcomes

Abstract

Medical male circumcision is a proven method of HIV risk reduction in men with no known direct benefit to women. We investigated the benefit of partner circumcision on women’s health. We conducted a secondary analysis of 5,029 women enrolled in the Vaginal and Oral Interventions to Control the Epidemic trial across 15 African sites, to look at the impact of partner circumcision status on sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy, frequency of sex, and condom use in women. Of 4,982 participants with a baseline response, 31% had circumcised partners. Women with circumcised partners had a significantly reduced risk of syphilis acquisition, hazard ratio 0.51 (0.26, 1.00), p value = .05. Participants with uncircumcised partners were significantly less likely to have used a condom at the last sex act than the other two groups, adj. relative risk 0.86 (0.80, 0.92), adj. p value < .0001. We found no evidence of sexual risk compensation in women with circumcised partners.