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May 2015 Moms
klairv
member
Also, in babies, the foreskin is fused to the tip of the penis like your fingernail to your nail. That means doctors need to first rip it apart and then slice off the foreskin. Often, the raw bleeding tip of the penis tries to re-fuse back to the foreskin causing adhesions or skin bridges. (Warning, do not Google on a full stomach.) If you were told your baby slept through the procedure you were lied to. The best pain management available for a circumcision is called a dorsal nerve block and it only covers one of the two main nerves running down the penis. Often babies are given a simple sugar pacifier (I'm not even kidding) or lidocaine cream. The procedure is always painful! I watched some videos, but I couldn’t watch much. I don’t have the stomach for that. You can google them on YouTube.
Circumcision Decision
klairv
member
In a nutshell: I had my son a few months ago and I was all set to get him circumcised, when my husband said he wasn’t so sure right before we were gonna have the baby. Wait what?! OMG that stressed me out like crazy at the last minute! So, May Mamas, the last minute is not too late 
Anyway, I did some research:
The foreskin is much more than a flap of skin. It has lots of nerves in it designed for sexual pleasure. It's also designed to protect the glans (tip of the penis) and keep it moist, much like your eyelid protects your eye. Without this protective covering, the penis dries out and keratinizes (that means it gets a callous on it). If that sounds bad it’s because it is. There are some serious claims that it may be a factor in ED, but who’s gonna pay for that study? Not Pfizer, that’s for sure! (They make Viagra) Now some organizations claim it’s still a good idea to circumcise, but the health claims are super flimsy. Most global health organizations recommend against genital cutting. Anyway, I did some research:It used to be that most people were circumcised in the US and so no one questioned it. Men didn’t know what they were missing. Now rates are going down. Boys these days are growing up with tons information available to them on the internet. Circumcised boys are learning that the most sensitive part of the penis has been taken from them and many of them are very upset. Many are trying to re-grow their foreskins. (Yeah, I didn’t know that either!) Many are confronting their parents about how they feel. This isn't like when our husbands grew up and nobody knew any better.
Also, in babies, the foreskin is fused to the tip of the penis like your fingernail to your nail. That means doctors need to first rip it apart and then slice off the foreskin. Often, the raw bleeding tip of the penis tries to re-fuse back to the foreskin causing adhesions or skin bridges. (Warning, do not Google on a full stomach.) If you were told your baby slept through the procedure you were lied to. The best pain management available for a circumcision is called a dorsal nerve block and it only covers one of the two main nerves running down the penis. Often babies are given a simple sugar pacifier (I'm not even kidding) or lidocaine cream. The procedure is always painful! I watched some videos, but I couldn’t watch much. I don’t have the stomach for that. You can google them on YouTube.
I wish someone had told me this stuff! I was THIS CLOSE to having my son permanently damaged. I think that’s why I’m so ticked off and want to share this with you. I realize that many of you here have made your decision and that’s fine, but I sure wish someone had told me. Because I’d rather hear it from some crazy random stranger on the internet than from my 14 year old son asking me why he can’t be fixed.
In the end I agree with the consensus that is usually on these threads. It is a personal decision. It's just that there is only one person who should make the decision: the owner of the penis.
Re: Circumcision Decision
Formerly known as Kate08young
August '18 Siggy April Showers:
Married: 7/22/14
Baby L: 8/4/2015 August 2015 Moms
Baby E: 11/18/2016 December 2016 Moms
TTC #3 08/2017 BFP 11/27/2017.
Twin B lost 11/22/2017, Twin A doing well.
But when a person jumps around to like 5 different boards posting the same poorly worded, very biased crap with what appears to be attempting to scare young mothers I think it crosses a line.
@backwoodsbarbie2k15, as for the insurance part, some insurance still covers it. Mine happens to fully cover circumcisions.
Sebastian 3-11-14
Simon 5-2-15
Baby #3 Due 9-29-16
Remember high school and college? Where you learned about evaluating sources? Credible research? Apparently not.
Oh and not every hospital is doing it just to make money. My midwife is always joking that we don't do things routinely like you guys see at your visits like urine testing and weekly visits before 38 weeks, or cervical checks til 38 weeks cuz they aren't making money off of us. So they aren't getting to charge us for all the unnecessary stuff. (Military insurance delivery at military hospital) yet they still give us good pros and cons to circumcisions.
I'm pro foreskin and have lived in several countries and had opportunities to speak to medical professionals on both sides. That is just the side I landed on, long before I married my European spouse. I have friends on both sides of the fence. I accept and respect their choices, as they would mine when/if I have a boy.
After a comprehensive review of the scientific evidence, the American Academy of Pediatrics found the health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks. It's a parents choice, but do not parade around telling people they've damaged their child for cosmetic reasons, when there are in fact health benefits.
There is a significantly lower risk of UTI, STI and infection in circumcised boys, so I'm completely comfortable from a medical standpoint with the decision I made.
But despite this, I still have my moments when I just feel down and depressed about the whole issue. As I said before, I was circumcised at birth, and it was by the choice of my mother. My mother and I don't always see eye to eye, and often times we do have our disagreements and arguments. When I wanted to approach the subject matter, I knew to approach carefully. We have a dog, and my mother and her partner had chosen to get our dogs tail cut off. I used our dog as a gateway to begin talking about circumcision to my mother. I asked her why did they have to cut our dogs tail off saying that our dog was "practically circumcised." My mother responded with a simple, "So?"
I told her that I felt bad for our dog because just like her being "circumcised." I was also circumcised, so I knew what it was like to have a part of my body removed. My mother started yelling at me. Saying, "Why would you want to be uncircumcised?! I AM YOUR MOTHER! It was MY choice to have you circumcised! Because I thought it looked UGLY!" That was the end of our first conversation about it.
I found it ironic because she had me circumcised since she thought it looked "ugly," but I actually find my circumcised penis ugly. And it is hard for me especially since I am constantly reminded of it every time I have to use the restroom or take a shower. I have to look down at myself and feel ashamed. I have to look down and hate the way I look. I see my skin bridge and remember how if i was uncircumcised, I wouldn't have had the skin bridge in the first place. And I wouldn't have to have set up an appointment to get it fixed. My mother always complains about how everything costs money, yet here we are having to pay more money to fix something that could have been avoided had she simply said "no" to the doctor on getting me circumcised.
I've tried speaking to her again about it. The second time, she was a lot more calm. She said that at the time I was born, circumcision was just the thing to do in America. And my father was circumcised too. She did say, however, that if she knew what she did now about circumcision and the foreskin, she would not have had me circumcised. How unlucky for me that I had to have been born back when I was....
When I brought it up to her that I wanted to fix my skin bridge, she kept advising me not to do it since she said I "will lose feeling down there." I began to get upset and told her, "I've already lost feeling because you had me circumcised." She responded to me saying, "if you get it fixed, your practically mutilating yourself." Again, my anger rose and I shot back with, "It's too late for that since you already mutilated me." She, again, got mad saying, "You were circumcised in America. It's not mutilation in America. Stop complaining because you're never going to get it back."