Guys: To circumcise or not?!

Guys: To circumcise or not?

Okay, I have gotten lots of moms' perspectives on this; I need to know from grown men: Are you circumcised?
If so, are you glad? Would you have your own son circumcised?
If not, are you glad? Would you leave your own son intact? Have you found hygeine to be a problem area? Have you ever had a negative reaction from a woman?
I just found out I am having a son. My husband is circumcised, and he works in the medical field, so he's seen the negative side of having a foreskin. He would choose to have it done if left to decide on his own. I am torn. I do not want to put my son through unnecessary pain, especially if there's very little to be gained from it.
I don't want philosophical debate on which is better, I want to know, as an adult male, what the pros and cons are. I would appreciate ANY light you could shed on this issue for me.

6 days ago
Thanks guys; I really appreciate your candor!

I am not circumcised, I've never had any problems whatsoever with my foreskin, and I would never circumcise my son (if/when I have one) unless it were absolutely medically necessary because it's his body and thus should be his choice. I'm fairly glad that I'm uncircumcised and don't intend on changing if possible.

Yes, the foreskin can develop problems just like any part of the body. But no other part of the body is "preemptively" removed. Circumcision does cause pain to the infant (link 1) and even if the actual procedure may not be painful with proper use of local anesthetics, the 1-2 weeks of healing will be painful. The first time the baby urinates will probably burn and those first 3-4 days will be hell (link 2). Painkillers can be dangerous to infants, so they're not often used (so the baby will probably feel the full pain of recovery).

I also feel the risks and complications of circumcision are understated and thus often not fully considered when making the decision (link 3). There's a statistic that says the rate of complication is somewhere between 0.2-6% or so for circumcisions, but that's probably on top of the 10% of general hospital infections so it might be closer to 10-16%. While very rare, deaths can and do occur from circumcisions (link 4) though they're also rarely reported as a result of the circumcision and instead reported from a more "direct" cause such as excessive bleeding or infection.

Also the hygiene issue is ridiculously overstated. The foreskin is very easy to clean and keep clean, far easier than say brushing one's teeth (link 5). Hygiene really shouldn't even be an issue in an industrialized society. Furthermore, good genital hygiene can minimize/prevent many problems associated with the foreskin.

There's no statistically significant difference between circumcised and uncircumcised men in getting STDs or infections. It seems that good hygiene is essentially like the great equalizer, because contrary to a few studies that show circumcision to reduce the rate of contracting HIV, good hygiene basically makes it so there's no difference (link 6, 7). In any case, good hygiene + safe sex (i.e. condom use) >>> circumcision.

Lastly, circumcision removes a lot of nerve endings in the foreskin that would probably otherwise contribute to sexual sensitivity (link 8). Furthermore, several studies indicate that the foreskin may play a beneficial role in the sexual satisfaction/pleasure of not only the man, but the woman as well (links 9, 10, 11).

So I apologize that this post is so long. But the bottom point is as long as the foreskin works normally (which is the case in the vast majority of uncircumcised men), the guy maintains good genital hygiene (which he should anyway), and he practices safe sex (also a necessity), there really isn't anything wrong with keeping the foreskin and in fact, it could be a good thing.

As further side notes, about 70-80% of the world's male population is uncircumcised and the circumcision rate is decreasing in the US from nearly 90% to around 60% nationally today (links 12, 13). You don't hear in the news about a huge proportion of uncircumcised men suffering from having a foreskin so for the vast majority of men, the foreskin clearly doesn't cause problems. Also, a guy's more likely to get breast cancer than penile cancer, and again, good hygiene prevents penile cancer just as good as circumcision supposedly does.