Saturday, February 20, 2010
Save a penis!!!
9:26 PM
The following horrors do NOT have to continue to happen. There's something SIMPLE you can do to HELP! Read on...
"I regret circumcising my son. I didn't do enough research, my gut told me not to do it, but I chalked it up to being a new mom and stuffed it away. Anyway, what's done is done and he's 2 1/2 now. We have had reoccurring issues with penile adhesions. Where the skin on his shaft sticks to the glans. His pediatrician RIPPED the skin apart and back to "normal" at his 12 month appointment and again at 18 months, while my poor baby screamed. I've tried to pull the skin back for him after a bath, gently, but he cried, and I cry and feel like the most terrible mother. I feel like I'm being punished for doing it. DH is no help, (I love him, I really do). I told him I was afraid he would be afraid to touch his own penis and DH told me not to worry. Gee, thanks.
I know I have to forgive myself for making what I believe was the wrong decision for my own child's well-being. And now I have a daily reminder of it when I change his diaper and see that he has this adhesion. Over my dead body is someone taking another knife to my sons penis!" -Andrea, a mother
I know I have to forgive myself for making what I believe was the wrong decision for my own child's well-being. And now I have a daily reminder of it when I change his diaper and see that he has this adhesion. Over my dead body is someone taking another knife to my sons penis!" -Andrea, a mother
"Circumcision for me has been a whirl of mixed emotions, over all of them I can assure that none of them are good. When I have to think about my circumcision I have to face a hard fact, I have been altered, and in a very personal way at that. I am reminded that as a baby boy being born as was, was just not good enough. Most people I have encountered don't tend to think circumcision can cut so deep, but it is a cut with much depth to it." -Adam, a circumcised man
There are countless parents who regret circumcising their son(s). They didn't understand it prior to having it done, and only when it is too late do they see the emotional and physical damage that has been done. Andrea, the mother quoted above, is FAR from alone. There have been wall threads on my facebook fan page with numerous mothers like her who have suffered from seeing their sons suffer. I've even written an entire post in the past dedicated to stories of circumcision remorse (here). There are also countless men like Adam who struggle with the lifelong physical and emotional toll of being incomplete (you can read Adam's whole story HERE) There are webpages and forums dedicated to helping men cope and sometimes even "restore" their foreskin partially. It is sad that there is a need for such a thing and that they can never enjoy their full body in the way it was designed, along their full range of sensation and function.
In SO many cases, parents say "If only I had known better..." Those who know better, DO better! The trouble is that there is a misconception that circumcision is done by "everyone", it is "normal", and it is "good" for the child. Many parents don't even think twice about it, or they do but then fear or are told that their gut feeling is wrong and go with circumcision anyway. Maybe no one is there to tell these parents that circumcision is NOT common, normal, or healthy. Maybe they wonder about it, but don't know where to turn and who to trust for information. Doctors may often make their decisions based on money and/or outdated information, and finding the right information on the internet can be a daunting task, or even impossible for those that don't have it. Only once it is too late do these unfortunate parents begin to realize, see, and feel the consequences and impact on their child.
What can we do to PREVENT all of this from happening?
Today is our opportunity to help make a difference! Danelle from the Peaceful Parenting blog is doing something that will change the lives of parents and baby boys! She has put together informational packets with pamphlets and a DVD that will educate parents about circumcision. She offers them to anyone who asks, even if they are unable to cover the $10+ that it costs her to put together and send out. She has already seen great success with parents thanking her for the information and choosing to keep their sons intact. This information is SO valuable to parents that need to know the truth about circumcision BEFORE they make a decision that can't be taken back. This information could save a precious baby boy's penis from being severely altered without his consent, AND his parents' hearts from the agony of realizing they've done something so wrong when it is too late. YOU can help this information get into more hands!
You can use the button above to donate to her circumcision info packet fund with paypal, a credit card, or bank account. I LOVE that she is doing this great and life-changing work, and I hope we can help out so she doesn't have to keep footing the bill for this project. With 2-5 thousand blog views a day, I KNOW we could really do something great here, even if everyone only donated ONE dollar! Think about the lifetime of impact that just a little bit of money could have. Skip a coffee, save a penis! You can help a parent learn, so they can know better and DO better, and their son can grow up healthy and whole! A little bit of effort, put forth by a LOT of people can have an amazing impact.
You can use the button above to donate to her circumcision info packet fund with paypal, a credit card, or bank account. I LOVE that she is doing this great and life-changing work, and I hope we can help out so she doesn't have to keep footing the bill for this project. With 2-5 thousand blog views a day, I KNOW we could really do something great here, even if everyone only donated ONE dollar! Think about the lifetime of impact that just a little bit of money could have. Skip a coffee, save a penis! You can help a parent learn, so they can know better and DO better, and their son can grow up healthy and whole! A little bit of effort, put forth by a LOT of people can have an amazing impact.
If you can't make a donation, or even if you can, Danelle's site is an incredibly valuable resource. She has an excellent post here on being fully informed about circumcision, and she has TONS of resources: http://www.drmomma.org/2010/01/are-you-fully-informed.html
You can bookmark her site for future reference, and pass on the information to other parents who may be expecting a son and need to know about circumcision.
If we help even ONE child stay whole, something great will be accomplished, but I hope that we can do even better than that here! So pass this along on facebook, forums, twitter, anywhere, to help spread the word!
Danelle has no idea that I'm posting this, and she's working SO hard to help the parents and children of this world, so let's enjoy surprising her with love and help!
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40 comments:
Extraordinary :D
I really regret having my son circumcised because the stupid doctor who did the circumcision removed the glans of the penis while doing the circumcision. My little newborn had to be rush into surgery to get the glans(head) surgically reattached back to the penis. I guess he put the clamp on to tight. My boy seems like he is doing fine and hope he doesn't have any ill effects from what happen to him a couple of years ago.
Circumcision (for either gender) has never made sense to me and I will never understand how it is so common in the US in this modern age. Here in the UK it is far from commonplace and the ONLY man I have known to be circumcised has issues with it that affect his sex life. It can be excruciatingly sensitive to a point that it is uncomfortable during intercourse so he has some psychological issues there too....
I agree that finance may well be a motivator for doctors but am shocked that there isn't enough information provided for mothers & fathers to make the decision, I really feel for you as it would break my heart seeing that in my own baby boy's nappy. I really hope the adhesion issue resolves itself so you can both make peace with it. I know nothing about the problem but wonder if there is any kind of personal care routine that could help?
I was circumcised when I was a few days old, but I still has some loose skin, so my mom had me redone when I was around 5 years old. I have a skin bridge on my penis and two very dark skin scars around the shaft of my penis. I've had a couple of girlfriends asked me what happen to my penis-- its embarrassing. I've learned it can be fixed by a laser procedure. I wish I was never circumcised.
I'm so happy that my mother was smart enough in 1982 to keep my brother intact, which made me aware of how NORMAL it is. So that I could protect my son! I have had so many posts and/or emails because of things I have posted on my fan page, for mothers who are regretful...or from mom's who thank me for informing them so they can now protect future son's.
I was circumcised shortly after birth. I do not like being circumcised and I am restoring my foreskin. I ended up with lots of scar tissue next to my frenulum remnant from when the doctor ripped my foreskin away from my glans. That area has always been slightly painful when touched. Restoring has helped me in many ways.
I do not blame my parents for having me cut. But, there are times that I wish they had considered me and what I would have preferred before they allowed me to be circumcised.
donated!
I was uneducated about circumcision but thankfully my hubby stepped in and said no son of his was going to be circumcised. He is circumcised and he doesn't like that he was. I had bought into all those things about cleaner and better...I am happy both my boys are intact and I have been reeducated on this most awful practice.
Great post! Keep in mind, to all those who HAVE been circumcised, it WAS considered "Normal" to be done. Many parents, even having asked about the procedure, were told "everything is going to be fine". Not until VERY recently has circumcision done an about face and parents started ignoring the knife happy doctor who says "you're stupid if you don't circumcise" Yes, I have heard it.
I never really agreed with circumcision, I felt like it was mutalation for a fashion statement,so my son,my first born i didn't have it done to him. When he turned about 3 he began to get these infections under the skin around the top,And I found myself asking if I should have got it done.Well 3 years later I meet my amazing husband and his mom did circumcise him, I love him for who he is and not whats in his pants, but even with all the love it cant heal what that horrible doctor screwed up... 24 years later and theres nothing he can do about it. Laser?? to expensive, and I cant help but wonder why his mom never did nothing about it. not only is there a HUGE scar but the doc. sewed it twisted like so the scar wraps around and certian things dont line up. It's not fair when your too young to speak for your own life. being in locker rooms going through girlfriends. It is Embarrissing and confidence?? Torn mother in Lakeland, FL
I was asked if I wanted my son circumcised moments after he was born. I do not know anyone who made a reasonable decision at that time yet... but I had the wherewithal to say no. I told them that unless they could provide a valid reason for the procedure that did not include 'locker room envy' I was not interested in genital mutilation for my newborn.
I am a Brit living in the USA. Circumsion is only done in the UK for religious (Jewish) or medical reasons. I have never understood the US obsession with circumsizing newborns! I have 3 sons and another boy due in May. Two of my 3 were born in the US and when we say No to Circumsion we've always had the response "Thank Goodness" from the various doctors and nurses involved with our biths. All my boys are intact, just as nature/God intended and never had a problem! Over the past several decades, the American Academy of Pediatrics has published several policy statements on neonatal circumcision of the male infant. Beginning in its 1971 manual, Standards and Recommendations of Hospital Care of Newborn Infants, and reiterated in the 1975 and 1983 revisions, the Academy concluded that there was no absolute medical indication for routine circumcision.
I am against circumcision, but my husband is circumcised and refuses to leave any boy of his intact! Help! What is the strongest argument I can use to talk him into leaving our future son alone?!?!
Kelly-
Challenge him to find a GOOD reason to circumcise a HEALTHY penis (there isn't one). Tell him you wouldn't remove all your kids teeth for no reason, or for a stupid reason, and the rest of his body deserves the same respect.
If you go back in my archives, you can find a lot of posts about circumcision.
A few titles:
"Would you circumcise your daughter?"
"What have I done? Voices of circumcision remorse"
"Pieces of Adam"
and lots more.
What will reach YOUR husband will depend on his personality.
Tell him that before he can make such a choice, he has to watch an entire video of a real circumcision, AND he has to look at the websites that show the kind of extreme damage that circ can do.
Make him view EVERY picture here: http://www.circumstitions.com/Botched.html
If he wants to make this decision for his child, he needs to KNOW these realities! Going into such a thing ignorantly would do a major injustice to the child that would last a lifetime.
You can also visit drmomma.org for TONS of compelling circumcision information.
We didnt know the gender of our 2nd child in pregnancy, and my husband was pro-circ. I told him he didnt get to make the decision until he read and knew EVERYTHING about it that I do. PERIOD. If he still didn't come to agree with me, I would absolutely refuse to give the doctor medical consent for it, and I wouldn't care how mad my husband got. I wouldn't let him hit my child, and I would no sooner let him get our child cut. Sometimes we have to be mama bears and do whatever it takes. I wish you luck! Are you a fan on facebook? Feel free to drop by there if you want to talk about this more!
I find it bizarre that none of the posts on here talk positively about boys being circumcised... Of course that is the good old belief, "educate, but only on MY point of view." Growing up I knew my dad and my brothers were not circumcised and I also knew the pros and cons. When I had my son, my husband insisted that he be circumcised. There are medical reasons for doing this as follows:
•Circumcision may result in a decreased incidence of urinary tract infections.
•Circumcision may result in a lower incidence of sexually-transmitted diseases and may reduce HIV transmission.
•Circumcision may lower the risk for cancer of the cervix in sexual partners.
•Circumcision may decrease the risk for cancer of the penis.
•There is no absolute medical indication for routine circumcision of the newborn.
For any child that is not circumcised the importance of thorough cleaning is excrutiating important. I surely hope this is information you are passing along as well as your personal beliefs.
Thank you for allowing another opinion.
RE: Anonymous post... you may want to proof read after using your copy/paste function...
A unknown fraction of routine neonatal circumcisions will result in nontrivial urological or sexual damage. Sometimes, the damage does not become manifest until middle age.
Many circumcised men appear to have satisfactory sex lives and no self-image issues. But in my opinion, there are enough exceptions to this statement to rule out routine circumcision. There indeed are North American men who resent not having all the sexual equipment Mother Nature intended them to have. Ladies, what circumcision snips off is the most sexually intense bits of the entire male body. Your correspondent is an intact male!
It is easy to give the foreskin a miss when one is young and passionate. Many men are erect before they slip out of their BVDs, and foreskin is visible only if the penis is flaccid. Some women discover that a new BF is intact only after noticing that intercourse with him feels curiously different, and they begin exploring the issue.
How the foreskin and its motion add to a woman's pleasure is an important subject for future research. But there are American women who have been intimate with both kinds of men, bareback, and who have stated for the record that intact is much more satisfying. As one woman posted "Circumcised is sex; intact is love."
Routine infant circumcision without anesthesia, as is common in the USA, is raw sexual violence, and should be criminalised forthwith.
To all of you out there who are not Americans: on this tender subject, American common sense and sexual sophistication experience a major FAIL. Millions of Americans cannot stomach the natural penis. They find it very odd (and disgusting) because it's not what they saw while growing up. Many American parents are surprisingly prudish when it comes to talking about genitalia with their children. Many boys are circumcised simply because their parents believe that doing otherwise would require that the parents have conversations with the intact boy that they would prefer not to have with a child.
So I'm a male, 20 years old, and I have a question. How do you know if you were or were not circumcised? It wasn't exactly a dinner table conversation, so I never brought it up, and neither of my parents are around to tell me. Is there a way to tell? I gather that you get your foreskin cut off, but does that mean all the way off, like there's none left, or as in my case, where it's there, but it can be pulled back, and washed and so forth? also, In my own oppinion, american circumcision is based wholly on religious superstition and paranoia. In the old testament, when the hebrews were told to get circumcised, to prove thier devotion to god, and people going to hell were generally reffered to as uncircumcised heathens. myself, I think that's just stupidity. back then, they didn't have proper sanitation techniques at all. the same reason they couldn't eat pork and so on, because if cooked inproperly it will cause trichonosis. thank you for listening to my little rant, and an answer to my question would be greatly appreciated. thank you.
For the poster with the question. If you can retract something on your penis, then you, most likely, were not circumsized. A circumsized penis looks like one "smooth" shaft. An intact penis has some skin over the glans of the penis. Also, in my experience (and I have seen a lot of penis', I am a nurse, LOL) an intact penis, when the foreskin is retracted, has a shiny "smooth" glans. Almost like it looks wet. It also is often just a tad darker pink. On a circumsized penis the glans looked "dried out". It doesn't have the smooth, shiny appearance.
Now some people were circumsized but all the foreskin wasn't taken off. Generally a foreskin will cover the entire glans. Some men when the foreskin is covering the glans, has some skin hanging off it, giving a tad wrinkly appearance at the end. Some only have the foreskin just covering it and you can still see the meatus. If it doesn't cover the glans completely, you can always ask your doc. You can also look for scar tissue. The skin will be "thicker" there (since it is relatively small) and you should see the "think" line.
Oh and by twently you should be able to retract it ;-)
Anonymous 20:
If you have a foreskin, which you described, then you were probably not circumcised. That said, there are all manner of situations where men are somewhere in-between. In some cases doctors remove less then what a "common circ." entails to make a sort of partial circumcision, where a man has been circ'd but still has prepuce tissue. I think this is more common when performed later for strictly medical purposes or in European countries where they are used to men having foreskin. The tell tale sign seems to be the "turtle neck" where the skin, when the penis is not erect at all, covers the entire glans (the round tip part) and sort of comes together just off the tip. If you have a turtle neck chances are you are intact.
To the anonymous poster above with the cut-and-paste reasons for circumcision:
>>Circumcision may result in a decreased incidence of urinary tract infections.
MAY result, and only for the first year. And the jury is still out. Older studies have methodological flaws, and newer studies show a much lower impact, or, in the case of a recent Israeli study, a higher rate of UTI in the first year among CIRCUMCISED boys. Meanwhile, girls are more than FOUR TIMES more likely to develop a UTI, and we treat them with antibiotics, not amputation.
>>Circumcision may result in a lower incidence of sexually-transmitted diseases and may reduce HIV transmission.
Again, MAY result. There has been nothing definitive shown. The HIV studies in Africa that showed an absolute reduction of 3.2% to 1.8% are confounded by methodological errors and are contradicted by other studies which show a HIGHER rate of HIV among CIRCUMCISED men in six other African countries. Studies in New Zealand also show a protective effect from being intact. A recent Dutch study showed that the hormone expressed my anti-viral cells in the prepuce capture and consume HIV cells before they can invade the body. To say the jury is still out on the STD/HIV issue is an understatement.
>>Circumcision may lower the risk for cancer of the cervix in sexual partners.
Not true. This theory was based on studies done in the 1950s, which were later discredited. No cancer researcher believes this anymore, and the American Cancer Society says as much.
>>Circumcision may decrease the risk for cancer of the penis.
News flash: having tissue puts one at higher risk of cancer of the body part in question. But let's keep it in perspective. Women are over four times more likely to develop a vulval cancer. Men are more likely to develop breast cancer than penile cancer. Penile cancer is one of the rarest cancers in males, is easily detected and dealt with. The death rate from infant circ is a statistical wash with the death rate from penile cancer. Smoking, hygiene and HPV are the primary risk factors for penile cancer, not being intact. Again, the ACS does NOT recommend infant circumcision as a cancer prophylaxis.
>>There is no absolute medical indication for routine circumcision of the newborn.
Yep. This one is totally right.
The American medical community gets extra points for fear mongering, but the fact remains that there are a few unproven "benefits" to infant circ and very real known risks (including death). A man has a greater risk of being killed by lightning than ever requiring a medical circ in his lifetime.
There should be absolutely nothing wrong with letting the male make his own decisions about which healthy, normal body parts he keeps. Wouldn't that be more ethical than forcing a permanent state on a non-consenting minor?
I think this piece was a little severe. It states that EVERY circumcision goes terrible or is regretted by the circimcised person. There are plenty of circumcisions performed that DO NOT have any issues.
I am anti-circ. But any one that is pro-circ will read this and be unable to take you seriously because this is all BAD BAD BAD!
That said, I am in full support of this movement. My fiance and I had our son in May 2009 and the decision not to circ was not a difficult one. Thank you for trying to bring attention to this movement.
We have also had issues with our thirds son's circumcision. He periodically breaks out in these lesions and it has been just a constant problem since birth (he is now 19 months). We really thought before that it was basically the only way to go anymore, but I now know differently. When the doctor pulled on his poor penis when he was a week old and he screamed so loud it brought tears to my eyes and the doctor just wouldn't stop I told myself that this was not right. Baby boy #4 is due August 2nd and will be uncircumcised.
My religion prescribed male circumcision, but only when the person has come of age (when he first experiences the so called 'wet dream'). Therefore, in my home country, circumcision is generally done when the child turns 7 or older (often when the child himself ask for the procedure to be done, since it is culturally regarded as a step to manhood, if you will) and it's a celebratory event. I had never heard of any newborn circumcision until I relocated to the US and hardly knew anything about the procedure. MY American DH was circumcised as a newborn and so were our 2 boys (now almost 3 years and 18 months, respectively). I certainly hope my DH was right that just like him, my boys were not traumatized by the procedure. So far they seem to be doing fine and suffer no physical problems.
I think people approve of circumcision because it is commonly done, and they justify it with certain figures, penile cancer etc. But if we consider something similar that is not commonly done,(but pretend it is) we will not be able to think it is justifiable even if similar "supportive" facts were available.
Imagine as a parent I decided to have one of my newborn daughter's breast buds removed. She won't miss it. They are even smaller than the foreskin. All her friends growing up would have also develop only one breast at puberty. Men would think the look of one breast was sexy. Some men having only rarely seen 2 breasted women would be turned off by it. She could still breastfeed and be sexually functional. Also breast cancer affects 1 in 8 women during their lifetime. By removing one bud, we would cut the rate in half! We would prevent cancer in 1 out of 16 women. Penile cancer rarely kills and usually is seen in men in their 80s. It affects 1 in 100,000 men. By this math removing a daughter's breast bud prevents cancer 6250 times more often than circumcision.
Circumcision also causes meatal stenosis in about 10% of boys. Intact boys only very rarely get it, and only along with other penile birth defects.
Circumcision has been strongly linked to Erectile dysfunction in middle aged men.
A large survey-study found that women who have had partners both circ. and intact 88% prefer their intact lovers. Female partners are more likely to achieve orgasm. Women how do orgasm do so for frequently with intact lovers.
A study found that intact men thrust differently, and women prefer it.
The survey found that intact men prefer vaginal sex to oral sex most of the time. I'm not saying oral sex is bad, but some circumcised men feel they need it, because vaginal sex is not as satisfying as nature intended.
Not all circumcised men have sexual dysfunction but the rates are much higher.
The frenulum is often removed during circumcision and it is an important nerve nexus. Men who have lost their frenulum suffer problems of premature ejaculation.
I want to comment about the difference in rates of STD's. It is possible and the research is not in yet if this may be the reason. Intact men have more sex. There is reason to believe that the amount of sex one has correlates to the STD rate.
Both intact and circumcised men can prevent STDs if they are monogamous, which (you guessed it) is more common with intact males. Their divorce rates are lower too.
Men with multiple partners can lessen the chances of STDs by using condoms. This far and away is more effective than circumcision.
Painful erections especially in adolescence are a result of so much skin being removed at circumcision. In some sad cases it splits. A hairy shaft also means that scrotal skin has had to stretch onto the shaft to keep it covered. Also, a curved penis can be a result of an uneven circ.
Really I am uncomfortable being this graphic, but I think the information is important.
I really respect and admire parents who can say that they didn't know and made a mistake. That bravery can prevent others from making the same mistakes. We ALL make mistakes and do things we think were best for our kids at the time, but feel differently later.
Restoration, I have read, can prevent many problems, not exactly as if it never happened, but I feel it is worth researching if you have a circumcised son.
I am not surprised that this is mainly mothers worrying about their child's penis. I am a 17 year old male and I have to say it is hella fucking balls to the wall awesome for it not to be necessary to constantly clean my penis. Thank you and I hope you consider circumcising your child. (I'm cut)
It's not mainly mothers that are concerned about the mutilation of a child. My Jewish husband is an intactivist as much as I am. Circumcision of a girl is illegal in the USA and I hope and pray that soon people will make male circumcision illegal. It's wrong, it's mutilation and I can't believe anyone can still attempt to justify doing it!
My name is Brandi, I have three kids, the oldest two are girls, but my youngest is a boy. He is my little man, he is just as sweet as can be, and has been wearing my heart in his pocket since he was born. I did do a lot of research.. I asked men, men that were circ'd, men that weren't.... My step dad wasn't and had to be when he was 35 or something because of infection, he said have it done. My now husband then just friend, was circ'd and told me not to have it done....
My decision was based on this...
I am not religious so No there
I am not a conformist so no there
What I am is intellegent enough to know that the skin must be there for a reason...
I am smart enough to know that there is no going back when my then adult son tells me that he wishes that i hadn't done it...so I didn't want to be the one to have to say sorry i didn't leave the decision up to him...
I was smart enough to know that if the insurance companies and hospitals would say, if you don't get it done before he leaves the hospital then it will be corrective surgery after that....which is not covered by insurance...again telling me that it was unnecessary.. so no there too
I am glad that I didn't get it done...and to have it done so that it is easy to clean...come on ears are hard to keep clean to but we don't cut them off....
Being in the medical field dealing specifically with the nervous system and brains, I had NO thought whether or not to circumcise. My mother gave me hell, my friend told me I was crazy. I didn't care because I knew that they were uneducated. Circumcision has the potential to craft serial rapist/killer tendencies into a brain, in my opinion. When a person can not gain sexual satisfaction from normal functioning, they will find ways to gain it differently. Including strange (really strange) sex fetishes (including bestiality, and S&M) which can go as far as rape and murder in order to relieve sexual frustration.
Andrea's story(or her sons i should say), sounds just like my sons situation. OMG...horrible. How niave i was. Andrea, if you read this...my second son is perfectly intact, much to the appal of others. Even my parents who saw how bad my oldest penis was. The whole "how can you have one circumised and not the other" I said simply "i learned from my mistakes as a parent"
I'm glad that I was circumcised as a baby. My penis is so very sexually sensitive where the cut was made. Sure, there are plenty of things which can and do go wrong, but in most cases, with an experienced doctor, the circumcision can take place without any problems.
Hmm, using your logic Jerry, maybe every woman should have a double mastectomy 'just in case' she gets breast cancer.
I personally think only men who are old enough to understand and make the decision for themselves should be allowed to be circumcised. Babies have no choice in the matter and even if you think it didn't affect you that merely means your conscious mind doesn't recall it. But trust me, newborn babies feel pain .
Jerry...If your penis is sensitive where it was cut...imagine how exquisitely sensitive the skin was that was cut off since what you're feeling is in the ruminant foreskin. The glans would also be much more sensitive since it's supposed to be an internal mucosal organ.
@Jerry, get back to us in 20 years and see if you think it is still sensitive or if it feels like you have a broomstick between your legs. Maybe you will even take up foreskin restoration if you ever realize what you lost.
I am always amazed at the guys who were cut at birth and say that being circumcised is "sooo much better." Yeah, right. As if these guys have any basis of comparison. I was circumcised at birth and I am restoring my foreskin. Having a restored foreskin is much, much better than the broomstick I used to have. I just wonder how much better it would be having the equipment I was born with.
Jerry's comment makes my heart burn. I pray he does not have a son and if so, that he researches it more further. How can he know being circumcised is better if he does not know what being intact is like? Its not fair to take away something so important.
Here's something I don't get, all the women are saying to the men that say they're circumcised and it's better, that the men don't know what they're missing etc...
Uh, you don't really know either, since you don't deal with male circumcision, I'm circumcised, a grown adult, and I've talked to men who weren't, and I have to say, it sounds better to be circumcised. Oh it CAN cause this, it CAN cause that, yes, and anyone can develop cancer as well.
Using the logic that if it's there, it has to be for a reason etc, then we shouldn't get any piercings, tatoos, etc.
I have no problems in my sexual life, and know many men who are circumcised who are fine as well.
Why leave it up to the woman if they don't know what it's like either? (For those that were saying their husband were pro-circumsion)
You can research it all you want, but you don't know how it feels and never will.
I want to say thank you for getting this information out there. I think it is very important for people to be informed before they make any decision involving their bodies and I think there are too many people out there who make these kinds of decisions based on what is "common" or "popular".
I have a dad and a husband who are circumcised and three brothers who aren't. So when I found out I was expecting a little boy I definitely had some considerations to make. I consider myself a pro-natural parenting methods kind of a person and so I tend to lean towards leaving things the way God created them. However, I've watched as my little brothers have gotten infections under their foreskins again and again and again. They were painful infections and I've heard them say they wish they'd just been circumcised at birth so they didn't have to deal with them.
One thing people need to realize about being uncircumcised is that it is fine so long as the boy keeps the area under his foreskin clean. In my experience with boys they aren't good at keeping things clean. In an ideal world, yes they would be, but in reality they'd rather play in the dirt. My husband and I weighed our options carefully and decided to circumcise our son. I know a lot of you will think we are cruel and unnatural parents for doing this, but when we weighed the option of a routine surgery by a doctor we trusted vs a good chance of infections over the long run we felt it was best to give our son the best chance of avoiding those infections later in life. We made sure that our son would be given anesthetic and that the doctor was someone who wouldn't just hack away without care. We also had my husband go with my son to make sure everything went ok and to be sure he was comforted.
I do want to note that I couldn't care less about how my son's penis looks. The argument for doing it for "locker room reasons" is totally absurd to me. I wouldn't encourage him to do other things just because "all his friends are doing it", so why would I do that to his penis? I'm happy to say that all has gone well with our son's circumcision and I'm glad he won't have to deal with infections like his uncles.
Like I said before, I truly am glad that you are getting this information out there so people don't think they have to circumcise, but I hope you will give fair time to the fact that most of the time circumcision is just fine, and that there are legitimate reasons to do it. Maybe to most people on this thread the reasons against it outweigh those for it, but I think it's a decision that needs to be carefully considered from both sides before being made.
Personally, I don't get why this is a debate. Some extremely smart doctors have stated repeatedly that there are sufficient pros and cons to both circumcise or not. Given several medical studies that show both benefits and risks, none of which are sufficient to compel a "recommendation" from DOCTORS - shouldn't we leave it at personal choice by the parents?
I am circumcised, have had no issues with it, my sexual function is healthy and I have never had a UTI.
So, I wonder, by what expertise am I being told that I am "mutilated"?
The argument that "its there for a reason" is a flawed one. There are plenty of structures in and on the human body that are superfluous. The foreskin is just an extremely low risk to remove. Heck, a tonsillectomy is likely to be significantly more risky.
On a lighter note: I've had a friend say to me "Oh it was painful - the 'catch your foreskin in your zipper' painful, you know?".. To which I replied. "Nope! No idea how painful that would be. Sounds bad though" :-)
My husband was circumcised as an adult, due to difficulty in fully retracting the skin and lifelong difficulty cleaning. As a child he had recurrent infections in the area. All those who do not wish to circumcise their sons have to teach them how to keep it clean at a very young age and hope they actually do so.
After the operation it was 1 month of pain and swelling, especially upon waking up. Everything healed perfectly however. Still he wishes he had had it done as a baby.
Having experienced both worlds, he says it is infinitely better to be circumcised. Not only is it easier to keep clean, the sensitivity is much greater now.
I am a 35 y/o male that is Jewish. I was circumcised when I was 17 years old and my first son was born when I was 16 years old. His mother was not jewish so he was circumcised. My second son was not circumcised my wife and I chose to keep it religious. I have had sexual relations both ways and I prefer it to be done. My second son can't wait till he is "old enough" to get his done.
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