Top ten reasons not to circumcise your son

[christy005]

thanks for posting. I had my DS circumsized and regret doing it everyday. I definitely will not be getting our new son circumsized.

[wjallen05]

Thanks for posting this! Our son is not circumcised. I figure God made him perfect just the way he is, why change anything?
I hate when people say "it looks better circumcised" who cares? It's a penis.
When my OB/GYN asked if we were going to have our son circ, I said "no" expecting to hear a lecture, he replied with "oh, good. my sons aren't circumcised either. It's completely un-neccesary"

[ktmelody]

My son is intact. My DH has what they call a partial circ, which was common in the 70s, but it was botched. He has issues from the procedure and also wishes he was fully intact.

For those that asked, my son is almost 5. He sees his fathers penis on occasion and has never ONCE asked why his penis is different. I think that is a bad excuse for cutting off the skin from your sons penis. The only way, we can change the state of circumcision in the united states, is to STOP circumcising, and that means, for a short time, there will be circed fathers with sons that are intact. Hopefully my son will be educated enough to stop future circumcision on his sons (should he have any.)

If i told you that I was having my daughters circumcised, you would surely think it was abuse, morally wrong, and not something that should ever be considered. OUR SONS are NO different. Female Genital mutilation is a human rights issue right now in Africa. Male Genital mutilation should ALSO be a human rights issue especially here in the US, where the circ rates are much higher than other countries. If you don't think female circ is happening, please look at the statistics. Over 100 million girls suffered some form of FGM/female circ in 2001.

[jr1008]

I didn't say that we were going to use that as an excuse. I just have questions because dh is circ'd and I was wanting more answers about it. We are leaning more towards not circing because dh saw the video and knows that he couldn't have it done to himself at his age so he doesn't want our son to go through it, but we are having a girl so it doesn't matter this time.

[Mockeh]

Originally Posted by ktmelody For those that asked, my son is almost 5. He sees his fathers penis on occasion and has never ONCE asked why his penis is different. I think that is a bad excuse for cutting off the skin from your sons penis.

I've never understood the reasoning behind this.. Why would you want your son's penis to look like his dad's?! There is a massive age difference between the two so they're not going to look alike! Unless people are also going to glue pubes onto the baby and get penis enlargement too By the time they are old enough that they might look similar, I would imagine that they wouldn't be comparing them!

[amydiane]

Originally Posted by Mockeh I've never understood the reasoning behind this.. Why would you want your son's penis to look like his dad's?! There is a massive age difference between the two so they're not going to look alike! Unless people are also going to glue pubes onto the baby and get penis enlargement too By the time they are old enough that they might look similar, I would imagine that they wouldn't be comparing them!

I also don't understand this, but I have a good friend whose doctor told her that it can be "traumatizing" and give the kid a complex or something if he doesn't look like Daddy. I've been very skeptical of that claim and am glad to hear that no one here has had that problem.

[nini02]

Originally Posted by amydiane I also don't understand this, but I have a good friend whose doctor told her that it can be "traumatizing" and give the kid a complex or something if he doesn't look like Daddy. I've been very skeptical of that claim and am glad to hear that no one here has had that problem.

It confuses me too. Where was that argument a couple generations ago when all the intact fathers started circumcising their boys?

[Galatea]

Originally Posted by nini02 It confuses me too. Where was that argument a couple generations ago when all the intact fathers started circumcising their boys?

No doubt. I always wondered that!

It was totally non-traumatizing for my ds1 to see his father's circ'ed penis. The concept of cutting off his foreskin - now that would traumatize him!

[JustAugust]

Originally Posted by Galatea No doubt. I always wondered that! It was totally non-traumatizing for my ds1 to see his father's circ'ed penis. The concept of cutting off his foreskin - now that would traumatize him!

I had to deal with that recently. My nephew (who had an extremely tight circ and has serious issues because of it ) recently saw my son's penis and asked why it looked so different from his. I had to explain it (very carefully, I didn't want to upset him), and his only comment was "Do you think that hurt me?" He's only 10. His mom didn't want to circ him, but she wouldn't stand up against his dad. So now her poor little boy may never be able to function quite properly. It breaks my heart! It's one thing to not know you have a choice, it's entirely different to know you have a choice, know you don't want to circumcise, but give in and do it anyways. Bigger still, she circumcised her NEXT don! I'm not sure if I want to sob, or scream. Luckily, his was very loose at least. But we went to see them when he was born and they asked me to change one diaper and I nearly threw up. It's unbelievable to see that kind of wound on a helpless infant.

[ktmelody]

I also wanted to add, for those who asked, the question about when you and your DH disagree.

When we found out my 3rd child was a boy, I immediately told DH that we would not be circumcising him. He tried to argue with me about it, even though he knew at the time that his circ was botched. All I told my DH was, that it was not our decision to make, and that our son could make that decision when he was old enough and if he wanted to. In my eyes, it was not up for discussion. Later on he asked for some information about not circing and I gladly gave it to him. He is now VERY anti circ and shares the same feelings as I do.

I was also able to convince my parents and my brother that circumcising infant boys is not needed unless there is a true medical reason to do so. They were very against me in the beginning about my choice to leave my son intact.

My brother always felt horrible after they circed their son, who had his foreskin grow back at 9 months old and had to be put under general anesthesia to take the foreskin back off. Which has now caused my 10 year old nephew to have painful erections and urinary issues. Something he can never get back and will suffer for as an adult.