If a causal relationship were to be proven, however, male urinary tract infections are nonetheless relatively rare, and can be effectively prevented or treated by other conservative methods. It is important for doctors and parents to know that the foreskin continues to develop through adolescence. A diagnosis of penile phimosis is premature and invalid until late adolescence. Ballooning of the foreskin upon urination is not an indication for circumcision, as long as there is adequate urine stream. Physiological problems of the foreskin, such as phimosis or paraphimosis, almost always respond well to conservative non-surgical treatments, making circumcision obsolete.
Chlamydial infection correlates strongly with the circumcised condition.
We assert that more reasonable and effective means of preventing STDs include abstinence, monogamy, sex and health education programs, condom use, and good personal hygiene behaviors. We concur with many world AIDS authorities, who remain suspicious of unproved claims of a few researchers that circumcision reduces risk of HIV infection. We share these organizations' concerns that media repetition of these unproved claims has the dangerous potential to mislead the public into a false sense of security about circumcision as a form of AIDS prevention, and is counter-productive to AIDS education efforts. It is not known when, or if, these effects disappear. It is currently unknown how this imprints the rapidly developing nervous system's processing of painful stimuli and its subsequent long-term deleterious impact.