The carcinogenicity of smegma: debunking a myth

BACKGROUND

Smegma is widely believed to cause penile, cervical and prostate cancer. This nearly ubiquitous myth continues to permeate the medical literature despite a lack of valid supportive evidence.

METHODS

A historical perspective of medical ideas pertaining to smegma is provided, and the original studies in both animals and humans are reanalysed using the appropriate statistical methods.

RESULTS

Evidence supporting the role of smegma as a carcinogen is found wanting.

CONCLUSIONS

Assertions that smegma is carcinogenic cannot be justified on scientific grounds.

The promised planet: alliances and struggles of the gerontocracy in American television science fiction of the 1960s

American science fiction television series of the 1960s dramatized the complex conflicts raging throughout society in simple, allegorical terms. The power struggle between the older and younger generations that pervaded many of the conflicts and social reform movements of this era was explored in the four most imaginative and acclaimed science fiction television series of the 1960s: The Twilight Zone (1959-1965), The Outer Limits (1963-1965), Star Trek (1966-1969) and Lost in Space (1965-1968). Each show presented the mature male as the bearer of culture, the holder of power and the keeper of the scientific mysteries, but instead of a standardized response to the problem of the 'generation gap' and the ever-increasing polarization of American society along generational lines, these dramas offered both pessimistic and optimistic views of the outcome of contemporary intergenerational social strife.

The penalties of passion and desire: love and the aging male in early 20th-century film

In popular feature films of the 20th century, the aging male is generally presented as a kindly, if feeble, old grandfather or as a ruthless villain. A handful of films from this era broke with tradition and took the bold step of exploring the social and medical implications of latent sexual impulses in this age group. Love for aging males was typically presented as a dangerous aberration that held the promise of tragic consequences. This paper will demonstrate that cinematographic presentations of geriatric male sexuality faithfully adhere to the medical dogma of the day.

Prophylactic interventions on children: balancing human rights with public health

Bioethics committees have issued guidelines that medical interventions should be permissible only in cases of clinically verifiable disease, deformity, or injury. Furthermore, once the existence of one or more of these requirements has been proven, the proposed therapeutic procedure must reasonably be expected to result in a net benefit to the patient. As an exception to this rule, some prophylactic interventions might be performed on individuals "in their best interests" or with the aim of averting an urgent and potentially calamitous public health danger. In order to invoke these exceptions, a stringent set of criteria must first be satisfied. Additionally, where the proposed prophylactic intervention is intended for children, who are unlikely to be able to provide a meaningfully informed consent, a heightened scrutiny of any such measures is required. We argue that children should not be subjected to prophylactic interventions "in their best interests" or for public health reasons when there exist effective and conservative alternative interventions, such as behavioural modification, that individuals could employ as competent adolescents or adults to avoid adverse health outcomes. Applying these criteria, we consider the specific examples of prophylactic mastectomy, immunisations, cosmetic ear surgery, and circumcision.

The ideal prepuce in ancient Greece and Rome: male genital aesthetics and their relation to lipodermos, circumcision, foreskin restoration, and the kynodesme

This study examines the evolution of Greek and Roman medical conceptualizations of preputial aesthetics, utilizing evidence found in classical medical texts as well as clues from literature, legal sources, and art. A conclusive picture emerges that the Greeks valued the longer prepuce and pathologized the penis characterized by a deficient prepuce--especially one that had been surgically ablated--under the disease concept of lipodermos. The medical conceptualization of lipodermos is also placed in the historical context of the legal efforts to abolish ritual circumcision throughout the Seleucid and Roman empires.

Phimosis in antiquity

The medical term phimosis has been in use since antiquity, but in contrast to the imprecise definition of the term that is characteristic of nineteenth-century and some controversial modern medical writing. Greek and Roman medical writers imbued it with a clinically precise definition. Using the tools of the history of medicine, an analysis of the medical writings of antiquity reveals that phimosis was defined exclusively as a rare, inflammatory or cicatricial stricture of the preputial orifice consequent to a true pathological condition rather than a disease process in itself. Putative associations between phimosis and diseases such as urinary tract infections or cancer were not made in antiquity and are reflections of modern, geographically isolated social anxieties. The modern European scientific conceptualisation of phimosis, however, represents a return to the precise terminology and conservative therapeutic approach characteristic of Greek and Roman medicine.