According to preliminary results of a study in Africa, although circumcision offers men some protection from the AIDS virus, if they are already-infected, unless they let the penis heal completely they may put women at an even higher risk of contracting the virus.
The early findings by researchers working in Uganda with 997 HIV-infected men, indicate that women who had sex with a man who did not wait to heal fully after circumcision, seem to have a higher risk of infection than through sex with an uncircumcised infected man.
The researchers tracked infection rates of 113 previously uninfected female partners of infected men and found of 12 women who had sex with infected men before the circumcision wound was fully healed, three became infected within six months.
While of the 55 female partners of infected circumcised men who waited to resume sex until the wound healed, six became infected, which was similar to the infection rate of female partners of uncircumcised infected men - four of 46.
Whereas when infected men had waited until a doctor certified that the wound had completely healed before having intercourse, there appeared to be no increased risk for female sex partners.
Both the men and women were given repeated HIV prevention education and free condoms.
The researchers suspect that intercourse might cause tiny tears in the surgical wound, which then allows HIV-infected blood to enter the woman's vagina.
Dr. Maria Wawer of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the study leader, says they do not in any way mean to discredit the incredible value of male circumcision for the prevention of HIV acquisition in men.
The researchers say as the wounds from circumcision take roughly four weeks to heal it is important for men to abstain from sex until fully healed.
The majority of HIV-infected people in Africa are women who have as a rule contracted HIV by means of heterosexual sex.
Social and economic inequalities between men and women are thought to be responsible for the elevated rates of infection in women because many women are trapped in relationships with unfaithful men.
Although the study will not be completed for another two years, the preliminary findings were announced in Switzerland and coincide with circumcision policy recommendations being considered by U.N. health officials.
Health experts believe that circumcision may be an effective method of reducing HIV infection in Africa, as earlier studies have shown that circumcised men are 50 to 60 percent less likely to become infected with the human immunodeficiency virus; but the resulting effect on women is unclear.