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Health & Fitness

The Facts About Male Circumcision

Before my son was born, I was faced with the very important decision of whether or not he would be circumcised. So I did a little research and this is what I found out.

My favorite blog recently did a post titled: “Let’s Cut Your Penis Off. Or Not. Whatever.” Although highly entertaining, it wasn’t exactly informational. So, before my son was born I researched the topic a little bit since I was faced with this very important decision. Most of this information came from the American Academy of Pediatriacs, by the way.

Medical Associations Are Like Switzerland About It: They aren’t pro or anti-circumcision. They say the data suggests benefits, but there’s not enough of it to recommend it being a routine thing. They leave it up to us clueless parents to make the call. They do agree that if you’re going to do it, use anesthesia.

If You Are Going to Do Cut It Off, Do It Right Away: It may be riskier for your child to have it done later in life. Plus, you don’t really want him to remember it do you?

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Circumcision = Less “Junk” Problems:  Circumcision reduces the risk of urinary tract infections (1 in 1000 vs. 1 in 100), foreskin infections, penile cancer, and HIV (among other STDs). People against circumcision argue that proper hygiene takes care of most of these problems. Do I think my son will demonstrate proper personal hygiene once he has to do it on his own? Probably not. To be fair, the words slight and rare were used a lot when comparing the risks.

Everybody Else is Doing It: Sort of. Overall, around 70% of American men are circumcised. In 2005, 56% of newborn males were circumcised.

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Complications Are Rare and Mostly Minor: The most frequent complication is bleeding and only occurs in about 0.1% of circumcisions. For the majority of cases, this is easily controlled by applying pressure, cauterizing, or suturing. Oh, and the chance of your baby’s penis accidentally being cut all the way off is 1 in 1,000,000.

Your Baby May Not Even Cry: The most effective analgesia was a subcutaneous ring block using lidocaine. It was most effective at preventing crying. I guess I just assumed crying was a part of the process. One study went so far as to even say crying was only occasional using the ring block, and mostly likely due to the strange atmosphere rather than pain. Even though the AAP says this pain control method is the best, 85% of physicians use the dorsal penile nerve block instead. I’m sure it does a good job too, but I wanted my baby to have the BMW of penile pain management instead of just the Camry.

Most Doctors DO NOT Use Anesthesia: Only 45% of physicians that performed circumcisions used anesthesia. Granted, this information was taken from an AAP article from 1998, and this number has likely improved since then, but still. By the way, your OB is the least likely to use it (25%) and your child’s pediatrician is the most likely to use it (71%).

Here is a funny post from a dad that has decided not to circumcise his son, which he’s cleverly titled The Turtle Neck. I was looking for a recent blog post that was pro-circumcision but couldn’t even find one. This one was at least neutral talking about the Pros and Cons of Circumcision. Apparently, I’m the only person left in America that circumcised my baby.

Did you or are you planning on circumcising your boys?

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