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Expectant and Postpartum Moms
did you circumcise your son?
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Anonymous
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oh so your wisdom tooth is rotting in your mouth and you won't remove it because because nature decides what's better? tha must be a joke!!!
men who are circ have clearly lower numbers in penile infections, UTIs, and penile cancer. |
Anonymous
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i don't see the parallel between removing a rotten tooth and removing a perfectly healthy piece of tissue from a baby's penis. in one case, someone is experiencing sickness or pain and chooses to remove the tooth to hopefully resolve it. in the other case, parents are deciding on behalf of a baby (who cannot consent) to remove healthy skin that is not sick or painful, and to instead cause pain.
also, i don't think that the research on the health benefits of circumcision are very "clear" at all. i did a lot of research myself and found a lot of contradictory information. plus, the american academy of pediatrics doesn't seem to believe the evidence is compelling enough to recommend it for health reasons. This is from their policy statement: "Existing scientific evidence demonstrates potential medical benefits of newborn male circumcision; however, these data are not sufficient to recommend routine neonatal circumcision." |
Anonymous
| OP here - Just wanted to thank all of you for the lively discussion! It really does help. Ultimately, it will be a decision DH and I will have to make, but I'm leaning towards not circumcising since DH feels strongly about it...I think (and hope) our sons will grow up knowing that it's not a big deal.... |
Anonymous
Good for you (meant sincerely). I was the PP who said we were 50/50 on this decision, but my husband felt strongly about circ'ing because of religion. If someone feels very strongly, I think it's very important to honor that. Circ'ing might be right, might be wrong, might not matter at all, but what you two "can" say as parents is that you researched it thoroughly and made the best decision you could for your child. That in the end, is most important. |
Anonymous
| We did not. My husband is and really the only good reason we could come up with was so our son would look like his dad in that way. Which we ultimately decided wasn't good enough, although we waited to officially decide until the baby was born. I do sometimes doubt our decision, especially after my brother in law questioned my husband about it, but am still fairly sure we made the right decision for us. |
Anonymous
I am always curious when people say this. What exactly is it he feels strongly about? Is it an emotional thing? I always wonder if men spend a lot of time as a child or young adult, comparing his own penis to his fathers. I wonder as adults, if men spend time thinking about their father's penis. I can't imagine that they do. My circumcised husband, who "felt strongly" that our sons should be circumcised, didn't even know that his own father was NOT circumcised until we started these discussions. That pretty much sealed the deal for me - it made me realize that this was not about carrying on some "special tradition." So I spent a lot of time reassuring DH that I loved his penis just like it is, but that was no reason to inflict an unnecessary procedure on our sons the day after they are born. I compromised with my DH by telling him that if, after our son was six months old, DH still wanted the surgery done, that I would happily sign the consent form. I think circumcised men are often just afraid of the unknown, and afraid that an intact son will highlight that there might be something wrong with THEM. After my son was a few months old and I brought it up again, DH thought the whole idea was completely insane - he could see after months of caring for the baby that there was absolutely no trouble with him having a foreskin, and that it would be just plain stupid to mess with him. None of our kids have ever had one single problem with their foreskin, and none of them have even once noticed that daddy doesn't have a foreskin. |
Anonymous
I don't think you've actually done any research on infection rates. If you had, you would know that intact men do not have higher rates of penile cancer (the latest research shows no correlation at all between having a foreskin and penile cancer), and intact men do not have higher rates of other "infections." There is some older research which shows a 2% increase in UTIs in the first year of life in boys who are intact. This was only found in the United States, where pediatricians routinely would retract the baby's foreskin (and instruct the parents to retract the foreskin) in order to clean underneath. Retracting the foreskin at such a young age causes tearing and infection, so it is no surprise that the data would show a small increase in infections. This same connection between baby boys and UTIs is simply not found in other countries who do not practice early retraction of the foreskin. Either way, is a UTI really reason to cut off part of your son's penis? Since when do we treat UTIs with amputation of genital skin? Boys - including those with their foreskin - still have lower UTI rates than girls. |
Anonymous
I am the poster you quoted. I'm glad that you feel that you "know better" than all these doctors conducting the study, some of which come from the likes of Johns Hopkins and the rest. First, to equate circumcision to certain practices related to female genitalia mutilation is foolish and stupid. It is not the same thing and you know it. Second, there is no government conspiracy for circumcizing boys. Think about it logically, why would the government care one way or another? Stop being so paranoid. And third, circumcision done correctly is pretty much painless for babies and there are no reputable studies (key word REPUTABLE) that say there is a decrease in feeling, etc. So many of us weigh what we consider the risks (almost none) to the benefits (cited in the study) and make that decision. Let me guess, you also don't vaccinate your children either, do you? |
Anonymous
I totally think it is 100% your choice, but the only reason you could come up with was that your son would look like daddy? Please read the studies b/c there are other reasons. I know people want to pretend that the studies aren't out there, but they do exist and show that there are health benefits to circumcision. If you still choose to, totally fine, but at least research this issue for real. |
Anonymous
Did you read the Canadian article? Why do you think it is that none of the rest of the world interprets the research the way the U.S. doctors do? This is not a rhetorical question. I'm not talking about conspiracy; I'm talking about cultural bias. Most of the doctors in this country are circumcised, so they have a strong bias for it. That means they are going to downplay risks, and present the benefits as much more weighty than they are. No other pediatric association in the world encourages circumcision; in fact they outright discourage it. You literally have to search far and wide to find a pediatrician who will do a routine neonatal circumcision in countries like Canada, England, Norway, Germany, Italy, Mexico, etc. etc. Do you think they are simply not aware of the great benefits? Can you name five risks of circumcision? Can you explain what is so potentially troublesome about a foreskin that it must be removed within hours of birth? I think many people circumcise more out of fear than any other reason, and they truly have not explored the risks, nor have they made any attempt to discover how the normal (intact) penis functions. |
Anonymous
You could make a case that there are health benefits to cutting off any number of body parts. Men die from breast cancer. Women die from labial cancer. People break their little toes and get gangrene in them. Why not cut these body parts off at birth? There would certainly be health benefits from doing so, and it's not like they are essential body parts. Maybe you could tell us, since you seem to have done lots of research on the topic, is the foreskin more prone to trouble than any other body part? |
Anonymous
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I struggled with this question when I found out that I was having a boy. I don't remember looking up any studies on the issue, but I did have a discussion with my OB/GYN who said that there are some health benefits and some risks to the procedure, but that both are fairly limited and it really boiled down to a personal choice. My DH who is not circumcised and in the end insisted that we get our son circumcised. He said that he was so self-concious about not be circumcised that he even looked into getting the procedure done when he was 19. To me, the idea of cutting on my newborn son's penis really eeked me out. Luckily DH is a pediatric nurse so he watched the procedure and then took control of the proper care of the wound afterwards. In the end I was convinced that it should be done because I knew it would be much riskier and expensive for him to do it later on in life after he was old enough to decide for himself.
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Anonymous
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Two boys, both circ'd.
How does the poll function work, anyway? |
Anonymous
DH is circ'd but we chose not to circ our son. Definitely a decision that we put a lot of thought into, but in the end we did not think the health benefits outweighed the risks. I also felt like another PP in that I was making a huge decision for my son, something that was irreversible. If he decides later in life to have the procedure done, I will be happy to pay for it. If he ever asks why he looks different, I am just going to tell him that he looks exactly like he did when he was born and that no two penises look alike anyway (they're kind of like snowflakes  )
#2 is due this summer and if we have another boy, we will definitely not circ. |
Anonymous
| I think I'll start demanding to know whether all of my son's playmates are or are not circumcized. Then I can judge the hell out of their parents. |