by Don Stine

Created on: February 20, 2009   Last Updated: February 27, 2009

Circumcising baby boys soon after birth is a very positive choice. It is now a painless procedure with a nerve narcotic shot into the penile nerve or with Emla cream spread over the penis about 30 minutes before the circumcision. General anesthesia is not necessary. Most babies sleep through the procedure. Circumcision is preventative medicine avoiding phimosis and infections under the foreskin. Hygiene is simplifed. It is a first line prevention of most STDs and of HIV/AIDS. It reduces the rate of kidney infections in the new born. It is a preventative against penile cancer in the adult (actually a rare occurence). The penis retains erotic sensitivity. The shaft of the penis contains the nerves once ending in the foreskin and now reactivated with new nerve endings up and down the shaft. If the frenum is in tact, it is not subject to tearing and still is the most sensitive area in the penis. The glans flares out and keeps its sensitivity. For the glans female lubrication during intercourse supplies enough to make a smooth entry. Many women who include oral sex in their sex lives prefer the aesthetic and "clean" penis head of their circumcised partner.

As in other cases, the parents have the final decision to make for the child to be circumcised. It does not overrule the child's civil rights. Parents make all kinds of decisions for the well-being of their child in the early years of the child's development: nourishing food, a clean home, emotional comfort, the happiness that comes from play and love, the socialization of the child, and the preparation for the child's education, etc.

Psychologically, circumcision as identification with the father, the brothers and others in the extended family, and peers at school and college is very important. Many adolescent and young adult men, have asked to be circumcised because they have felt "out of it" being uncircumcised.

In American culture as well as in the religious traditions of the Jewish and Islamic faiths circumcision is widely practised. Every continent on earth has groups and nations that circumcise for various reasons. They include Africa, North America (now including the middle class in Mexico and other Central American countries), parts of South America, Asia, especially Israel, So. Korea and the Muslim countries, parts of Euope including the Balkans, and the Islands of the South Pacific and of Hawaii and the Philippines.

Statistics about the rate of circumcision in the USA and elsewhere are hard to come by. The Hispanic groups in the USA as part of their culture do not normally circumcise their infants. That is slowly changing. In California circumcision rates include Hispanics who do not circumcise. So there is about a 50% reduction of the overall rate. At the same time Caucasian rates remain the same. African American circumcisions now equal Caucasian circumcisions. The younger generations of Asian Americans practice circumcision widely. It is estimated that by not including the Latino persons, the rate of circumcision is the USA has remained the same over the last 30 years at about 85% of boys born. That is increasing to about 90% now. Circumcisions are no longer done for the most part as patients in hospitals but more frequently as out patients and also in clinics and in doctors' offices, especially family physicians and pediatricians.

I urge parents to take into account these positive aspects of infant circumcision.

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