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[quote=Anonymous]Just as an FYI, the reason circumcision is far more complex in adults than in babies isn't because newborns don't feel pain---please, if anyone has a ped who is still telling them this, find a new one!! It has to do with the development of the muscles, nerves, and blood vessels in the penis and foreskin---by adulthood (and even later in childhood) they are significantly more developed/denser and there is a greater risk of bleeding out and nerve damage, so general anaesthesia is used. Recovery is also far longer for circumcision of older children or adults for similar reasons. (This isn't unique to circumcision, either; there are many other surgeries that are more effective to do on babies/young children because our brains and bodies develop and adapt and will accommodate changes at the early age that we can't adjust to later. I had cosmetic surgery to correct a birth defect twice---the first half of the procedure was done when I was an infant, and the second as a teenager because they wanted to let me choose whether to have it done or not. The first half went beautifully, and the second has been awful because 20 years on, my body still hasn't healed properly from it---the only "solution" surgeons have is that it should have been done much sooner. I don't regret doing it, exactly, and I do respect my parents' desire  to wait until I was old enough to voice my own opinion---my mom found the first procedure very traumatizing as a parent, which was a large part of why they waited on the second---but I do often wish they'd just done the entire procedure when I was very young.)

Also, if you do circ, absolutely ask for anaesthesia and for tylenol afterwards. This should be the norm in most medical settings at this point, though I don't know how mohels do it. We did not circ, but asked about it and our practice uses the nerve block as well (and will not do circumcision without anaesthesia, though I think you can opt for the topical cream instead).

I personally don't have an issue with parents making this decision for their sons. I just don't think people should be thinking "oh, he can just do it later if he chooses to and it will be basically the same thing," because that's simply not true. And really? That's okay---it's a parental decision that you get to make, whatever you decide.[/quote]

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