Circumcision is a low-risk procedure if performed during the first year of life, but the risks rise between 10 and 20 times if the process takes place after infancy.
Male circumcision is approved as an option for families because it has proven to protect against the acquisition of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in three random clinical trials, a JAMA Network Journals news release reported.
The procedure has also been met with criticism because of the possibility of adverse events.
A research team looked at the possibility of 41 different adverse events associated with male circumcision in a literature review and medical billing codes.
The data was from "a large administrative claims data set and records were available for about 1.4 million circumcised males (93.3 percent as newborns)," the news release reported.
The team found the total rate of adverse events was less than 0.5 percent; potentially serious adverse events were only at a rate of 0.76 per million for stricture of the male organ and 703.23 per million for repair of an incomplete circumcision.
When compared with boys who were circumcised before the age of one, the incidence rate of adverse events was up to 20 times higher in those circumcised between the ages of one and nine and in the 10 and older age range.
"Given the current debate about whether MC should be delayed from infancy to adulthood for autonomy reasons, our results are timely and can help physicians counsel parents about circumcising their sons," the researcher said in the news release.
Circumcision can also reduce the risk of conditions such as urinary tract infections and penile cancer, but both of these occur very rarely in boys. Only about one percent of boys will suffer urinary tract infections, WebMD reported.
About two-thirds of all boys in the United States are circumcised.
