circumcision

Now that we know that we are going to be having a boy, we have to make the decision whether or not to circumcise. I thought I would make it easy on me and let my DH decide, but he's not sure what is best either. I have some reasons for wanting to, and some reasons for not. My DH is not, so that would be a reason not to, so that he would look like his Daddy. However, I know there are some medical benefits for circumcision. Also, my youngest brother was not circumcised as an infant, and for some reason when he was six, his foreskin closed up. Needless to say, this was very painful, as he could not pee. He stopped eating and drinking because it hurt so bad, and I would never want my son to go through this. He had to have an emergency circumcision, which involved being put under general anesthesia, and was very uncomfortable afterwards. I know that what happened to my brother is probably pretty rare, but it's enough for me not to say, lets definitely not have him circumcised. So... those of you who have boys, could you tell me what was behind your decision to or not to circumcise?

 

It is a personal decision and you are a great mom for putting some serious thought into it!
We did circumcise our son and I guess we did because my dh is and took into account the medical benefits of it. I was a little on the fence about it because I didnt want to cause my ds any unneccesary pain and felt it was cosmetic...but it turned out fine, he hardly noticed and it healed great-havent looked back since.
Good luck, I am sure other ladies will have better advice on this...

 

I had my DS circumsized for a couple reasons.

1) so he wouldn't look different from his dad and think he's weird

2) Better hygiene, unless he's properly taught how to wash himself

3) didn't want him teased in the locker room. SO says that does happen when you're a kid

4) didn't want any girls he may have sex with to tease him. Although I slept with someone who was uncircumsized and he was actually the best in bed I ever had. but I can't tell that story to my son :lol:

5) less chances of infections

 

We did it so that he would look like his son. We were on the fence until that day b/c I didn't really think it was a big deal. The final decision came down to whether or not DS was in good health...if he wasn't, we wouldn't carry through an unnecessary operation. If he was, we'd go for it. It's done and things are fine...I would have been happy either way. I guess that doesn't really help, huh? I suck! Sorry! The health issue isn't really that big if he's taught to wash properly...I had an ex-boyfriend...he was fine. Good luck with your decision...go with your gut.

 

yes my son is we did it for medical reasons and for hygine and also religious belief

 

I read a lot about it and decided it was unnecessary. In my country it's not done half as much and I've never heard of anyone having issues because of it. Plus dh wishes it hadn't been done to him, as he can't help wondering if sex would be better - apparently, it does make a difference.

 

I have 3 sons and none of them are done. I found it to be an unnecessary procedure .Our pediatrician agreed and was very glad we had asked his opinion. My ex-dh wasn't done and neither is my father and they never had any issues. I never regretted not doing it.
Good luck with your decision .. follow your instincts.

 

Our boys did not have the procedure done. DH never did-and has never had any problems, and we felt it unnecessary. Our pedi(who happens to be male as well) agrees.

Anthony, however, has issues with his area(hypospadias) and even if we wanted to circumcise, we could not. He needs the extra skin around it to perform the surgery and fix the problem. So in the end, his will look like it was done, and Nicholas' won't.

 

QUOTE(bday111707 @ Oct 8 2008, 12:15 PM) [snapback]1017511[/snapback]
I had my DS circumsized for a couple reasons.


3) didn't want him teased in the locker room. SO says that does happen when you're a kid

I would have NEVER thought of this one. :lol:

 

Both of my boys are... i didnt really give it a whole lot of thought. Their dad is, and every other male I know is. I just thought of it as the normal thing to do. I didnt want women to think they were wierd/different. Also, I had always heard there was a rish of infections and problems if they did not have it done. They havent had any problems.

 

We are a mixed family. DH & oldest DS are. The other 2 boys are not.


We regret getting DS #1 done. It was stupid and although we(he) had no trouble, if we could go back.....


I absolutely believe that boys are made the way they should be. I don't think there is a design flaw :winking:


Don't be sucked in to believing that it is cleaner to be done. I do believe there are good reasons to do it - religious. Beyond that, it is rare for it to be necessary.

 

Like others I'm ambivalent, but leaning towards opposing circumcision. I ultimately left the decision up to my husband, who was adamant that they be circumcised.
Like others he wanted the kids to look like him, and their older brother (who is my stepson). He also believes the hygiene argument (which is NOT supported by most medical research).

I really didn't want them to get it, but one other reason we went ahead with it was that one of my little guys was born with a cyst on his foreskin. They didn't say we had to circumcise him, but we would have had to closely monitor it. They even had a urologist come up and look at his penis to see if it was a big deal. The urologist asked us if we were going to circumcise, and my husband said yes, so he said well then you don't have to worry about it.

It made me feel better because there was at least a little bit of a medical reason for one of my guys, and I really didn't want to circumcise one twin and not the other.

 

I completely left the decision to DH. He read about it and thought it over and in the end we went ahead and did it. I don't regret it, but would have been fine either way. DS healed perfectly and is fine now.

 

My boys are not done. I think it's an unnecessary procedure (in most cases) and there has been a big decline in having it done over the years. I think since it's less common now, there will not be teasing in locker rooms anymore (did that ever happen??). As for it being less hygenic..please do some research. I think people don't research it and just do it because that was what was done in the "olden days".

 

We did not have our boys done. We talked to our OB first; he said that neither of his sons were done, and that the medical 'needs' for circumsizing are very very rare. We then talked to our pedi, who agreed that circumcision is a 99% cosmetic issue. He said that the only reason to have it done is for the boy to look like Dad. However, my DH and I never bought into that point. How often are the men in the household going to be lining up and comparing equipment? (Yes, I know that there may be times that they are at a bank of urinals together, or in the locker room, etc) And why does it matter if they look different? My twins are both uncirc'ed, but their equipment comes in totally different shapes and sizes! (I bet that, if we asked our DH's/SO's if their own fathers were circed or uncirced, very few of them would be able to answer! Neither DH nor I know if our fathers are circed...).

 

Not circumcised, because it is medically unnecessary.

 

Both of my boys are. I did it because of medical reasons... for example: what happened to your brother. I would hate for some years down the road my boys to have to go through something like that, just cause I didn't prevent it when they were babies, when I could have. It is done under local antisthetic, and they do fine with it. My hospital gave them some tylenol prior to the proceedure and they were back in my room in no time. I understand that many people don't do it, but... I see no reason not to!

 

QUOTE(SweetpeaG @ Oct 8 2008, 01:42 PM) [snapback]1017699[/snapback]
Not circumcised, because it is medically unnecessary.


:good: Same here!! My husband is from a country where it isn't done and there doesn't seem to be any issues for him or anyone else there. We just didn't think it was necessary. I believe it's a personal decision.

 

My DS is not circumcised. It is medically unnecessary - babies are born perfect! There's nothing "cleaner" about being circed - think of it this way, all that poop gets all over the head of the penis if it's not protected by the foreskin. :bad: Complications from not getting circed are extremely rare.

As to whether kids will get teased or not - circumcision is becoming a less common in the US, so there will be more and more intact boys around. And besides, kids are going to get teased for something anyway. I was not about to cut off part of my son's genitals just to avoid potential teasing. If it's not about foreskin, it will be about something else.

Another thing to consider: intact men have more fun in bed. There's more to play with.

 

Both of my boys are. With my older DS I just went ahead and did it because I actually don't know of any male who isn't. When our younger DS was born I questioned doing it (after reading more about it) and DH wouldn't even consider not getting him done. The problem is with my younger DS we think his skin has grown back and adhered to the head of his penis. I have to take him to the doctor to see what we do next. So if you do decide to have it done make sure they show you how to prevent the foreskin from reattaching to the head....I had no clue what to look for since I had no problem with my older DS, and now my little guy might have to get it redone .

 

My boys are because I left it up to my DH & he was adamant about it. I work in a hospital & see both in the elderly population, of which we usually see better hygeine in the circ'd males (that being said, hygeine was NOT an issue in our decision b/c if you're taught properly, it can be just as clean as a circ'd one).

The main reason I responded to this thread is that BOTH of my boys had complications from their circ. Aiden required surgery at 13 mos (which still did not heal correctly) for a torsion & removal of excess scar tissue. Conner's formed an adhesion, in that his skin reattached (like pp's). The urologist told us to wait & see how he did but he may require surgery in the end.

Even though it's rare for complications & rare that the complications require surgical intervention, we were 'lucky' enough to have problems with BOTH boys (what are the chances?)! I'm still pretty certain my DH would've required it done, but I wish I had known more pre-circ. If you do a search on here (which I'm not snazzy with so I can't help you), there was a thread about complications that had a LOT of people respond to (more than you'd realize). Adhesions are more common than I ever knew & I definitely wish I had known how to prevent them when they were born but no one told us.

So, whatever you decide, make sure to learn the proper care either way. And remember, it's YOUR child & whatever you decide is best. Do not let our opinions sway you either way....

 

DS is circumsised, dh didnt want him looking different than himself. i left it up to dh to decide

 

My boys are in tact. I didn't see any medical reason to have it done and dh agreed. More and more parents are deciding not to circumsize so I think that when my boys are "locker room" age, they won't be the minority. It is definitely a personal decision and you should do whatever you feel is best for your family.

 

QUOTE(3greysandamutt @ Oct 8 2008, 12:39 PM) [snapback]1017690[/snapback]
We did not have our boys done. We talked to our OB first; he said that neither of his sons were done, and that the medical 'needs' for circumsizing are very very rare. We then talked to our pedi, who agreed that circumcision is a 99% cosmetic issue. He said that the only reason to have it done is for the boy to look like Dad. However, my DH and I never bought into that point. How often are the men in the household going to be lining up and comparing equipment? (Yes, I know that there may be times that they are at a bank of urinals together, or in the locker room, etc) And why does it matter if they look different? My twins are both uncirc'ed, but their equipment comes in totally different shapes and sizes! (I bet that, if we asked our DH's/SO's if their own fathers were circed or uncirced, very few of them would be able to answer! Neither DH nor I know if our fathers are circed...).


When I was in the hospital with the boys my grandma came to visit. In conversation she mentioned that my grandpa wasn't circed, by dad was, and his brother wasn't. The interesting thing is my dad didn't know about his dad or his brother. So for all the talk about knowing if your dad or brothers are I suppose some families are more open and some aren't. My DH is and DS1 and DS2 both are. With the twins we decided to leave them intact. And have no regrets about it. The OB/Gyn who was going to perform the circs wouldn't use any pain relief and that made me nervous. Although he was the one that performed my DS2's. And like other pp said make sure you know how to care for them either way. DS2's grew back on the head and it took a big of work but I was able to pull it back...I then just used Vaseline.

 

Someone mentioned that they use local anesthesia for it... Not all hospitals do. A baby was circumsized when we were at the special care unit with our babies, and we heard the screams from the room. You might want to ask your hospital what's their policy on that too.

 

my son is done - because DH wanted it and so did I - and our hospital did use local anesthetic and Tylenol afterward - the only thing he did was pee on the nurse that was assisting the ped doing the circ - no pain and he slept through it...

 

We did not have either of our boys circumcised. I can understand doing it for religious reasons.

It is a social decision. I decided my sons can make their own social decisions where their penises are concerned.

 

Both of my boys are circumsised for severall reasons, but the main reasons are that my dad was never circumsised and had trouble all his life--when he was 51 he had to be circumsised due to health reasons. My DH isnt and he hates it and always said if we had boys they would be. Hope you are able to make your decision without guilt either way.

 

My son is not circumcised. Its not common practice here anymore, and i didn't think it was necessary.

 

We circumcised our sons. I left it up to my husband and that's what he decided. Really, I was glad. I don't think there is a "right" thing to do - it's all about what's right for your family. My father was not circumcised and had to have it done when he was 45 due to persistent infections of some kind (not sure - didn't go into detail about it!). I'm not sure if that's unusual. My husband is circumcised. The procedure was quick and easy and the boys had no trouble afterward. They healed well and they're easy to keep clean now. I have no regrets and it was worth the $250 each. I guess it's largely a matter of what you're used to.

 

We did it with our boys for many reasons one of which was that women who sleep with uncirc. men have an increased chance in ovarian cancer. Do what you feel comfortable with as you will hear good arguments on both sides.

 

Both our boys are. Neither had any complications. If by some chance we have more boys they will be too.

Will actually pee'd on the doctor's face when they did his. lol. She came back and said "I guess he told me what he thought of that lol"

 

My boys are. DH and DS are so we just went with it for them too. I agree with all previous posters to do what YOU feel is right. I don't think there is a right/wrong on this one...

 

Wow there is quite the diversity out there, from reading all the posts. We decided not to have our son circumcised, and that was the right decision for us. When I researched it, for me the research said it was not necessary, they use to recommend it years ago for hygene reasons etc, but over the last number of years they have done a 180 and are not recommending it anymore. Also, I believe that North America is one of only a very few areas in the world that still practices it (other then for religious purposes). So for us we decided not to do it, and so far I am very happy with our decision.

I hope you are able to find out what the right decision is for your family. Good Luck.

 

My son is intact. I always assumed we would circumcise, because DH has been, and all of my friends had circumcised their sons -- it just seemed to be the thing to do. But, I'm the kind of person that can't even buy a $50 toaster oven without doing a lot of research, LOL, so I decided to look further into it.

What I read really convinced me not to do it. DH and I discussed it, and I told him what I'd learned -- and he was fine with this decision. He didn't feel the overwhelming need to "match" his son, nor did he worry about the teasing-in-the-locker-room scenario.

And then, I discussed it with my mother, and learned my dad wasn't circumcised (who knew?). My parents imigrated to the U.S. from India, and it's not common practice there (among Hindus, at least). Actually, most of the world does not circumcise.

Anyhow. That's how we arrived at our decision, and I'm really happy with it. DS has had zero problems so far. I think he's perfect the way he is!