In the US, every 25 seconds a baby is being circumcised. Circumcision is thought to have began as a way of “purifying” individuals and society by reducing sexuality and sexual pleasure. Human sexuality was seen as dirty or impure in some societies; hence cutting off the pleasure-producing parts was the obvious way to “purify” someone. In America it became more and more common after a maturation hysteria caused by misinformed physicians. Clinical interviews with patients suffering from what would today be ascribed to the effects of malnutrition, overwork, venereal disease, bacterial or viral infections, mental disorders, and tobacco or alcohol poisoning invariably revealed a past history of masturbatory activity. On this basis it was easy to conclude that masturbation had brought on these conditions. Circumcision was thought to be a ‘cure’ to masturbation. It is still practiced in America, but for significantly different reasons.

Male circumcision is performed by shoving a rod into the space between the head and the foreskin. The rod is moved around the circumference of the head. The skin is then forced up over the head, where it is cut/ scraped. The whole process had been best describe as being similar to having a sharp metal instrument jammed under one’s finger nail, down to the base, and shoved around, back and forth, until the entire nail is separated from the nail bed, and then sliced off. EJ Dickson, a women who circumcised her son for religious reasons, said it was like “Watching a potato get peeled”, only it’s a penis. Ouch. Seems painful, so they must be at least be helping with the pain, right?

Circumcision is not a painless procedure. A study was done in Canada to see how much pain the procedure caused the boys and what type of anesthesia worked best. The control group of the study (infants with no anesthesia before procedure) were in so much pain the doctors quickly realized it would be immoral to continue their study. Even the most common pain killer used, the dorsal penile nerve block, was ineffective in blocking any significant amount of pain. With other forms of anesthesia it was still not much better. Many of the infants would be in so much pain they’d start convulsing and choking. One even had a seizure. At the end, they came to the conclusion that “although our physicians were highly experienced in performing circumcision and had excellent surgical technique, the babies were still in great distress and pain during and after the procedure.” They stated that if a circumcision must be done, a powerful anesthesia should be used to at the very least help the experience be less traumatic to the infant.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended the use of anesthesia for circumcision since 1999, as research confirms that infants have the neurological capacity to feel and remember pain, and that they may feel pain as much or more than adults. However, in america it is not all that uncommon for doctors to skip on numbing the penis. Only 45% of physicians performing circumcisions use anesthesia, and at an even lower number, 25%, of obstetricians use it. Even when it is used, it’s most often the dorsal penile nerve block. An ointment put on the penis beforehand, also the least effective, is the only thing used. The reasoning they gave for using a bad or no anesthesia was that it takes to long to apply, rather than just begin cutting, and it’s cheaper. Even with all the knowledge we have on the effects of painful circumcision, it’s still legal to use no anesthesia.

During this torture, the infants will scream when the rod is inserted, but then will remain still, eyes budging out at first and then becoming still and stiff. People generally take this as them “Sleeping right through it” when in reality, the babies have gone into shock. They enter a semi-coma to cope with the tremendous pain. Total silence indicates that the baby is experiencing more traumatic stress than a crying baby.

Psychiatrist John Rhinehart states the follow about why the babies react in this way;

Since he can’t “fight, flee or freeze” the only defense mechanism a baby being circumcised has left is shock defense, which consists of central nervous system flooding by terror, rage, and finally numbing, paralysis, and dissociation; this is his last chance to control the high level of central nervous system activation, which might otherwise result in death.

Some argue that they will never remember the surgery, but even if the infant would not remember the surgery, does this make it right to inflict pain? Basic moral guidelines for animal research disagree with this, do baby boys not deserve the same right?

The surgery may not stay in their memories, but it will cause lasting problems. This pain will then follow them, causing physiological damage as they grow old. Babies show PTSD symptoms as early as 6 months later when getting vaccinations, and will have a much lower tolerance to pain as an uncut baby would. Along with an altered pain sensitivity, they also commonly experience increased anxiety, stress disorders, hyperactivity/attention deficit disorder, leading to impaired social skills and patterns of self-destructive behavior, and also can promote sexual dysfunction such as premature ejaculation, and consequently, as well as pain during intercourse. Also the reduction of female sexual pleasure being as circumcision can remove up to 25% or the penile skin, and restricts movement- feeling of the penis. It also will cause less sexual pleasure for the male. When the foreskin is removed 20,000 nerve ending go with it, causing less feeling during intercourse.

Along with the physiological problems circumcision causes, it also causes many physical risks and long- term side effects including, but not limited to;

Meatal Stenosis: Many circumcised boys and men suffer from meatal stenosis. This is a narrowing of the urethra which can interfere with urination and require surgery to fix. 9% of boys are born with this, however those who are not have over a 20% chance of developing meatal stenosis if they are circumcised.

Buried penis. Circumcision can lead to trapped or buried penis — too much skin is removed or removed unevenly, and so the penis is forced inside the body. This can lead to problems in adulthood when the man does not have enough skin to have a comfortable erection. Some men even have their skin split open when they have an erection. It still happens to around 4% of circumcised infants. This condition can also happen out of nowhere to adults, but is nearly impossible to treat without an extremely skill physician and risky surgery if you have already been circumcised.

Hematoma- A form of internal bleeding. It is fairly common following circumcision with rates up to 7.7%. It can have life impacting effects on the vein and arteries. Hematoma is common for all people, so it’s not listed as a complication even if the case is serious after circumcision.

Infection. The circumcision wound can become infected. This happens often because of the babies low immune system. In a study done they concluded that 8/100 will develop serious infections from the procedure immediately after. All boys who undergo circumcision have a greater risk of skin infections on the penis for weeks after. Roughly 10% get infections in the following weeks.

Death. Babies die from circumcision. It was so common in earlier time in the the Jewish community there is a law stating if 3 of your boys die from circumcision, you can keep the next one intact. It’s believed by many doctors that circumcision makes up over 1.5% of all male deaths. One medical profession says “Doctors are highly motivated to conceal the true cause of circumcision death. Neonatal circumcision has no medical indication and is now considered to be an unnecessary non-therapeutic operation. It is unethical to carry out such operations on minors who cannot consent for themselves. Consequently, most doctors who have a baby die after a circumcision would prefer to attribute the results of his unethical operation to secondary causes, such as infection or bleeding, while ignoring the primary cause, which is the circumcision that resulted in the infection or bleeding. It is, therefore, very hard to identify the total number of deaths that occur from circumcision.”

We can see this as fact being as instead of listing circumcision as a cause of death, the sepsis or hemorrhage/exsanguination that led to the baby’s demise may instead be listed as most deaths are related to excessive bleeding and to infection, as well as anesthesia accidents and cardiac arrest. Incomplete and inaccurate death certificates for pediatric deaths are not uncommon.

Other risks to note; Ulcers, hemorrhage, sepsis, denudation of penile skin, laceration, urethra damage, urinary retention, phimosis, glandular injuries, gangrene, preputial cysts and fistula.

Even with these risks some still believe the benefits will outweighs the risks. The main benefits associated with circumcision are it’s more sanitary, prevention of phimosis, a decreased risk of urinary tract infections, a reduced risk of some sexually transmitted diseases in men, protection against penile cancer, HIV, and a reduced risk of cervical cancer in female sex partners.

The idea that intact penises are unsanitary generally comes from the myth that they’re harder to clean. Misinformation from before we knew enough about the foreskin caused parents to believe the foreskin needed to be pulled back or retracted to clean properly, causing the foreskin to tear. This can cause scarring or infection. In actuality, a babies foreskin should never be pulled back until they’re old enough to retract it on their own. Before this happens wiping the penis like a finger is all you need to do. After the boy can retract it on his own, the penis will be cleaned when showering. The same way as you don’t want to clean a baby girls vagina out everyday as it’s unneeded and only introduces harmful bacteria. Just as the vagina is the foreskin is self cleaning. Parents don’t have to do anything extra in order to keep the penis clean. A circumcised penis would require much more work as you have to clean the wound often to prevent feces from touching it or causing infection from bacteria, and apply ointment to it.

Another thing that is considered unsanitary about intact penises is that development of smegma. Smegma is a secretion of the oil glands around the genitals. For men, smegma often appears under the foreskin of the penis. In women, it’s most likely to appear between the folds of the vagina’s labia or around the clitoral hood. These fluids are released naturally by your body every day to help it from drying, to introduce bacteria your body needs, and it contains lysozyme, an enzyme that attacks and destroys pathogens. This enzyme is known for helping prevent sexually transmitted diseases and infections. It’s completely harmless, and is rinsed off while showering.Everyone produces it, except it is rare in circumcised men.

Many parents fear their son developing phimosis, a condition in which tight foreskin can’t be pulled back over the head of the penis. This is a rare condition, effecting less than 1% of adult males. A huge cause of it is the foreskin being pulled back to soon by parents (as mentioned earlier), causing scarring that can effect it’s growth. It use to be thought the only cure was circumcision, multiple studies have now shown us that topical steroids is an effective treatment. With an 87% success rate, it’s a quick, easy, and pain free solution. Even if they treatment doesn’t resolve the condition, a small cut made to the foreskin works too. Recovery time is short and it has significantly less risks then full on circumcision. Because the male will be an adult, correct and effective anesthesia can be used making it painless.

The misconception that circumcision was a defense against UTIs began circulating after Drs. Charles Ginsburg and George McCracken carried out a study of UTIs in boys at Parkland Hospital in Dallas. They claimed 95% of the boys were not circumcised at the hospital. This signified nothing as most of the boys were circumcised elsewhere. The study has since been disproved and found to be misleading and nonfactual. As CIRP says “ This statistic, that circumcision resulted in a “ten to hundred times decrease in urinary tract infections in circumcised boys” is misleading. In fact, UTIs are so rare in any case that, using this data, 50 to 100 healthy boys would have to be circumcised in order to prevent a UTI from developing in only one patient.”There is no link to decrease in UTIs and circumcision. However, it is known that breast feeding does help prevent them in both male and female.

STDs and HIV also have no connection to circumcision. Risk of STDs has a much greater inpact on how you take care of yourself. An intact penis will not increase your chance of spreading them.

A study done in Africa came to the conclusion that circumcision could be effective in preventing HIV, but the study also had many problems that questioned it’s viability. They stopped the study before all data was recorded, the patients in the study were circumcised for it, meaning they were adults and had already been sexually active(where in america they are as infants when circumcised), HIV in Africa almost always happens from female-male sex (in America it’s from blood exposure and male-male sex), and whether or not condoms were used is unknown. A more recent and controlled study showed that in Africa Circumcision does not prevent HIV in anyway. Studies in America have shown that condom use is the only way to prevent HIV intact or not, and circumcision did not decrease risk.

In February 1996, representatives of the American Cancer Society stated in a letter to the American Academy of Pediatrics:

“The American Cancer Society does not consider routine circumcision to be a valid or effective measure to prevent such [genital] cancers. Research suggesting a pattern in the circumcision status of partners of women with cervical cancer is methodologically flawed, outdated and has not been taken seriously in the medical community for decades.”

Cancer of the penis is very rare, with a lifetime risk of between 1/600 and 1/1300. It strikes mostly older men. Even if circumcision could prevent it completely (which it does not), about a thousand foreskin amputations would be necessary to prevent one cancer of the penis. A thousand infants would be mutilated, and several would die to prevent that one case of cancer. To reduce the risk of penile cancer, men are best advised simply to use reasonable hygiene, practice responsible sexual behavior, and to avoid handling tobacco.

The conclusion that intact men could cause cervical cancer in women was invented by Wynder. His study was found to be invalid because all his cervical cancer patients incorrectly answered as to whether or not their husbands were intact or not. He later realized this and apologized for his mistake. Stern and Neely, two top researchers in this field concluded;

“Since the recommendation had been made that circumcision should be used as a preventative measure against cancer of the cervix, we sought further confirmation of this hypothesis. An almost ideal population was that of the well women attending a cancer detection facility, where the population was split almost equally between women whose husbands were circumcised and those whose husbands were not. The discovery rate for cancer of the cervix among non-Jewish women whose marital partners were circumcised was no different from the rate among non-Jewish women with noncircumcised husbands. Further, the use of a sheath contraceptive by the marital partner, which has an effect equivalent to circumcision in that the cervix is protected from contact with the smegma, was found not to be associated with rate differences for cancer of the cervix.”

The known etiologies of cervical cancer are: early onset of sexual activity, number of sexual partners, smoking, and the presence of HPV. Based on currently available evidence, it would be mistaken to suggest an association between cervical cancer and the presence of the foreskin in the male partner. All this information can be found here.

The benefits of being intact greatly outweigh those of circumcision. They include but are not limited to;

Full penis length- The foreskin constitutes 50% or more of the skin system of the penis.

Protection — The sleeve of tissue known as the foreskin normally covers the glans and protects it from abrasion, drying, callusing (keratinization), and environmental contaminants.

Specialized sensory tissue — Thousands of coiled fine-touch receptors constitute the most important sensory component of the penis. The foreskin contains branches of the dorsal nerve and between 10,000 and 20,000 specialized erotogenic nerve endings of several types, which are capable of sensing slight motion and stretch, subtle changes in temperature, and fine gradations in texture.

The Frenulum — This is a highly nerve-laden web of tissue that tethers the inner foreskin to the underside of the glans . It is similar to the frenula found under the tongue, the upper lip and the clitoral hood. For many intact men, the penile frenulum is a male “G-spot” that is highly pleasurable when repeatedly stretched and relaxed during sexual activity.

Proper blood flow — The foreskin contains several feet of blood vessels, including the frenular artery and branches of the dorsal artery.

Immunological defense- The soft mucosa of the inner foreskin produces plasma cells, which secrete immunoglobulin antibodies, and antibacterial and antiviral proteins, such as the pathogen-killing enzyme called lysozyme.

Conclusion — Circumcision has been proven again and again to be unethical, unmoral, and unnecessary. It violates boys bodily autonomy. Males should be able to consent to permanent changes to their body when they are adults. It gives nothing in return while taking so much away from the child. It’s time to put a stop to this damaging practice.

For more information and men’s personal experiences visit;

Intact America — http://intactamerica.org

Doctors opposing circumcision — https://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org

And men against circumcision — https://www.yourwholebaby.org/men-speak-out/

-https://www.bloodstainedmen.com

-https://www.mendocomplain.com

Together we can stop all genital mutilation.