Tell us.......

Kyla - posted on 05/24/2012

Hi Jennifer,
From a young age I somehow knew that circumcised penises seemed strange. When I got a bit older and found out what it was all about I felt appalled by it. My two brothers are circumcised and I even got into a minor fight with my parents when I learned about it and realized they did that to them. All is well and forgiven now though lol.
I knew from that point on that if I was ever blessed with boys they would have their foreskin. I found a great man who was loosely circumcised. I wish he was fully whole, but a little is better than none I guess. He also had no problems with leaving our boys intact.
So there was not a lot of factors as it appeared that we were on the same page. Cousins my age in my family are circumcised to my knowledge, but much of the new generation are not. My kids are not. Each of my brothers has one son and neither are circumcised (although one almost was). I do have two circumcised nephews on my dh's side, as well as one who is not. So in our family there's much of each which made it a bit easier. In fact as I think about it, intact boys now outweigh circumcised ones which never happened before this generation.

Fofinha - posted on 04/01/2012

i agree thats why we didn't circumcise our sons it didn't make sense to voluntarily put them through unnecessary pain

Chrystal - posted on 07/17/2011

We choose not to go with circumcision because it doesn't significantly lower risks for uti's or stds; it lowers sexual sensation and runs the risk of cutting the foreskin to short ruining his pleasure totally; trends are changing so he wouldn't be made fun of for being intact; and when it comes right down to it neither myself or my husband felt that we had any right to cosmetically alter our sons body.

Laura Zoey - posted on 01/26/2011

I was originally opposed to circumcision, but my husband was for it. We argued about it ALOT and ended up deciding to do it for our son. I talked to my obgyn who would do it and she explained how she manages the pain. I felt comfortable with it. We did it at the hospital and he wasn't strapped down, he was swaddled chest up and a nurse held his thighs. He cried once with the numbing shot but then he was wide awake, looking into my eyes sucking my finger. It was quick and he had somy Tylenol and breastfed. All in all I was happy with it.
But when he was a year old we found out it had reattached. I had to force ably rip the skin back off the head. It was the worst thing I can say I've had to do.
It reattached again despite regular Vaseline use, and I had to do it again. He still hates me changing his diaper and if he sees the Vaseline he gets scared.
I completely regret our decision, and my husband feels so guilty. We will never circumcise another son.
So honestly, the procedure itself was fune, he wasn't in pain, it healed well. But the aftermath was horrible. And I struggle to forgive myself for doing this to him.
I just pray he doesn't suffer any long term problems because of our choice.

Nelly - posted on 12/07/2010

We have 3 boys and none of them are circumcised, it didn't make sense to put our children through unnecessary pain, as parents we are here to protect our children not to put them through pain

Larissa - posted on 11/30/2009

To be honest, our decision was a journey. I had a bad feeling about having him circ'd (if we had a boy, we didn't know at the time). Dh is circ'd and we kind of thought that if we had a boy we would have him circ'd as well, but a little voice inside me said "that is not a good enough reason to cut off a piece of your son." So I researched it. Once I read the procedure, there was no way I was letting anyone do that to my son! And dh was fine with that decision.

Danae - posted on 08/23/2009

My husband is not circumcised so truthfully I left the decision up to him. We actually didn't decide until he was a couple of weeks old. When they are babies you do not have to do anything different with them. You just need to teach them to keep it clean when they get older and there are no problems.

Shanda - posted on 07/17/2009

Well, with my first son, I didn't really know where to look for information, we didn't have internet access, and my mom, who is a teacher, convinced me that he would be teased if he wasn't circumcised. I still felt very on the fence so I left it up to my husband. He chose to have him circ'd. While the nurse had my DS out for the procedure I felt awful and absolutely felt that it was the wrong decision.



In the following years (after we got internet access) I paid attention to discussions regarding circumcision on message boards and discovered that my decision was based on a lot of false information. I had believed that you had to pull the foreskin back to clean it, adn that he'd be one of the only ones that wasn't circ'd and be singled out. I was under the impression that circ was cleaner. All the classic reasons (other than the looking like daddy one, I never cared about that really.)



By the time we became pregnant with my second son I was firmly opposed to circumcision. I brought it up to my husband and he agreed with me, as he hadn't felt right about it with the first one when it came down to it anyway. We chose not to because after debunking the cleanliness argument, learning that in our country only 1/3 of boys are now circ'd, and learning that so much of their pleasure nerves are in the foreskin, as well as learning more about the possible complications of circ, and putting a newborn through a lot of unnecessary pain, we felt that it was too much risk without any real benefit.

Celeste - posted on 07/15/2009

Well, I honestly never thought of it until I found out I was pregnant with a boy. I had always assumed that it was medically and/or religiously necessary. I also didn't realize just what was involved.

Then I came across a link on a parenting site, and looked into it. The minute I saw what was involved there was NO WAY it was going to be an option for us, and I was relieved to learn that as a christian it's not a requirement, and medically it's completely unnecessary and not reccomended as a routine preventative measure. Any other considerations (cleanliness, looking like dad, looking like other boys) were just too petty to justify removing normal, healthy, functioning tissue from his GENITALS!

I also feel like it's his body and I shouldn't do anything to it that is irreversable or will affect him in his adult life unless there are serious repercussions for not doing it. It's his body and if he want's to have it done when he grows up then that is his decision to make not mine . :D

Glad to find ya'll!

Jessica - posted on 04/01/2009

Well, we made the decision to leave our son (who is due June 2nd) intact before we even decided whether or not to have children. At the time, we were both thinking we didn't want kids. Obviously we've changed our minds. LOL anyway, the conversation came up when we watched an episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit about circumcision. My husband said that his mom didn't want him circumcized (he's Hispanic and most Hispanics are intact). Well, this was back in 1958 and the doctor went ahead and did the circ anyway. I guess patients rights and parents rights didn't exist then. So anyway, he told me then that if we ever had a son, he would be left intact. I knew next to nothing about it, apart from what I had just learned from that episode of BS. I never even knew what circ was, I honestly thought it was something you only did if you were Jewish. I didn't even know what a circ'd penis looked like compared to an intact one! To be honest, since I didn't even know about it until seeing that episode, I still don't really know what one looks like, though I did change a friend of mine's baby's diaper once and he was intact. So I know what an intact BABY penis looks like, but I don't know what an adult intact penis looks like, LOL. I don't even know if my brothers are intact!

Heather - posted on 02/08/2009

My plan was to leave it up to my partner.  I told him I'd rather not but it was up to him.  At first he said "Yes, definitely."  But then we decided to watch a video of a circumcision.  I couldn't even finish.  Matt did though and from that point he was extremely against it.  We just couldn't justify it for no good medical reason after seeing what actually happens.

Laura - posted on 02/05/2009

I never heard of circumcision until I was pregnant with my son and was reading a baby book! I am from the UK, where like 80% of the world it is not practised routinely. I read a lot about why people do it and I decided not to, not just because my husband wasn't, but because the reasons given for doing so seemed ridiculous. I couldn't imagine putting my son through that amount of pain, and it is inconceivable to me how you can convince yourself that it is perfectly fine to inflict that amount of pain onto a child because he won't remember it.

Kyla - posted on 02/02/2009

Originally I had planned on having it done. But after my son was born it just wasn't important. My husband isn't and in the end I didn't want him to look different than his daddy. My sister has a son 3 weeks younger than mine and her Dr. recommended that he be done because they were having trouble with him getting infections so easy.

Claire - posted on 01/27/2009

It wasn't an option for me or my husband. We both figured God designed men the way they are for a reason. 80% of the world is intact & luckily, both of our sets of parents are anti-circumcision too. My dad says "circumcision defies all logic."

Adrian - posted on 01/17/2009

Really, I would have circ'd my son if my husband hadn't changed my mind. I just thought that it was supposed to be done. Also, I saw Penn and Teller's Bullshit on Showtime and it made sense to me to not circ my son. And, when I chose out pediatrician, he didn't recommend it.

Katie - posted on 01/15/2009

Hubby isn't and I knew I didn't want to do that to my son.

BethAnn - posted on 01/12/2009

When I got pregnant, I asked my dh if he thought we should get the babe circed we had a boy. (DH is not circed.) He left it up to me and said, "You're a nurse, you know more about that than I do." I really didn't. But I researched and found out that it's not recommended by any medical group and that was enough. And I figured that if dh was intact and fine, then our son would be too.

Jacqui - posted on 01/12/2009

I am the mother of three boy's none of them are circumcised. It was when my first son was born that we decided not to do it. I had talked to my husband about not doing it because of the pain and listening to them cry while it was being done. But I left it up to him. Mostly cuz he know's more about that area than me( he is circumcised) but it was really the dr. that made up both of our mind's he said " How would you feel if (God forbid) something were to happen while it was being done knowing it is a totally unnessary procedure." I was sure he wasn't s'posed to say something like that but it made sense. I would imagine almost 100% of the time nothing happen's but what if....anyway that's what made up my mind

Amber - posted on 01/10/2009

well you were the main factor that influenced me and then i talk to tom about it and he told me the same thing, thanks for all the information. I was going to get bryce circumcised and my family offered to pay for it and still do but I refuse to put my son through hell. I think he is perfect the way he is with all his skin he was born with. thanks jen we love you.