Author Topic: How Do You Feel About Circumcision?  (Read 42265 times)

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: How Do You Feel About Circumcision?
« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2007, 08:30:25 pm »
Okay, I'll ad my 2 cents, and I sure do miss that cent symbol.

I was circumcised at birth because the doctors told parents it was the thing to do and most of them went along with it. I have never know any different so I can say it has never had any effect on me until I started reading about it and got to wondering about the effect it has on the newborn. Have seen pictures of their reaction to it. Also the child has just gone thru a very difficult time being born and once things have finally settled down, pow.

Leslie, could you tell us if there is any kind of "anesthesia" involved?

Now, let me throw this in, and I do not have cooberating documentation, I heard this in the news a few years ago: women whose husbands are uncircumcised are apparently more likely to have cervical cancer. Still I think that with that connection known steps could be taken to reduce the HPV transmission.

So bottom line: I am against it.

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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: How Do You Feel About Circumcision?
« Reply #11 on: October 25, 2007, 08:37:40 pm »
:laugh: :laugh:

not a lot of skinnydipping at your house? My hubby and son sport all over tans all summer
 ::)

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Offline MaineWriter

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Re: How Do You Feel About Circumcision?
« Reply #12 on: October 25, 2007, 08:49:01 pm »
Leslie, could you tell us if there is any kind of "anesthesia" involved?


Truman, I have not worked in the nursery in quite a few years so my first hand experience is old. My understanding is that there is more realization that infants do experience pain. Do they use anesthesia for circumcision? I suspect in some facilities, yes; others no. For any parent (or potential parent) reading this thread, I suggest you do some research and ask questions. These are very important issues.

Here is a resource that I will post for all of you. I will acknowledge that they are obviously very anti-circ but I find their information reliable and credible and I agree with their conclusions.

http://www.cirp.org/library/history/

L
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Re: How Do You Feel About Circumcision?
« Reply #13 on: October 26, 2007, 12:14:47 am »
Okay, I'll ad my 2 cents, and I sure do miss that cent symbol.

I was circumcised at birth because the doctors told parents it was the thing to do and most of them went along with it. I have never know any different so I can say it has never had any effect on me until I started reading about it and got to wondering about the effect it has on the newborn. Have seen pictures of their reaction to it. Also the child has just gone thru a very difficult time being born and once things have finally settled down, pow.

Leslie, could you tell us if there is any kind of "anesthesia" involved?

Now, let me throw this in, and I do not have cooberating documentation, I heard this in the news a few years ago: women whose husbands are uncircumcised are apparently more likely to have cervical cancer. Still I think that with that connection known steps could be taken to reduce the HPV transmission.
So bottom line: I am against it.



I understand that to be true. He has to be careful to stay clean...

also some evidence say that uncircumcised men are less likely to contract VD...in particular HIV. There are organizations in Africa that are encouraging men to get circumcised because of these findings.

Offline delalluvia

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Re: How Do You Feel About Circumcision?
« Reply #14 on: October 26, 2007, 01:06:14 am »
Honey, we're Lutherans. ...  :laugh:  :laugh:  :laugh:

 :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Offline LauraGigs

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Re: How Do You Feel About Circumcision?
« Reply #15 on: October 26, 2007, 01:34:06 am »
Quote
also some evidence say that uncircumcised men are less likely to contract VD...in particular HIV. There are organizations in Africa that are encouraging men to get circumcised because of these findings.

You mean circumcised men are less likely to contract VD/HIV?

I was asking b/c you said un.

Offline southendmd

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Re: How Do You Feel About Circumcision?
« Reply #16 on: October 26, 2007, 01:22:49 pm »
Leslie, that resource you posted starts by calling it "male genital mutilation":  not exactly unbiased!

I have very limited experience, but the risk of penile cancer is significanly reduced by neonatal circumcision (and not by adult circumcision).  Penile cancer is very rare in the US, but is a significant problem in other countries such as Uganda, India and Brazil. 

I believe that local anesthesia can (and probably should) be used for newborns. 

The problem with leaving it up to the child is that the procedure, which is relatively simple for a newborn, then becomes major surgery, often requiring general anesthesia, which has its own risks.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: How Do You Feel About Circumcision?
« Reply #17 on: October 26, 2007, 01:52:27 pm »
I'm uncomfortable with this whole debate (not here on BetterMost; I mean out in the world). My sons are both circumcised. My husband is circumcised, wanted his sons to be circumcised, and considered the decision pretty automatic. I didn't argue.

I don't have strong feelings one way or another about this issue, in general. Or rather, I can see both sides. Research seems to indicate it's healthier, but not doing it is obviously more "natural" and less painful for the infant.

But what I really care about is my sons' feelings. I really don't want them to grow up thinking they've been mutilated, or that there's something wrong with them (so far, thank God, at 11 and 13, they've never mentioned it). If nobody makes a big deal about it, everything will be fine. So whenever I hear anyone loudly opposing circumcision, I just want to tell them to shut up. (Clarification: I don't mean people on this thread, who've been asked to share their opinions.)

Here's a story from Slate containing a pretty neutral examination of all the issues:

http://www.slate.com/id/2124770/

Here, from a different story in Slate, are some data about the HIV study:

Quote
Four years ago, an analysis of 38 studies by the U.S. Agency for International Development, mostly in Africa, concluded that circumcised men were less than half as likely as uncircumcised men to get HIV, apparently because of the susceptibility of foreskin. Last fall, reporting on a randomized controlled trial in South Africa, scientists found that circumcision reduced female-to-male transmission by 60 percent. "Male circumcision provides a degree of protection against acquiring HIV infection, equivalent to what a vaccine of high efficacy would have achieved," they wrote. It was, they observed, "the first experimental study demonstrating that surgery can be used to prevent an infectious disease."

BTW, I was wondering how on earth there was any way to figure out how circumcision affected sexual satisfaction. But here, again from Slate, is a story about an informal poll of men who'd been circumcised as adults. The results suggested (though with numerous caveats) that circumcision improved sex.

http://www.slate.com/id/2136062/

Excerpt:
Quote
Of the 79 men who'd experienced sex snipped and unsnipped, 43 said sex improved (55 percent) after their circumcisions, 23 said it went downhill (29 percent), and 13 said there was no change or a mix of pros and cons (16 percent). Click here to read women and gay men compare sex with snipped and unsnipped partners.

My numbers don't differ much from the latest research: Based on a sample of 84 men who'd been circumcised as adults for medical reasons, a 2005 article in Urologia Internationalis found a 61 percent satisfaction rate, with 38 percent saying that penile sensation improved after the procedure, 18 percent saying it got worse, and the rest reporting no change. "No consensus exists regarding the role of the foreskin in sexual performance and satisfaction," the article's urologist authors wrote.

Nor, I think, is a consensus likely to emerge. A couple of readers wrote in to argue that my survey and others like it inevitably tilt positive, because anyone snipped as an adult would want to think the ordeal had a purpose. Maybe so. On the other hand, as Australian doctor and circumcision researcher Robin Willcourt pointed out to me, men who decide they've suffered a loss may be all the more vocal.

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions about bias. My own sense is that as much as nerve endings, friction, or any other physical factor, what matters for feelings about sex are the reasons a man decides to undergo circumcision, his attitude toward his penis before the procedure, and the reaction of his partners afterward. I'm not sure how much light data can shed on this personal realm.


Offline MaineWriter

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Re: How Do You Feel About Circumcision?
« Reply #18 on: October 26, 2007, 01:57:48 pm »
Leslie, that resource you posted starts by calling it "male genital mutilation":  not exactly unbiased!


I know! But in my own defense, I did say that it was an anti-circ group.

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Offline louisev

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Re: How Do You Feel About Circumcision?
« Reply #19 on: October 26, 2007, 02:01:51 pm »
isnt penile cancer caused by HPV?  And isnt there a vaccine against that now that they are recommending in Britain to be given to men to prevent penile and anal cancer?
“Mr. Coyote always gets me good, boy,”  Ellery said, winking.  “Almost forgot what life was like before I got me my own personal coyote.”