Circumcision and HIV *trigger*

The link is bunk. Not the link you gave, but the link between circumcision and HIV transmission.

Anyways, please also read my Circumcision Resource Page and read about how Circ'ing is a blatant human rights violation, completely medically unneccessary, painful and not a good way to welcome a baby into the world. Boys are born perfect, keep em that way.

I've been reading a lot into circumcision, and the HIV link.... and some of the information and statistics, can cause you to question whether you should or shouldn't have your son circumcised.

However most of the statistics I have read have been comparisions in Africa between circumcised men, and non-circumcised men..... for religious purposes.

And when you look deeper into the cultures, you can see that with the religious doctrine, these men aren't living simillar lifestyles at all....

I think, personally, that a parent is better off to leave their son's penis alone, educating their children about HIV/AIDs, and advocate condom use in their household.

He can always make the circumcision decision on his own, when he is older. If that is what HE wants to do to HIS penis.

What I'm afraid this will lead to is mass circumcision, then the continuation of high risk behaviors as if a circ is some magical shield. Many people, especially men, in africa have become so afraid of the aids risk they're willing to do just about anything to try and protect themselves from it. There has been a rumor over there that having sex with a virgin will cure you, which is what has lead to the raping of babies and very young children. There is a definite lack of any real sexual education, but silly pseudo-research often makes its way through.

some lady i work with thought it was her place to print out me an article about how men/boys with uncircumsized penises are more prone to get STDs and HIV. i just ripped the damn thing up because umm yeah i wont even get into it.

I circumsized my first son and i DONT plan on circumsizing my second. after i did my first son i thought about it and realized its really unnecessary. i wish i knew the info i knew now before i did it. but i cant beat myself up for it. i just change my ways.

how rude! Why the hell did she think that it was ok to hand you that in the 1st place? :shock:

Kaigans circumsized, he slept through the whole thing... but i do agree that the article is a bunch of bull and its a personal decision. Just like peircing a new born girls ears is unneccissary and painful. But anyways i dont think the decision should be based upon articles like that... do what you feel is right for your baby.

Well see i was having a convo with this guy i work with. Hes an older man like 42 but hes really down to earth and i can suprisingly relate to him and get along. so maybe she over heard but still. unless your a friend or family i would never even think to hand you over info like that.

People can be so rude sometimes....
The ones who would never be willing to read some information on something they don't agree with, or comprehend.... are ALWAYS the ones dishing out THEIR point of view.

Kelly can handle her own though!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for that. yes i can. the women is just really lucky i work with her and have a fine line of respect when at work. (shes also the women i work with that is very anti-choice)

I am proud of you kell! dont let that rude lady get to you. I didnt circumsize j because my doc couldnt give me enough proof that it would be beneficial to him. I get alot of shit for it still now a days. my mom tells me all kinds of stuff but i just blow her off.

If you teach your son how to clean his penis he is no more likely to get anything than any other circumsized man.

even if she where friend or family, I don't think I'd be able to take that! Good for you for not putting up with her bullshit. :D

well for me a good point is that circumsised unpprotected sex is definitely a higher risk than protected sex no matter the foreskin. We need to focus on distributing condoms and information on AIDS, not on giving men a false sense of security becuase they are cut.

Articles like this make me want to shake the author violently!
I just still cannot believe how accepted male circ'ing is in this society, when we are horrified upon hearing of female circ'ing.
Such a double standard.

all this "link" is going to accomplish is giving even more men a ridiculous reason to not wear condoms. "i'm circumsized, baby! i'm clean!"

count me out.

Yeah...this is all BS in my opinion.

I don't agree that it's a personal decision, any more than female circumcision/genital mutilation is a personal decision. Newborns shut down from pain. They are not asleep. There are numerous studies showing this response while the physiologic markers of pain are still present.

Infant circumcision is cosmetic surgery performed on someone without their consent.

can someone put a trigger on this..

cuz the more I read; and most likely others: the shittier I feel.
I thought it was a innocent articule or some thing but NO.

trigger added.

Child Abuse Trigger.

It's amazing how much BS there is about circumcision though.........

My stepmom asked me if Neil was circumcised..... and I told her it was none of her business.... I wouldn't want him discussing my breasts! Anyways she HONESTLY believed that if a man was circumcised, he was better in bed!

Um, no hunny, he's better in bed if he takes the time to learn what his partner likes, thank you.

And when I was pregnant, they had a real push on us to circumcise our baby.... and the answer was no. The idea of FGM infuriated them.... why's it different?

The arguement was, "well we do it"......

You also cuff your kids in the back of the head....

There is just too much complacency.... and too many myths....... from a better sexual pleasurer :roll: , to being cleaner.... :roll:

To add a different opinion....my parents didn't have my brother circumsized when he was born, but he developed an infection when he was 5, and he was circumsized then.

It was really traumatic and painful for him when he was 5, and to this day, he still remembers it and flinches when anyone mentions it! :(

And that's sad, and yes sometimes it does occur, but does that mean we should do it to everyone in the off chance that they're one of the rare cases who might need it later? A lot of people get funked up gall bladders, should we start removing them at birth "just in case" even if there's nothing wrong with it?

Even if it does turn out to be true that a circumcized man is a little less likely to get HIV than an intact man, it doesn't make them immune, they should still be wearing a condom. And if he wears a condom, both groups of men are back to the same risk. So I really don't see this as a reason to cut off part of a newborn. Any sons I have in the future will be left intact.

I agree with you, Naivete. Not every man is going to need a circumcision later in life, so it shouldn't be done at birth.

Just offering up my $0.02 is all.

It's more than "not every man". The rate of circumcision later in life in countries that don't routinely circumcise (i.e., basically every country but the US and Israel) is incredibly small. The lack of knowledge in the US about how to care for an intact penis contributes to the late circumcision rate.

Kind of ot, but a circ. related question. One of my good friends had a little brother in the same situation as yours, honeybee. She is planning on circing any future babies she births w/penises because she figures they'd have a higher liklihood to need a later circumcision. Does anyone know if this condition is heridetary? If so, is there anything that can be done to prevent it w/out circing the newborn?

Don't retract the foreskin, to wash under or any other reason, until it stops adhering. This can be anywhere from age 18 months to puberty or beyond, and still be normal. When the foreskin is forcibly retracted, it causes microtears (it's the equivalent of pulling off a fingernail from the nailbed) that are easily infected. Normal washing of the outside is sufficient until the foreskin can be retracted BY THE OWNER of the foreskin.

It's not hereditary. Some boys do develop phimosis, but is that a reason to cut up their genitalia? Women get bacterial vaginosis and yeast infections; should our labia be removed?

Seriously, if circumcision were actually beneficial, don't you think it would be the norm in countries other than the US? And since it's a billable procedure, if it had any medical benefit, wouldn't the AAP jump all over it to recommend? They don't. It doesn't. Circumcising a newborn is like cutting off his ears to save him the bother of washing them.

Just a note that the AAP recognizes it as a cosmetic procedure - it does not have enough proof of medical benefit for them to recommend it at all.

A lot of insurance companies view it as a cosmetic procedure as well, and therefore do not cover it.

and I know, the lack of knowledge about circ'ing is unreal. So many people just automatically buy into "well my husband made the decision.." or "I heard it has some benefit" without doing any research into it at all, and what's even more unreal is the amount of doctors themselves that do not know a damn thing about it, will recommend it, and will try to retract foreskin on their own. Trey's doctor when he was young tried that, we yelled at him and found a new doctor real quick.

Thanks, I'll let her know. It didn't strike me as the sort of thing that would be hereditary.

When my son was born (6 1/2 yrs ago) they criced him WITHOUT my consent. They had brought the paper in for me to sign, and I didn't sign it because I still hadn't decided. The ONLY thing I had been told about circing is that if he had it he would "look normal" and that he had like a 4% lower risk of a UTI in the first year. They brought me the paper to sign at 3am, and I told them that I was still undecided, so they said ok. Then they came to get him in the morning for what I assumed was a weighing, and he didn't come back for like 45 min, so I went looking for him, and they said that he was done, but they were watching to make sure everything was ok. I said what do you mean, and they told me that they had circed him. Then they told me later (after they had found out that I had not consented to this) that I should sign the paper so that I didn't get in trouble!!! :x That makes me mad to this day. Later I found out that nothing would've happened to me, but the people who mutilated his genitals would've been in huge trouble. Unfortunatly, there is no way now or then that I can prove that they did it without my consent, since I signed the paper because I didn't want to get in trouble.