Worried about son's circumcision

[Anonymous]

We didn't do it. No regrets. Just skip it. You can always do it later, but you can't undo it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then just don't do it. My father is not, my brother is not. My husband is not. We are all Caucasian, in case you were wondering. All of them are glad it was never done.

But every guy I know is circumcised, including family members, in my community its what everybody does to their baby boys.

I am previous poster. Most men I knew were circumcised also but it just so happens that my family and my husband is not. In our community (I am your run of the mill white American) most people did it decades ago, too. But U.S. circumcision rates are on the decline for infants and has been for the last few decades, so when your son is an adult, it will be pretty much half and half.

See http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/u-s-circumcision-rates-are-declining/?_r=0

Also, in Europe, and in most of the world outside of the United Statses. almost no one is circumcised. Most who are circumcised in other parts of the world are Muslim or Jewish and they do it for religious reasons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevalence_of_circumcision

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honey, don't cut your son's foreskin off because your boyfriend wants you to. Sorry to be so frank, but the statistics are not in your favor of being with him long term. You will always be your son's mother.

true don't just rely on your boyfriend, just follow the science and make a decision.

What are the benefits of circumcision?

A decreased risk of urinary tract infections.
A reduced risk of some sexually transmitted diseases in men.
Protection against penile cancer and a reduced risk of cervical cancer in female sex partners.
Prevention of balanitis (inflammation of the glans) and balanoposthitis (inflammation of the glans and foreskin).
Prevention of phimosis (the inability to retract the foreskin) and paraphimosis (the inability to return the foreskin to its original location).
Circumcision also makes it easier to keep the end of the penis clean.

http://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/guide/circumcision

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/news/20141202/cdc-endorses-circumcision-for-health-reasons

http://www.pepfar.gov/press/releases/2013/210128.htm

https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/newborn-male-circumcision.aspx

Have you even looked at the actual numbers? We are talking very, very small "reduced risks".

[Anonymous]

Of course it will hurt. It is not true that babies "sleep through it" any more than you or anyone else you know at any age would "sleep through it" when someone takes a knife to your genitals. Actually, not just a knife, but a probe and a clamp as well.

So the foreskin is not a separate part of the penis. It is part of the penis. It is bonded to the head of the penis (the glans) at birth and for a number of years thereafter by a tissue (synechial tissue) that is just like the tissue that bonds your fingernail to the nail bed. Before the circumcision can happen, the doctor has to insert a probe through the meatus (the opening) and break that tissue bond. That is exactly like someone inserting a probe under your fingernail and separating your fingernail from the nail bed.

Then the foreskin is clamped and cut off. So that is skin being sliced off from the body.

Here is a description of the Gomco clamp procedure, with drawings, from the American Academy of Family Physicians:

http://www.aafp.org/afp/1998/0915/p891.html

So yeah it hurts, a LOT, and it hurts a brand-new baby in ways that he may not be able to remember but that doesn't make it OK in my book. Any more than it would be OK to do any surgery on any baby without pain relief. (It used to be that babies didn't get pain relief for surgeries because anesthesia wasn't safe, but it's 100% false that babies "can't feel pain.")

If you're going to do this to your child, you owe it to him to give him absolutely the best pain relief possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course it will hurt. It is not true that babies "sleep through it" any more than you or anyone else you know at any age would "sleep through it" when someone takes a knife to your genitals. Actually, not just a knife, but a probe and a clamp as well.

So the foreskin is not a separate part of the penis. It is part of the penis. It is bonded to the head of the penis (the glans) at birth and for a number of years thereafter by a tissue (synechial tissue) that is just like the tissue that bonds your fingernail to the nail bed. Before the circumcision can happen, the doctor has to insert a probe through the meatus (the opening) and break that tissue bond. That is exactly like someone inserting a probe under your fingernail and separating your fingernail from the nail bed.

Then the foreskin is clamped and cut off. So that is skin being sliced off from the body.

Here is a description of the Gomco clamp procedure, with drawings, from the American Academy of Family Physicians:

http://www.aafp.org/afp/1998/0915/p891.html

So yeah it hurts, a LOT, and it hurts a brand-new baby in ways that he may not be able to remember but that doesn't make it OK in my book. Any more than it would be OK to do any surgery on any baby without pain relief. (It used to be that babies didn't get pain relief for surgeries because anesthesia wasn't safe, but it's 100% false that babies "can't feel pain.")

If you're going to do this to your child, you owe it to him to give him absolutely the best pain relief possible.

What if the pain relief hurts more than the actual surgery?

[Anonymous]

Given what the surgery entails, there is no way that the needles hurt more than the surgery, especially if numbing cream is used first to help with the needles.

Given the documented impacts of trauma and pain on the newborn brain, it is absolutely worth minimizing the potential impacts of pain.

Of course that begs the question of why take the risks in the first place, especially for a surgery that is not medically necessary. Most men will never have any medical problems with their penises that circumcision would have prevented, just as most women never have problems with their foreskins or genitals in general that surgery would have prevented. (Women have foreskins, too -- the hood of the clitoris develops from the same fetal structure that turns into the foreskin). It's not any cleaner to be circumcised (any more than it would be cleaner for a woman to have her foreskin and possibly labia removed).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Given what the surgery entails, there is no way that the needles hurt more than the surgery, especially if numbing cream is used first to help with the needles.

Given the documented impacts of trauma and pain on the newborn brain, it is absolutely worth minimizing the potential impacts of pain.

Of course that begs the question of why take the risks in the first place, especially for a surgery that is not medically necessary. Most men will never have any medical problems with their penises that circumcision would have prevented, just as most women never have problems with their foreskins or genitals in general that surgery would have prevented. (Women have foreskins, too -- the hood of the clitoris develops from the same fetal structure that turns into the foreskin). It's not any cleaner to be circumcised (any more than it would be cleaner for a woman to have her foreskin and possibly labia removed).

Sorry, been to a lot of brises, this is not accurate.

A standard bris is performed very quickly with minimal distress to the baby. Seconds.

If you try to apply pain relief through needles, etc., that adds to the time of the procedure itself, causing more distress to the baby.

If your position is "don't circumcise," that's fine, but it's kind of silly to suggest that you, an anti-circ advocate, knows how to circumcise better.

[Anonymous]

You are incorrect that I don't know what I'm talking about because I am anti-circumcision, and you are also basing your opinion on personal anecdote. One doesn't have to have an opinion one way or the other on the ethics of neonatal circumcision to have an informed opinion on the ethics of subjecting neonates to surgery without anesthesia.

The OP is not talking about a bris but a medical circumcision, which is not over in seconds (at least if Gomco or Plastibell methods are used). You can easily find dozens if not hundreds of studies on PubMed documenting significant pain responses in newborns undergoing medical circumcisions. That is why the AAP recommends adequate anesthesia (and not topical but injected) for neonatal circumcision.

The AAP itself clearly states in its report underlying its most recent policy statement on circumcision that adequate anesthesia must be used, and that sucrose and positioning alone are not adequate pain relief. Policy statement is available here:

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/130/3/e756?ijkey=6ac2007c42461dbd33ad75b0b231729c414ee1e8&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha

Analgesia is safe and effective in reducing the procedural pain associated with newborn circumcision; thus, adequate analgesia should be provided whenever newborn circumcision is performed.

Nonpharmacologic techniques (eg, positioning, sucrose pacifiers) alone are insufficient to prevent procedural and postprocedural pain and are not recommended as the sole method of analgesia. They should be used only as analgesic adjuncts to improve infant comfort during circumcision.

If used, topical creams may cause a higher incidence of skin irritation in low birth weight infants, compared with infants of normal weight; penile nerve block techniques should therefore be chosen for this group of newborns.

[Anonymous]

It's creepy that you all care so much about my son's penis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We don't remove wisdom teeth unless they're causing a problem.

I do not know who this "We" is to whom you refer, but every one of my dentists over the years has suggested that I have my wisdom teeth removed and I have no issues with my wisdom teeth -- each thinks it is a good idea because it will reduce probability I will have a problem in the future.

By "we" I mean <b>responsible patients</b>.

Are you an adult? Have you said, "I've never had any problems with my wisdom teeth -- what do you think is going to happen in the future?"

I had my wisdom teeth out when they started to make my jaw ache (because they were starting to come in).

My husband still has his wisdom teeth, and he's in his 50s.

you and your husband are geniuses and my dentists are stupid, got it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's creepy that you all care so much about my son's penis.

Then you should not have asked advice.

[Anonymous]

OP, would you undergo cosmetic surgery with no pain relief?

And why does your boyfriend's opinion trump yours, exactly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's creepy that you all care so much about my son's penis.

Then you should not have asked advice.

I'm not the OP.

[Anonymous]

Per the pediatrician that performed DS hospital at about 2 days old in the hospital, he completely slept through it. Didn't seem to be bothered by it at all as it healed, even with diaper changes and applying vaseline. It's NOT a big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If you're going to do this to your child, you owe it to him to give him absolutely the best pain relief possible.

What if the pain relief hurts more than the actual surgery?

Then maybe that's yet another sign that you shouldn't be consenting to this unnecessary procedure being done to your child. So much ignorance on this thread. Circumcision is an outdated tradition and I'm glad people are starting to wise up.