sensitive subject - circumcision

We will have our little ones circ.

 

Blake was circumcised at the hospital before we left.

 

quote:
If you would like some non-biased links about circumcision, I would be happy to provide them.

Non-biased links about circumcision? Yeah, right. They're ALL biased one way or the other.

Circumcision is a personal choice and you should make it according to your own research and values.

Good luck with your decision.

 

Nolan was circumcised at the hospital by our pediatrician. If we have another boy this time, we will have him circumcised as well.

 

We had our boys done and had no problems. Good luck with your decision.

 

I haven't. It's really uncommon in Europe unless you're Muslim or Jewish. I was shocked to find out that so many boys in the US are actually getting circumsized.

 

If you are looking strictly for numbers this link
has statistics on circumcision rates by region (scroll down). THe most recent stats are 2003, and presumably rates are continuing to fall.

To all of those who said it is a personal decision, I absolutely agree with you. The person who *owns* the penis should decide.

 

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Sharon, we are Christian but my husband was so upset by the last circumcision needing to be redone he was asking me if we could get a moyel (again, sp?) to come in and do the twins. I told him I doubt it, but we are going with the next best thing...the ped. urologist.



Mary, you may want to ask around. Our moyel was recommended by our pediatrician. He told us that there is a push to find Jewish pediatricains who are willing to train to do the ceremony. You may have a local ped who is trained. I can say that he was wonderful, told us a dose of Tylonol to give, and did use a local anethetic. The boys cried more from being exposed in the air conditioned house than they did from the procedure.

 

My husband is circ'd, but our older boy and our "twin" boy were not.

We found no compelling reason to mess with millions of years of evolution.

Lisa

 

Yep, my 2 sons already are, and my next two will be...

Caleb 6/30/04
Aidan 2/22/06

 

My son is circumcised and if these two are boys they will be too.

I wasn't crazy about the idea, but I'm glad we did it. I kind let my husband have the final say since he is the only one of us a penis !

Just a thought...(if you're married)do you want your son to "look like his father"? I ended up going along with hubby b/c he is circumcised, and I didn't want our son to look too much different than daddy!

Jennifer

 

Oh, I have to add a funny!

I've been reading through the posts about different docs/specialists/chuch clergy performing the circumcision.
I live in Alabama. (I know I hear the laughter already!) And here it is standard practice that the mother's OB/GYN performs the circumcision in the hospital! Now, what OB's know about removing foreskin is beyond me!!!

However, we've had no probs!

 

quote:
Just a thought...(if you're married)do you want your son to "look like his father"? I ended up going along with hubby b/c he is circumcised, and I didn't want our son to look too much different than daddy!


I personally don't think aesthetics is reason enough to remove functioning body parts from my children. Now, if they were born with an actual physical anomaly--especially one that interferred with proper development or caused pain--then I might consider it.

There are many things about my boys' physical appearance that aren't exactly the same as their daddy

 

quote:
Originally posted by mom23cuties:
quote:
Just a thought...(if you're married)do you want your son to "look like his father"? I ended up going along with hubby b/c he is circumcised, and I didn't want our son to look too much different than daddy!


I personally don't think aesthetics is reason enough to remove functioning body parts from my children. Now, if they were born with an actual physical anomaly--especially one that interferred with proper development or caused pain--then I might consider it.

There are many things about my boys' physical appearance that aren't exactly the same as their daddy I'm sure the majority of little girls don't grow up with carbon-copy genitalia of their mothers either.

And if you have girls, you know their genitalia is *at least* as complicated to keep clean (but somehow they figure it out)

Lisa

 

quote:
And here it is standard practice that the mother's OB/GYN performs the circumcision in the hospital! Now, what OB's know about removing foreskin is beyond me!!!


Actually, that is standard procedure in most states. I was surprised when I found out my OB did the twins circ, and I asked why. I was told that peds. are not surgeons, but OB's are. They are not only physicians, but surgeons as well. Since a circ. is a form of surgery, they are required to do it....

 

Stmb04- I am from Alabama and now live in Texas. My OB (at the Woman's Hospital of Texas in the Houston Medical Center) did my son's circumcision and we are having the specialist do the twins because she screwed up big time by not removing enough...kind of a "worst of both worlds" scenario there. Anyway, my 3 nephews were circumcised in Alabama by OBs and never had a problem. You'd think someone at the big labor and delivery hospital in one of the country's biggest medical cities would be able to do the circ., but she had a lot harder time than my sister's 2 different Alabama OBs!

 

Ben was circumsized when he was around 8 weeks old. My peri, of all people, did it. He would not do it when Ben was first born because he was premature. We had to wait until he was at least 1) back to his birthweight, and 2) he reached his original due date.

 

Expecting two boys in May and both will be circumcised.

 

My hubby is from Europe and he's not done and our little boy isn't either. These next two boys will not be done. We also feel that it's best to leave things that are there for a reason. I cringed a but when I read about the redo's but have to add that two of our nephews in Europe that were not circ'd had to have surgical proceedures done when they were about 7-9 yrs old to have some of the foreskin removed or stretched because they were having issues. So, nothing is 100% either way. Whatever decision you make, you "may" have regrets.

Just in case... those of you with uncirc'd boys... watch closely at your pedi's and at ER trips that no doctor ever ever ever retracts forskin before it already does it naturally. This could cause major issues and for some reason some doctors have a urge to look even though they should not. Be watchful and ready to smack hands!

Merijo

 

quote:
And here it is standard practice that the mother's OB/GYN performs the circumcision in the hospital!

My OB did Kyle's circumcision.

 

I let DH decide - so both boys are - and on a side note - one of them even fell asleep during the procedure...

 

your right, it is a very sensitive subject and truly a personal preference. My son is and my twins will be too. I work in the medical transcriptionist and have had far too many reports about 40+ yr old men comming in and having to get circ'd (often on an emergent basis) because of (tmi, sorry) "strangulation of the head" or severe infections. I am talking reports on a daily basis. I personally would have even before knowing this; however, now I have an even stronger urge to circ.

 

my oldest 2 sons are and if i have any more sons they will be too.

 

quote:
Just a thought...(if you're married)do you want your son to "look like his father"? I ended up going along with hubby b/c he is circumcised, and I didn't want our son to look too much different than daddy!



When DS is young enough to be seeing/comparing with his father's penis, he won't look like him no matter what. By the time he might look similar, they shouldn't be comparing anymore...
I don't think this is a good enough reason to remove a functional part of my son's body. After all, my boobs look nothing like my Mom's, and I survived. And my eyes aren't the same colour as either parent!

 

I realize this is a sensitive subject and I see both sides, that's why I left it up to my husband. So I'm not criticizing anyone's decision in giving my opinion about why we did what we did. But, since in appears my statement needed explaining, look at it this way: Why should my husband have to explain "the difference" when he starts teaching our son how to keep it clean? We just didn't think it needed to be an issue. If you chose not to circumsize, I COMPLETELY understand, believe me it seemed kind of barbaric to me too. BUT, I think most circumsized men like it that way; my husband's father is NOT CIRCUMSIZED and he chose to circumsize his four sons, so I figured there must be something to it.

Thank you Lisa and Mimsy for raising my pregnant blood pressure, I'm not criticizing your decision.

Thank you for letting me know that OB's do it in other states too. We had absolutely no problems, but it just seemed odd!

Jennifer

 

I also left it up to my husband. It didn't matter to me, but it was VERY important to my husband. Our 2-year-old boy was circumsized (so is dh), and this boy will be, too. Thank goodness our other twin is a girl. I hated looking at my first son's fire red penis after the surgery. I never felt like he was in pain, though.

Kendra

 

We had our son circumcised at 6 weeks at the doctors office. Since he was born so early the doc wanted us to wait until he was a good size.

 

I am having b/b twins, and we are absolutly NOT.
apparently in where i live they don't offer it to you in the hospital. You have to book it at least 5 weeks before your baby is born at a special dr.s office and it costs $1000 because they consider it cosmetic, as it is not medically necessary.
I have had many the debate with my DH, who IS circumsized, and finally he has come to my side.

 

Our boys aren't. I did research on both sides, (and yes, I did find unbiased sources on circumcision, but it was hard to find), and made my decision.

 

We have not yet been able to confirm that we are having boys, but have discussed circumcision b/c our docs strongly believe we are having 2 boys. They WILL be circumsized - not only do we believe it to be more hygenic, but also, socially preferable. When I was in college, a good friend of mine was in a fraternity where only one of the guys was NOT circumsized - his nickname in the house was "Uncut" and he got teased mercilessly. He handled it well, but I would prefer my sons avoid that fate.

Ultimately, this is, like so many others have said, a personal decision.

 

Im really suprised at the frequency of which this procedure is still performed.

It is something that is never offered by Ob's, hospitals or anyone here anymore. As far as I know, if you wanted it done, it is cosmetic surgery and wouldnt be performed until the child is older.

My 3 boys are not done, never will be either. I wouldnt let anyone remove any body part unless absolutely necessary. They will look like their father.

I think boys compare penis's at school so not being circumsised is the norm for Australia.

 

Word of warning about the circumcision study done in Africa. That study did not take into account hygiene practices, I do not believe that study reflects reality in the western world, it is a study done in a 3rd world country in 3rd world conditions.
Consider this, The united states has the highest non-religious circumcision rate in the world, it also has the highest HIV infection rate of all first world countries, yet countries like New Zealand, most of Europe, developed parts of Asia, do not practice circumcision, yet they have a lower infection rate, in some cases far lower. So if circumcision in the magic bullet, why is the United States at the top of the list in circumcision statistics as well as HIV infection stats. Should you be interested to view the stats for yourself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_count...prevalence_rate
Make up your own mind but that is the reality of it, studies have been done on the subject for decades where one contradicts the other. For my own opinion, Nature knows best.

In the case of my twins, they are 10 years old, they still can only retract their foreskins about one quarter of the way, one of them has two infections through time, that took about 3 months to go away each time, but that has not happened now in a long time.
In my own case my parents had the good sense to leave me alone. I was not able to retract my own foreskin fully till I was 14, this is quite normal, despite what allot of doctors would have you believe, which I would believe to be a result of understanding of the uncircumcised penis, in Europe they have the circumcision option available to them but I am pretty sure you will find it is used in less than 1% of cases if you do some study on the matter.
From a male perspective I couldn't imagine sex without it it is where 80% of all my sexual sensation comes from even when stimulation is concentrated on my glans. As for my partner, she has had both and concludes it this way: Circumcised is like having sex with a dry broomstick, where as uncircumcised is like having sex with a well oiled piston and far more enjoyable.

So in the end What I am saying: If it ain't broke then don't fix it.

If you would like to ask me any questions on the matter please feel free to private message me and I will be happy to answer.

 

i know there is a lot of controversy on whether circumcision is entirely a necessary procedure.. its ultimately based on choice. Me having two twin boys, I have decided to get this done on the boys, not because of it being 'practical or clean' but mostly through tradition so to speak.

 

Before we had the boys I thought we we get them circumsized but once they were here we just couldn't do it. In the NICU they actually gave out info against it and told us if we weren't sure what we wanted to do we could talk to the doctor and that he would talk us out of it, that was enough for me.

As a side note I had this same discussion with one of my friends who also has a son she had alway said her husband wanted to get there son done so they would look the same until one day him and his brothers (who were in the midst of having babies to) were sitting around talking about how they would have there boys done so they looked like the dad just how they had grown up, when there dad piped in to say boys I'm not circumsized........really how often do you see your dad's penis?


erica

 

I plan on getting it done.

QUOTE(sitkamom @ Jan 17 2007, 05:09 PM) [snapback]71609[/snapback]
Just a quick question about circumcision - how many plan on having thier sons circumcised? I guess just wanting to know what percentage of people are getting it done. NOT wanting to get a heated debate going, just curious...Thanks!