Circumcision - the BIG question

I had a relatively clueless person actually compare getting my daughter's ears pierced to circumcision. She said something like "I can't believe you'd get your daughters ears pierced but you wouldn't get your son circumcised." I guess that's kind of like comparing a bee sting with lopping off a finger; two unrelated things. The "apples to oranges" adage comes to mind but then I guess not everyone can have a clue.

I don't have a boy, I have a girl. However, my sister has three boys and I talked to her and did some research about circumcision before I knew whether I was having a boy or a girl and I decided that if I had a boy it was an unnecessary procedure that could do more harm than good. That is MY OPINION (and if I had a boy and not a girl he would be, on this day, uncircumcised). I'll let you decide for yourself.

So, what is a circumcision anyway? According to WebMD, "Male circumcision is an elective surgery to remove the foreskin (prepuce), a fold of skin that covers and protects the rounded tip of the penis (glans). This surgery is most commonly done on newborns about 24 hours old."

Some benefits and drawbacks to circumcision:

Benefits:

Boys who have been circumcised are at reduced risk for:

Foreskin infections

Urinary tract infections (About 111 boys would need to be circumcised to prevent one UTI.)

Penile cancer

Sexually transmitted diseases (All men who have high-risk sex can get STDs or HIV, regardless of whether they are circumcised.)

Phimosis, a condition in uncircumcised males that makes foreskin retraction impossible

Drawbacks:

Surgical risks: As with any surgery, circumcision has some risks. Complications are rare and usually minor. The most common complications are bleeding and infection.

Penile damage: Very rarely, the foreskin may be cut too short or too long. Equally unlikely is improper healing from the circumcision. These complications may require another circumcision or -- in extreme cases -- penile reconstruction.

Alteration of penile sensitivity: Some people claim that circumcision may lessen the sensitivity of the tip of the penis, decreasing sexual pleasure later in life. However, this hasn't been proven to be true.

Fear of pain: Some parents choose not to circumcise their sons because they are worried about the pain the baby may feel.

Protection of the tip of the penis: When the foreskin is removed, the tip of the penis may become irritated, causing the urinary opening to become too small. This could lead to urination problems that may need to be surgically corrected.
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But do the benefits outweigh the risks? According to the article Should Your Son Be Circumcised? at Parents.com,

"The American Academy of Pediatrics' position on circumcision states that there's not enough medical evidence to recommend it to everybody. Medical experts in the United States generally agree that health benefits alone are not significant reasons to have circumcision.

HOWEVER, two recent studies offer strong evidence that circumcision can be beneficial to your child's health. A 2006 study in the journal Pediatrics found that uncircumcised men are three times more likely to contract a sexually transmitted disease than men who have been circumcised, and a Kenyan study in the Lancet found that circumcision reduced the risk of HIV infection in heterosexual men by as much as 60 percent. (Even though experts aren't completely sure how circumcision lowers a man's risk of HIV, most theorize that the foreskin contains receptors that the virus attaches to or that the foreskin gets microscopic tears during intercourse, making it easier for the virus to enter the bloodstream.)"

"Not so fast, say other experts. For starters, that study was done in Africa, where the virus is rampant. The risk of HIV to men in the United States is much lower. "Even if you circumcise your son, you'll still need to teach him about abstinence and safe sex," says Parents advisor Jennifer Shu, MD, coauthor of Heading Home with Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality.

Although it's true that circumcision does reduce a baby's risk of getting a urinary-tract infection (UTI), the fact is that UTIs are not very common in boys. The same goes for penile cancer, which is diagnosed in fewer than 1,600 men every year.

So, you have to decide if this is important for you and your family. One question parents weigh is how important it is for their son to look like their father, if their father is circumcised? To some people, this is very important.

Did you know that the United States is the only first world country that circumcises their children for purely aesthetic reasons? Just something to think about.

A great website with good information is Circumcision Info.