If you had kids...

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There's evidence that it may reduce your chance of catching certain STDs. If you have phimosis and can't retract, it will help during sex (although stretching exercises are effective for lots of the relatively small fraction of people who have serious retraction issues).

Since there are nerve endings in the foreskin, and since the skin will retract and expose the head during sex, and since the head itself will be more sensitive if it's normally covered by a foreskin, how would sex be made more pleasurable by circumcision for the vast majority of guys whose foreskin retracts normally?

The sensations are so much better now than before I was circumcised. But that's for me.Let us know how it is in 20 or 30 years. Some people claim diminishing sensations over time. I don't know how you'd measure it objectively.> I've read where people blamed the surgeon for ruining their sex life!There are men who have had their circumcision surgery botched. Some have gotten infections during surgery. It's a relatively small percentage, but it happens.> I don't understand the animosity towards it, especially due to my experience, but I read about it a lot.This is so personal, I feel one can only report what they experienced and let others make up their I will never know. ... Should you take the ability to choose away from a child? Personally, I think it's 50/50. I don't think it matters sexually.I don't think it's fair to generalize from your own experience. Before I would deprive someone else from making his own choice, I'd want to be really sure that it has little effect for almost anyone. We certainly don't know that now. Several people here have posted after having had bad results from circumcision as teenagers (usually forced into it by parents). I don't know what percentage they represent.> This is so personal...What good reason is there to deprive another person of the right to make his own decision?In most of the U.S., most boys are circumcised. In most of the rest of the non-Moslem world, most are intact. The rate of circumcision is decreasing in the U.S. As that happens, and as Americans become less provincial, the stigma of being circumcised, such that it is, will diminish.

Theres going to be some show about Circumsition and junk tonight. Something on Discovery Channel.I was reading the Men's Health magazine thing, that said that its better to be UNcircumcised. Alot of is the danger of infection, also sometimes if it fails, you can lose the whole penis :O "By no doubt, uncircumcied guys would have much more pleasure during sex" - Dalton Dimmitrii.

nope id leave that to them when theyre old enough and know enough about the pros and cons

You think I’ll be around in 20 or 30 years? Active sexually? It’s been 25 years as it is.I have no idea how old you are, but many men are sexually active into their 70's and beyond.> You do the best you can with what you have. If a parent makes irreversible medical decision for a child based on what information is available, you can hardly blame them.I can blame them for making a decision based on "this is how it's always been done". What country do you live in? How many parents do you think make the decision "based on what information is available"? Do you think most doctors have a big discussion on the subject? In most cases, it's done practically by default in the U.S.>> What good reason is there to deprive another person of the right to make his own decision?> Parenting again. You never had your parents make a decision for you, did you?Parents in various cultures sometimes make bad decisions. Why does anyone have to like it? How does your argument not justify female genital mutilation?Circumcising your son is not like choosing his hairstyle. Hair grows back, and when the boy is older, he can decide for himself how to cut it. Once the foreskin is gone, it's gone forever.

\> And isn't 25 years long enough to test your theory?
Not much definitive can be said. Some older circumcised men complain about diminished sensitivity. It's hard to remember exactly how you felt 25 years ago, so you perception is not like measuring something with laboratory equipment. In any case, you can't say much about one data point of anecdotal evidence.
It's hard to understand how leaving a foreskin intact would lead to sensitivity reduction, and it's possible that removing it might. There's not much scientific evidence on the subject that I'm aware of. But a lot of people have claimed reduced sensitivity after circumcision (a necessity, since the glans is so sensitive when the foreskin is retracted).
Circumcision has been the default choice in the U.S. for the better part of a century for newborns. I'm glad to see this changing.

In reply to: Circumcision has been the default choice in the U.S. for the better part of a century for newborns. I'm glad to see this changing. What do you mean?

What do you mean what do I mean?

> I am sure sensitivity declines with age anyway.

I wouldn't be so sure about that, vis-à-vis the head of the penis.

Cool. At one time, lots of people believed that heavy bleeding was the cure for many illnesses. A lot of what people just believe is wrong.I have seen circumcised older men post that their penis has become so insensitive that sex was no longer pleasurable. I have never seen an uncircumcised man say that. That's not a scientific study, but it raises questions. Your individual experience is scientifically meaningless.I was circumcised when I was an infant, so I have no idea what it feels like to have an intact penis. But you must agree that most men would find it very uncomfortable to walk around dressed with their foreskin retracted. It's obviously not true that circumcised men can't comfortably walk around clothed.Can you conceive that an intact man who retracts and has sex might feel something different from what a circumcised man would feel?

If reduced sensation is better, so be it. But if sensation diminishes (in general) as you get older, you'll be starting with a deficit.

Your ass is not a mucous membrane, as the skin of the head of your penis is. Your ass doesn't dry out the way the skin on the head of the penis does when the foreskin is removed. Your ass don't lose the benefit of the numerous nerve endinds that exist in the foreskin, that are lost during circumcision.

Your butt cheek is not a mucous membrane. Your butt cheek is not your penis.

What if the head of the penis weren't covered with a mucous membrane? What if the foreskin didn't contain lots of nerve endings? What if we reproduced by touch butt-to-butt?Then things would be different.

If I have any more children, and they are boy's; I will not have them cut! I can now state for a fact, that a person with a foreskin is better; I have been in both worlds. I was cut a 6 years of age.... now that my foreskin has been restored through stretching and surgery, I felt the dryness and no sensitivity unless I used a lot of lub; now with the newly restored foreskin, I have more sensitivity. I do believe that circumcision is un-necessary.

It allows the mucus membrane that covers the head of the penis to revert to its natural state.

In reply to:This is sometimes called “parenting”. You do the best you can with what you have. If a parent makes irreversible medical decision for a child based on what information is available, you can hardly blame them. I'd be pissed if my parents made a irreversible medical decision simply because they were to freakin lazy to get more info.Hey what's this 6th toe here? Dur lets cut it off cause it looks funny. (10 yrs later)Hey hun look at this! Seems that here to we had removed from birth cuts little Billy's life span by 20 yrs! Oh snap!Totally different scenario I know, plus that wouldn't happen, but its basically the same. Get info before you do ANYTHING medically surgical.

but its basically the sameWell not really. Circumcision is not exactly a life altering thing.. that's why so little thought is placed into it.

Yes, there are many Jews in Nederland who aren't circumcised. The only ones who will do that are the Hasidics involved in the diamond trade in A'dam - generally speaking.Keep in mind Just because they consider themselves Jews doesn't mean they are religious at all, but just members of the tribe, Semites. These people, if you asked why they aren't circumcised because they consider themselves Jewish they either tell you that it is an outdated practice or has nothing to do with them being a Jew. Of course there are not so many Jews in Nederland, or Europe for that matter, because of the Nazis in the war. Many who survived moved to Israel, so the ones left are a small number.Also, the Turks start to have problems in Europe. They don't do this to babies, they like to catch their boys between 7 and 14 or 15 and do it without anesthesia. Most of the Turk boys have never been to their parents home country, so they begin to identify more with being Dutch than they do being Turk and also, since they are away from a Moslem Country where everyone watches, they don't do their religion or sometimes the family is mixed Turk-Dutch and when the family decides the boy should be done, he is 14 or 15 and wants nothing to do with it. Already some Turk boys have gone to the government for protection because there is no reason to do this for a health problem, only a tradition they don't feel is part of their lives. Most others don't want it done, especially since their mates aren't circumcised, but they feel very humiliated when doing sport or having a pee, that one time they have all the parts of their penis and then later everyone sees that they have part cut off and knows what hsappened to them to make them different.I notice you are writing about the Torah/Bible and it serves no purpose to argue over such things. Most Dutch people believe in a creator, call him God if you wish to put a name, but most here also realize that there is a difference between religions and what they believe because men in those religions are making the rules, not God, otherwise God contradicts himself, and I don't think that happens, so with so many different, who is right or maybe the premise is correct, but the execution is just men trying to control others lives, That is the position of most here. That said, there are also a few who attend church regularly, Catholic in the south and east part and Protestant in the other parts, so I don't want to have you think there are none.I wasn't going to respond since after I wrote I received a number of vicious, sarcastic and rude replies. It seems there is no room here that anyone says anything different is accepted.

You do the best you can with what you have. If a parent makes irreversible medical decision for a child based on what information is available, you can hardly blame them.I can blame them for making a decision based on "this is how it's always been done". What country do you live in? How many parents do you think make the decision "based on what information is available"? Do you think most doctors have a big discussion on the subject? In most cases, it's done practically by default in the U.S.----------------------------------------------------Damned straight.I blame me.when both of my sons were born, they both were cut. I cut the cord, the let me hold them for a bit and feed them, then they said ok we are taking them away, get them cleaned up and circed.I knew what it was, I didnt know it was unneeded, I thought it was better as thats what my parents told me when I was a kid and asked about it. Its cleaner, better, safer.so I did nothing to stop it and thought it was what had to be done.I now wish I could go back and tell them to fuck off. ffthey never offered a choice and asked, they said what they were going to do and then did it, but as Iv done so many times on other things in docs offices, I could of easily told them to fuck off and put an end ot it.in the end, I blame me for not doing hte research, and for not standing up to be counted. I went along with the its what it si mentality.at the same time I see in this thread, that uncirced is better, it reads like they are better as a man. to you I say fuck off, your no more a man then I am.

When I ever make any comments, it is never my intention to start an argument or to be argumentative, only to explain what goes on in my small, crowded corner of the world and largely WEestern Europe. If this is too long or my English (especially spelling) is bad, tell me.I don't know where you are, but I expect many who read here are Americans, so to them, being circumcised is what is expected and considered normal. This isn't the case in a majority of the rest of the non-Muslim and Jewish areas of the world. So, when we in Europe write, we have a different perspective.If I woud explain to a Dutch boy what circumcision is (besnijdenis), he is going to look at me like I am crazy, and ask "...why would I want to do that." To them, having a foreskin is a normal part of their penis, not something which is expendable and of no value, especially if he has started masturbating since his foreskin is most likely an active part of his wank. In fact, he will probably wonder how a boy can have a proper wank without his foreskin, since there's nothing left to move.Should Dutch parents present at hospital to have their son circumcised for no medical reason, they would be refused the non-essential surgery, primarily because it violates the rights of the child to keep his body whole until he reaches the age of majority.As for circ in religion, it is not mentioned in the Koran for Muslims, only that in his sayings, Muhammed said he thought it was a good iea. Some Islamic societies have added to this the circumcision (read that mutilation) of teenage girls. Apparently Muhhamed didn't know to include them.For Jews it is very suspiciuous that it comes from God and maybe the Jewish religious leaders who are writing the styory down. This wasn't the first instance of circ in the world, not a new idea, but it is suggested that Jewish religious leaders added this to the scriptures to control the faithful. I say this because I understand the practice is not mentioned in earlier versions of the Torah. Indeed, Jewish boys would later start to stretch their foreskin remnants forward to appear uncircumcised and be accepted in Greek and Roman society who considered a naked knob as vulgar. So, if the original DID come from God, then Jewish leaders decided that God didn't know how it should be done and changed the procedure so it would be virtually impossible for a Jewish boy to appear uncut. Shere do these people think they get this right?To the average Dutchman, the idea of any religion to scar and amputate part of the body of a child, something that violates every tenant of their beliefs so they must except violating the child, is at the same time infuriating, disgusting and holds them up to ridicule and derision amongst the average Dutchman.We are not so much secular here, I believe in a creator God, but the average Dutchman see organized religion as a joke, full of contradictions, the absolutes changing constantly whewn it suits their purpose. The local priest is also a state employee, another bureaucrat.Well, this is very long and my two fingers become tired, so I stop here and maybe you have some questions, especially the Americans, so they begin to understand the way their neighbours across the pond think.