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[quote=Anonymous]We decided not to do it for our son, who will be born any day now. That said, I researched it to DEATH and can say I would feel equally comfortable going either way on it---in the end I deferred to DH on the decision and he decided no (despite being Jewish and circ'ed himself, and not caring one way or the other about his own experience with it---in fact, he noted that he'd never thought about it one way or the other before we started grappling with the decision).

Here were our personal views (and please, no attacks---these are our OPINIONS based on what we read/experienced, in the hopes that it will help the OP since we also struggled with this!)

- I read the studies and do buy the medical evidence that there may be reduced STD risk and penile cancer risk. I don't personally think this is super relevant to boys growing up in the developed world, though, since with good education about safe sex, they have access to other forms of protection against the STDs, and the penile cancer risk is teeny to begin with, so it wasn't a huge factor. My FIL is a doctor and does not see any medical need for it, but also does not consider it a risky procedure at all (and says he would do it again in a heartbeat for cultural reasons b/c our fam is Jewish--but DH is not especially religious and did not see that as a good argument).

- I do have female friends who feel they've had more issues with UTIs and yeast infections while they've been in sexual relationships with (otherwise clean!) uncircumcised men than when they've been with circumcised men. No personal experience with this so dunno if it holds water or not, but that was a little concerning (as creepy as it is to think that far ahead for your kid!) No personal experience with sex with an uncircumcised guy so no clue if it's true that it's more pleasurable for the woman. DH is unconvinced that it could be that different for the male, though of course has no experience on that front either. (I guess that's just to say he's quite satisfied with his sex life as a circumcised guy! ;)

- On reviewing the literature and talking with my FIL, I don't see a medical risk to speak of associated with the surgery. (That's not to say there are *never* issues, but anything beyond simple infection is incredibly rare.) That said, had we decided to do it, we would have used an experienced pediatrician to do it and would absolutely have done it with local anaesthesia (our hospital actually won't perform it without---and I see no good reason not to use anaesthesia given that the risk for locals/topicals is minimal! My understanding is that in the medical setting, anaesthesia is the norm and the AAP rec, but it may be different in religious settings.)

- There are occasional (also rare, but we know of two, so not unheard of) cases where circumcision has to be performed later in childhood because of problems with the foreskin that cause extreme pain to the child. The potential for this scares me a lot because it involves general anaesthesia, which is far riskier than locals, but it's also a very rare occurrence so I try not to think about it.

- The "let your child decide for himself when he's an adult" argument is bogus, in my view---adult circumcision is a major medical procedure and not something to be taken lightly, so you are effectively making a decision for your child whichever option you choose. Sure, your kid can decide to do it, but it's a huge and costly undertaking (never covered unless for a medical issue), whereas it's relatively minor surgery for a baby (b/c of developmental stages). By deciding for the infant, you're essentially deciding for your adult child too---and I'm completely fine with that, because it's just the first of many, many medical decisions that you as the parent will make for your child. (Not even the first, arguably, since some labor & delivery decisions affect your child too!) So I don't think that's worth stressing over. You make the best decision you can with the information you have available, and you go with it.

- Teasing was an issue for some families I know with older uncircumcised boys (teenagers/young adults now) but I really don't think it's a concern for boys born today because the rates are fast approaching 50/50 (and even tipping the other direction in some parts of the country)---WAY down from the huge majority being circumcised in our generation. So I don't think there will be boys out there will be the only one in the locker room on either side.

- We asked our birth instructor, who's a lactation consultant, about the breastfeeding issue and she didn't feel this was a concern one way or the other, at least in her practice---she did not see enough of a pattern to attribute any issues to circumcising or not circumcising. However, she also noted that her sample pool was biased because many parents don't call her until they have latching issues, so she has no idea what the ratios of happily latching circed vs. uncirced babies are like---just that there didn't seem to be a pattern among the babies she did see.

Basically, in the end for us it came down to not seeing a terribly strong argument for any medical benefits, and thus going with inaction over action (did not want to do unnecessary surgery). Fingers crossed that there will not be some conclusive evidence in a few years' time suggesting that the medical evidence is much stronger! We also plan to ask our pediatrician candidates about their experience with uncircumcised boys to make sure we get someone supportive of/knowledgeable about the uncircumcised penis and the different challenges. DH is also reading up on things like ballooning and the like so that he will be prepared to take on some of the toilet training issues and care specific to the intact penis as the little guy ages (since by the time most of that comes into play, he'll be a bit old for mom to be involved!)

We do have several pregnancy books, and I found the circumcision discussion particularly well balanced in the Mayo Clinic book and "The Birth Partner," a book my husband has---they both present the pros and cons in a pretty objective manner, which I think is key to being able to make sense of it all. Good luck---it's not an easy decision if you don't have a cultural factor or anything driving it![/quote]

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