a little survey - circumcision?

Without being biased or judgmental or anything else one reading this might assume... I was hoping to get an informal survey of people to post whether or not they circumcised their sons (without giving reasons for or against doing so). I am just curious! And, to be the first, I did not.

UPDATE - I was hoping for just some yes or no answers... I just checked this discussion after not reading it for a while. Seems to have gotten a little heated and/or weird. So, I am closing it. Thanks for the responses!

Tags: circumcision

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kim on October 17, 2008 at 1:35am: I agree with you. I think anteater is being complimentary.

Permalink Reply by Tirza Hollenhorst on October 14, 2008 at 12:15pm: I circumcised my son. As a Jew with a non-Jewish husband this was not an obvious choice. My husband is circumcised and I decided that with the weight of a 5000 year connection, potential health benefits, and looking like his father was enough to go ahead. I had been to out of hospital circumcisions and found them not terribly traumatic. I can't speak to what happens in a hospital, but at home, in the context of ceremony, Alon's circumcision was very fast and with just a few moments of crying. Thats not to say its painless for the infant, he was clearly distressed. But as soon as he was nursed he did not seem to exhibit any ongoing signs of discomfort.

I would recommend against circumcision until the baby is a week old.

Permalink Reply by Lisa on October 14, 2008 at 11:51pm: We have a girl, so not an issue with us currently. Before we knew we were expecting a girl, we had very interesting conversations about this. My husband is circumcised and is pro-circumcision for reduced rated of certain communicable diseases. In the past, have been against because my family is not circumcised. My brother recently had to be circumcised (at age 30) due to a medical condition where the foreskin tightens, and while I do not know of all the details (thank goodness), I hear that it was horrible and not something that you ever want to go through as an adult. Makes me re-think my position...

Permalink Reply by Kim on October 15, 2008 at 4:24am: We circumcised our son at 6 days old. We believe he must be like Dad. Also know a fair amount of boys that did not have it done and had problems and had to have it done when quite a bit older. It is a personal choice and I don't think medical people or anyone for that matter should judge others either way.

Permalink Reply by Jennifer on October 15, 2008 at 9:13pm: We did. Here's why: My husband while in H.S. was a part of the football team. It was in the boys locker room where he saw one of the kids with an uncircumcised penis. Kids made fun of that poor boy calling him, "elephant penis." My husband doesn't want to subject our son to that possibility. Plus I guess we both wanted him to look like daddy. No religious reasons. We also felt that a circumcised penis is easier to care for in terms of cleanliness. I also think it has to do with the demographics of where we live and what's common. In European countries it's very common to not circumcise.

Permalink Reply by Kathleen on October 18, 2008 at 9:26pm: Do they actually look at each other's penises? Am I the only one who finds that a little weird? None of the girls I know ever watched each other change when we were in school, nor do we tend to oogle each other in the locker room at the gym.

I'm just sayin'...

Permalink Reply by The Griscom Volkman Family on October 19, 2008 at 8:22am: Yes, I boys do check each other out in the locker room, and tease each other pretty bluntly. That said, more than 50% of kids today are not being circumcized, so I don't think there is any real concern here (whereas when i was a kid, everyone at my school was circumsized).

Permalink Reply by aussiemum21 on November 27, 2008 at 7:03pm: I have heard of guys getting together with a ruler and having a contest on whos larger, I think us women are a bit more modest than men, its like whos got the bigger ego?

Permalink Reply by Anne on February 13, 2009 at 4:46pm: I agree. I always said I'll tell my son if another boy makes fun of his penis for looking different, he should say, "Why are you looking at my penis anyway?!"

Permalink Reply by Marion on October 16, 2008 at 11:57pm: We didn't circumcise our boys for a variety of reasons. However, one large reason for the overall decline in circumcision rates is that some states (such as AZ) have stopped permitting Medicaid to pay for a medically unnecessary procedure. So it's no longer just the weirdo hippy families foregoing the neonatal surgery. Poor people are finding that $200-$500 is a bit much for cosmetic surgery for an infant.

Permalink Reply by Jennifer on October 17, 2008 at 12:52pm: I remember looking at our Hospital bill and gasping. Our insurance didn't cover it, but I didn't expect them to.

Permalink Reply by Marion on October 17, 2008 at 4:48pm: Yeah, I can only imagine how much it would cost at a hospital. The nursery nurses at the hospital where I work recommend that self paying patients wait and have their sons circumcised by pediatricians on the outside for the greatly reduced price of $200-$500. I've never gotten around to asking just how much it does cost at the hospital but if $500 is presented as a significant savings, I'm not sure I want to know.