New York, NY (AHN)-According to a new study in the November issue of Pediatrics, circumcised males are less likely than their uncircumcised peers to acquire a sexually transmitted infection.

The researchers report that circumcision may reduce the risk of acquiring and spreading sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, syphilis and genital ulcers by up to 50 percent. However, the results are more mixed for other STDs, prompting the American Academy of Pediatrics to call the evidence "complex and conflicting."

In the current study, the researchers find that 356 uncircumcised boys had a 2.66-fold increased risk of sexually transmitted infection compared with the 154 circumcised boys.

According to lead author Dr. David M. Fergusson and colleagues, had routine neonatal circumcision been in place, the rate of sexually transmitted infections in those involved in the study would have been reduced by roughly 48 percent.

Although the evidence is insufficient to support routine neonatal circumcision, the authors tell Reuters Health, "The public health issues raised by these findings clearly involve weighing the longer-term benefits of routine neonatal circumcision in terms of reducing risks of infection within the population, against the perceived costs of the procedure."