My first gut reaction was it just seems cleaner and easier to circumcise. An extra skin flap SOUNDS like it would be dirty, right? And almost everyone I know is circumcised, we must do it for a reason. Then I found out the REAL reason we circumcise (Circumcision took off because it was believed it would curb masturbation. Obviously, that mission failed epically, but the cycle of "his should look like mine" kept going and Americans kept circumcising their babies.) and decided i really owed it to my kid to do my research and make an informed decision that goes beyond "everyone else does it."
There are plenty of articles circulating about all the sensitive nerves in the foreskin and how so much sensitivity is lost by circumcising. While no one i know can attest to the experience of BOTH situations, I asked my husband if he felt like he'd been robbed of something, and he said no. Some friends said they wish the choice had been theirs, but most circumcised men said they were happy with their bodies and pro-circumcision.
Care: A big selfish part of me kept picturing a blowout diaper all up in foreskin. Knowing that i have to care for it, that just sounded so gross and like so much extra work. And so I read A LOT of articles, and i talked to a lot of people. One of my co-workers has 4 kids, 2 girls and 2 boys. Her husband is latino and uncircumcised (circumcision is not a part of hispanic culture and i asked several hispanic men as well) but she, like me, did all the research when her sons were born. When I asked if it's messier she said, hands down a girl is the worst to clean. Baby foreskin doesn't retract, it's basically fused together so stuff doesn't go inside. She also said "little boys love to play with themselves, so when they're in the tub you tell them to clean their willy and they do".
I am going to link some articles below- both for and against circumcision- but mainly i'm going to put some factoids that influenced our decision not to circumcise. We aren't anti-circumcision, sometimes it is medically necessary (King Louis' was medically necessary and therefore made it fashionable!), and there's always a possibility that our son could need circumcised later on (though we hope if it does become necessary, he will still be very young). For now, we will not be having our son circumcised when he's born.
- Circumcision Myths- just read it
- In the United States, ~55% of boys are circumcised each year which is actually a lot lower than i would have thought. Some articles say it is now below 40%. Circumcision is primarily something done by Americans and the Jewish and Muslim communities. The vast majority of the world's men are not circumcised.
- It's not actually cleaner. Men's foreskin is basically fused to a mucous membrane (which is how your body keeps others things- like your nose and vagina- clean). It stays fused until it's ready, with some men not achieving FULL retraction until the end of puberty. It does not require extra special cleaning. Stuff does not get in there any more than it gets into your vagina. Less so actually.
- Men have a low risk of UTIs in the first place, and circumcised boys risk only drops 2% compared to uncircumcised boys. What's more disturbing is that the notion that westerners have been told that it needs special cleaning meant that a lot of people actually unwittingly hurt their babies by forcibly retracting the foreskin to clean under it. This is a big fat no no. It doesn't retract, it isn't meant to retract, and when you forcibly retract it, you're basically tearing it.
- If we were having a girl, this wouldn't even be up for debate- it's a big f*ck no! We view female circumcision as genital mutilation and the countries that do it as barbaric and cruel. While I am rather certain that female mutilation has a bigger and more lasting impact than circumcision, at the end of the day, we're talking about cutting off nerves in your genitalia.
- It doesn't always go flawlessly. My sister and her friend had the same doctor, and both my nephew and her friend's son had to be circumcised a second time. A friend told me that she knows another little boy who had to be circumcised twice. Sometimes the error is not on the side of caution, and you can't just put it back the way it was.
- There have been multiple studies regarding sensitivity and disorders (erectile disfunction, partner satisfaction, ability to climax, loss of sensitivity, etc) and those studies do abundantly suggest that circumcised men have more problems with intimacy and orgasms than uncircumcised men do. That's not to say that all circumcised men will face those problems- i'm of the opinion that most men have healthy and plentiful sexual appetites regardless of whether or not they were circumcised, but just thought it worth noting
Some facts in favor of circumcision:
- Apparently, U.S. doctors are largely unfamiliar with how they should treat uncircumcised baby's, and regularly do forcible retractions during routing wellness checks which can lead to permanent damage and require a circumcision. We're going to have to be extra obnoxious with doctors every time they go near our kids penis. A lot of "medically necessary" circumcisions are because the foreskin isn't retracting. It isn't supposed to retract until puberty. A small child cannot be diagnosed with phimosis. If your doctor does, find another doctor.
- It may sound stupid, but maybe it is easier to be "just like everyone else". Hid dad is circumcised and roughly 50% of the boys at school will be too. Culturally, we still have a stigma that men ARE circumcised and i imagine there will be many awkward conversations with girls and the coming generations' boys.
- Of all the studies on cleanliness and disease, the only one that seems to show conclusive benefit is that circumcised men are less likely to pass HPV on to their partners. My inner feminist says right-on.
- They can graft ~12,000 square feet of skin from one baby's foreskin. That's pretty helpful for all the people that need skin grafts. It's like organ donation. (fun fact: skin is your largest organ)
- There is a very slight correlation for lowered risk of HIV, HPV, penile cancer, and STIs. *Most of these studies occurred in Africa, were never actually completed, do not take forcible retraction injuries into account, and were done in the 80s when 85% of american boys were circumcised.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/system/surgical/circumcision.html
http://www.upworthy.com/the-absurd-reason-why-america-circumcises-baby-boys
http://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/guide/circumcision
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