When circ's go bad...

vermonthiker · Feb 19, 2005

I'm so glad that so many of you feel that routine circ is unnessacary. When my first son was born, my husband (himself not circ) was totally against it, so I left the decision up to him and we didn't circ. That was 11 years ago and I did get a lot of comments from people when changing his diaper. Five years ago when I didn't circ my second son, not only did I not hear the comments, but I met a lot of parents opting not to circ.

The objections I heard the most about keeping him intact were "he's going to be teased" and "he's going to need it done later."

My husband comes from a large family of brothers & male cousins, most of his brothers also had boys... about 2 dozen boys total. All are uncirc-ed, none have ever been teased (even growing up in the 70's and 80's) and none has ever had a problem. I think the problems start when well meaning parents yank down the foreskin to clean the inside. IMO The medical community is not clear on the cleaning procedure, I got lots of different advice from different staff members in the same hospital.

fergus51 · Feb 19, 2005

In my experience it is usually the men making these decisions because they want their son to look like them. It's only natural for them to think that what they have is "normal" and what the other guys have is abnormal. I do think circs are more common in the US than Canada and more common in certain geographical areas, but that's just my experience.

BadBird, BSN, RN · Feb 19, 2005

Once in a FL hospital the doctor accidently amputated the member! yup, it is true, talk about a major lawsuit.

MarySunshine · Feb 19, 2005

I saw a bad infection once, but that was treatable. I do help out with circs and I'm pretty understanding and nonjudgemental of parents who choose to circ their baby. It seems like for every circ horror story that there is, there's one about a 20 year old that had to be circ'd and go through hellish pain...Anecdotal evidence, while interesting, cannot be trusted for making surgical decisions about your children's body parts.

I personally would never choose circumcision for my kid, but then I don't have any kids so I'm not a loudmouth about how to raise them.

vermonthiker · Feb 19, 2005

It seems like for every circ horror story that there is, there's one about a 20 year old that had to be circ'd and go through hellish pain...Anecdotal evidence, while interesting, cannot be trusted for making surgical decisions about your children's body parts.
.

From everything I've read, adults don't need to be circ'd later in life unless there's a major problem, and often even those circs are unnessacary.

What's interesting to me is why so many people claim it's much more painful for an adult. Is it because an adult can tell us about the pain? I mean, think about it. A newborn's forskin is very tight, whereas an adult's is retractable. The later sounds less painful to me!

'Course I'm not a man so I can't say! LOL

fergus51 · Feb 19, 2005

What's interesting to me is why so many people claim it's much more painful for an adult.

I have always wondered about that. Fortunately I think most doctors do use some pain medication nowadays.

As a student, the docs I saw do it used nothing other than a little sugar water on a pacifier. The part that also seemed painful to me was diaper changes.

SmilingBluEyes · Feb 19, 2005

It's a rare man these days, who is at all educated, that seeks a circumcision. Education is key. The word must get out; this is a cosmetic thing, NO MORE. (unless you have religious meaning attached to this procedure).

If I am lucky enough to have another boy, I would push NOT to circumcise. I just think it's a horrendous thing to put a kid through just to please MY eyes (or those of my husband). Fortunately, my dh is a very understanding and reasonable man. I think he would see the light if I educated him as to why this is not a prudent practice, if only for the sake of looks. Religious rituals are a different story. But we are practicing NONE of those, so there was no real reason to circ my son, than ignorance on my part.

renerian, BSN, RN · Feb 20, 2005

Sounds horrible..........

renerian :uhoh21:

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Feb 20, 2005

He has never been able to reach organism through intercourse.

Please tell me that this was a typo???????????

RPN_2006 · Feb 20, 2005

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I never even noticed that on the first read!

jwk · Feb 20, 2005

From everything I've read, adults don't need to be circ'd later in life unless there's a major problem, and often even those circs are unnessacary.
What's interesting to me is why so many people claim it's much more painful for an adult. Is it because an adult can tell us about the pain? I mean, think about it. A newborn's forskin is very tight, whereas an adult's is retractable. The later sounds less painful to me!
'Course I'm not a man so I can't say! LOL

That says it all!

bluesky, BSN, RN · Feb 20, 2005

Thank God Polish people don't circ cuz my husband would have been in for a fight if he wanted to circ my son. So, my baby (now 3 1/2) has never had an infection or anything like that. I guess my husband is the first non-circ'd man I was ever with but the difference isn't that huge, really. I agree with those who say that we have no way of knowing how much pain they are feeling and why give an infant that much pain as an introduction into a world where pain will come soon enough.