The Decision to Circumcise
Wednesday March 8, 2006
Making the decision to circumcise can be difficult. For some, the decision is made easier because of religious reasons. For others, health considerations come into play. Doing some research and finding out what happens during the procedure can help you make the most informed decision.
Circumcision Resources:
→ Should I Have My New Baby Circumcised?
→ Description of the Circumcision Process
→ Complications Following Circumcision
→ Both Sides of the Debate
If you've already made the decision, take part in our poll or leave a comment about what influenced your decision so that other parents can benefit from your experience.
Poll: Did You (or will you) have your son circumcised?
→ Yes, for religious reasons
→ Yes, for health reasons
→ Yes, for reasons other than health or religion
→ Yes, but future sons will not be circumcised
→ No, but future sons will be circumcised
→ No
→ I still haven't decided
→ View Results
Care Tips:
→ Caring for an Uncircumcised Penis
→ Caring for a Circumcised Penis
Comments
I chose to circumcise my son because of many health reasons. One of the reasons being a drastic reduction in urinary tract infections and yeast infections. A second reason for circumcising was a huge decrease in likeliness of developing testicular cancer (0% of circumcised men have it) and other cancers.
You are doing your son a huge DIS-SERVICE if you do not circumcise. The issues ahead are not worth putting your child through compared to the quick and momentary pain of the procedure. UTI after UTI is not fun to put your child through - especially when it could have been avoided altogether.
We chose not to circumcise because the AAP no longer supports it for routine use.
The rate of testicular cancer is not different (as one commenter noted). Penile is.
There are some health risks with not circumcising but I don’t think (and the AAP doesn’t think) that they are profound enough to sway the decision from this religious or social decision.
He (nor any of the uncircumcised males in the family) have never had a UTI. It’s not like all uncircumcised males get UTIs all the time. There are things that they can do to help lower the risk too.
The risk of some STDs is higher but I would chose to teach him about safe sex rather than take away part of his body in order to lower the possible complications.
I just think that boys are born with foreskin for a reason and there is not enough good reason to take it away from them.
The pro-circumcision people should remember that there are risks to circumcising too. Unnecessary pain (the AAP acknowledges that they feel pain and that parents need to make sure their baby gets anesthesia for the proceedure…currently only 60% of babies get pain relief according to a recent poll!!!!), bleeding, infection,
adhesions, reduced sensitity and all the other stuff listed in the articles supplied.
If it were a clear advantage to circumcise the AAP wouldn’t have changed their recommendation.
(By the way, you can’t take the word of a circumcised male on the subject of this because they can’t tell you what it is like to be uncircumcised. They can’t honestly say that their “way” is better. At least if they had their foreskin they could make the choice to keep it or not when they are an adult. We shouldn’t make that choice for them.)
These articles are a great start to helping parents make informed choices about this decision. There are a lot of myths, stigmas, and inaccurate information out there about this proceedure.
I am glad that I live in a time where the rate of circ in the US is dropping. Soon the uncircumcised penis will be the norm. This generation will probably have a 50/50 mix in the locker room. (Oh, and there is always something that could make your child different than their peers- glasses, braces, scars…so it is a bad idea to fixate on making sure they don’t have a different looking penis. That has to be a pretty minor thing to have be different. I bet that some parents hype that up a lot more than actually researching the pros and cons of this medical event.)
Sorry to ramble. I just want to explain my reasoning.
Although my husband is circed, we made the decision not to circ our son, for several reasons. First of all, there’s no good medical reason to do it! Even though it is said that the chance of certain problems (UTIs, etc.) is greater for uncirced males, it is STILL less than 1%, even for them, so we’re talking about a minute chance. I have a 31-year-old male friend who is uncirced, and he has never had a UTI or other problem. He knows how to take care of his penis and clean under his foreskin in the shower, and it’s a non-issue for him. Secondly, God gave males foreskins, so they have to be there for a reason. They’re not just “extra” flesh that “needs” to be cut off. We don’t cut anything off of baby girls, so why should we subject our boys to something so barbaric and totally unnecessary. Some believe that the foreskin is there to protect the sensitive head of the penis, which certainly makes sense. And since it keeps the head covered and protected, some men feel that the head remains much more sensitive during adulthood, thereby rendering sex even more pleasurable for an uncircumcised male. Basically, we felt that there was no good reason to cut off part of our son’s body, and lots of good reasons to leave him just the way God made him. By the way, if anyone is worried about taking care of an uncirced penis, it is a total nonissue for the first few years of life. The foreskin doesn’t even separate from the shaft for a few years, and until it does, there is no special cleaning needed. You don’t have to do anything! And when your son is old enough, all you have to do is show him how to gently pull back the foreskin and clean underneath it - that’s it!
We did not circumcise our twin boys, but now that they’re 2 years old, I wish we had.
My husband is circumcised, but we felt that it was unnecessary to cut off a body part. It was there for a reason. In addition, the American Academy of Pediatrics no longer recommends circumcision.
Neither of our boys has ever had a urinary tract infection. However, one of our boys has suffered from several yeast infections in which his penis becomes painful and swells up to twice its normal size. We have to put Lotrimin cream on it for several days to get the infection to go away. Of course, we’re hoping he won’t continue to suffer from these infections as he grows older. At this age, his foreskin isn’t retractable yet, so we can’t wash underneath it.
In addition, I think of the (very) slight risk of penile cancer they will have now due to our decision, and the fact that, when older, they will be more prone to sexually transmitted diseases if they fail to use a condom.
We didn’t have our boy circumcised and kinda wish we did…he is 3 yrs old now and he has been dealing with yeast infections on and off for the last 6 months and finally after seeing a urologyst found out that he has Paraphimosis and had to be circumcised anyway. and now 2 days’s later he is in so much pain dealing with the healing process. This would have been so much easier to handle as a baby. we chose not to get him done in the first place because up here it cost almost $400 to get done and we didn’t have the money at the time and I really wish we had begged for it from family members. Hope this helps some people think before they do or don’t get this done. A simple process can save your little one pain later on. yes this is a rare problem but it’s not worth the risk and i wish i could change the pain my son has to deal with. good luck with your discion