"This study suggests that preconceptions of penile sensory differences between circumcised and uncircumcised men may be unfounded," the study's principal author Kimberley Payne said in a release.

The study, published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine in July, looked at a group of 40 men, half of them circumcised. Using sensory testing, the men were monitored at two points on the penis and the forearm while viewing erotic films. Thermal imaging was used to measure sexual arousal.

They found circumcised men felt the same amount of sensitivity to touch and pain in various states of sexual arousal as those with foreskins.

"People have been arguing about the sexual effects of circumcision for at least 1,000 years and I hope these data will encourage more research," added Professor Yitzchak Binik, co-author of the research and director of the university's Sex and Couple Therapy Service.