a little survey - circumcision?

[Sadie]

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!

[Anne]

My newborn son developed a MRSA infection under his fingernail at the hospital. We had to go back and have it surgically drained then two weeks of antibiotics. I agree with you. Why give infections another avenue to invade their little bodies?

[lamees Serry]

My son is now 14months and we circumcised him when he was 2days old! I guess everyone is different:)

[Audrey]

Hi again!

As I posted earlier, I have 4 children, 2 of them boys. I did not circumcize either of them and I am against the practice. I feel there is no medical reason to do so, it is totally unecessary and basically a cultural thing. If you ever see how they do it, it is absolutely horrific and painful, despite the lidocaine or whatever they use. Your infant is basically tied down to a plastic board, it is awful. When my sons were born I made sure the hospital knew I did not want them cut, and my OB even said she did not like doing it.

[Benjimum]

We did not have our son circumcised. He was born in Australia, and at the hospital it was just assumed that he wouldn't be - nobody even asked if we wanted it done. My husband and I had talked about it quite a bit before our son was born - I initially just assumed that if we had a boy we'd have him circumcised, but my husband was not in favor of it - he just didn't see any good reason to have it done. (He didn't see why our son should have to look like him - he's going to look different in so many other ways, too.) I took a step back and asked myself why I wanted to have it done, and the only answer I could come up with was because I thought that everyone did it. And that just didn't seem a good enough reason to go through with an unnecessary operation (and one without religious significance for us). That being said, I think it's an individual decision, and everyone will have their own legitimate reasons for or against.

[Stephanie]

My guy is a week old and this was such a tough decision for us. In Texas where we live it used to be the norm and our family thought we were crazy for even considering leaving him intact. Ultimately we couldn't justify doing it and I am very happy with our choice. I discovered it seems to be a generational thing here with more new parents opting to leave things as they (are about 50/50 with the new parents I've asked). The first week is hard enough without surgery!

[SamEsmomma]

We did. We are Jewish.

[Cyn-Diego]

In previous years, available info seemed to support a medical benefit to circumcision, but now the consensus is there is little if any (eg, less chance of penile cancer -- yeah, cause you're cutting off half the skin!) That's why we did not circ our son. The growing number of people choosing against circ'n, esp on the West coast, made this easier. But I find it very sad, and a little shocking, that people will subject a baby to this procedure just to (ostensibly) "fit in" or just to look like the father. If the father lost an eye, would you think it was important to match? If everyone else was jumping off a bridge...?

In my pre-decision googling I came across 2 interesting explanations for why white americans started adopting circ'n in the 20th century -- a) to discourage masturbation and b) because WWI soldiers in Africa were having problems with sand getting under the foreskin! These only confirmed our decision :)

BTW -- if you don't circ your baby, be sure caregivers know not to pull back the foreskin when they're infants -- just clean the outside.

[Jennifer]

My husband and I have very limited discussions about this because, it didn't become an issue in my pregnancy (we had twin girls :-p) But, we are probably going to try for another, and while of course we'll be happy as long it is healthy, we are kinda hoping for a boy :-) I think my husband is for having a circumcision but, if we do end up having a boy, I'm going to want to discuss it further. The last thing I would want to do is, have it done just because it's "normal." Or because there is some perceived notion that it's healthier/easier to keep clean, unless there's actual evidence to back that claim up. It's something I'll just have to research so that I can have informed discussion about it, if need be....

[Sadie]

I was in the same boat as you when we found out we were having a boy. What finally convinced my husband (I was using gently pressure) was finding out that his best friend did not circ his son, and he and his familywere all fine and healthy and happy.

[ML]

Absolutely, definitely, positively not. If he wants to have part of his penis cut off, he can decide that for himself when he's older. His body, his choice.

[Rhona]

No, we didn't.

I'm Canadian, my partner is English and our children were born in the UK. It's not routinely offered there (I think the rate of circumsized British male babies currently hovers around the 12% rate) and, if it had been, we would have declined.

Interestingly my partner is circumcized but his brother is not; his parents have never offered any explanation for this and he refuses to ask them! (He couldn't care less, which I think speaks to the notion that men care about whether their peers are the same as them...)

[Jennifer]

To Rhona: Is his brother older or younger than him? If he's the oldest, maybe after he was circumsized, his parents saw him in pain and just said "never again!" :-p That was the case with my sister... she had her first son circumsized because her then-husband thought it should be done, and she didn't really have an opinion one way or the other. But, when she had her second son, with her current husband (who didn't really seem to have much to do with his son, at least at first, and I doubt even offered an opinion on the matter), she decided against it, because it just seemed like her first son went through unnecessary pain....