Trauma
Trauma is defined as physical injury or psychological or emotional damage.[1]
Contents
Physical trauma
Physical trauma is any injury caused by a mechanical or physical agent.[1]
Psychic trauma
Psychic trauma is a psychologically upsetting experience that produces an emotional or mental disorder or otherwise has lasting negative effects on a person's thoughts, feelings, or behavior.[1]
Circumcision trauma
Circumcision trauma includes both physical trauma and psychic trauma.[2] [3] [4] Batteley, Metters & Smith (2023) state, in addition to the physical risks, the psychological risks should receive attention.[5]
Physical circumcision trauma
Circumcision, more properly described as posthectomy, is the surgical excision and amputation of the foreskin of the penis, which permanently removes a significant portion of the epithelium of the penis and destroys the significant and important protective, immunological, sexual, and sensory physiological functions of that structure, and leaves the patient permanently and irreversibly impaired by the loss of those functions.[6]
Results of physical circumcision trauma
Results of physical trauma include:
Psychic circumcision trauma
The medical community has been slow to recognize the trauma of circumcision.[5] [7]
Although a circumcision may be performed at any age, circumcisions are most commonly performed on newborn boys in the first month of life outside of the mother's womb. At that tender age general anesthesia is too dangerous to administer, so newborn boys receive only minimal pain relief at best and, in many cases, none at all.
Circumcised boys had a higher pain response at time of vaccination six months later as compared with intact boys,[8][9] showing that the nervous system had been permanently sensitized to heightened pain sensation.
Taddio et al. (1997) concluded:
| “ | Although postsurgical central sensitisation (allodynia and hyperalgesia) can extend to sites of the body distal from the wound, suggesting a supraspinal effect, the long-term consequences of surgery done without anaesthesia are likely to include post-traumatic stress as well as pain. It is, therefore, possible that the greater vaccination response in the infants circumcised without anaesthesia may represent an infant analogue of a post-traumatic stress disorder triggered by a traumatic and painful event and re-experienced under similar circumstances of pain during vaccination. – Taddio et al. (1997)[9] |
Boyle & Ramos (2019) reported PTSD in circumcised boys in the Philippine Islands.[10]
Results of psychic circumcision trauma
Results of psychic circumcision trauma include:
Ethics
Two ethicists, Myers & Earp (2020), have conducted a detailed review and analysis of the claimed medical benefits of non-therapeutic circumcision. They have determined that the alleged benefits are not material, so they do not support granting of consent by a surrogate. Moreover, they comment that even the most perfectly executed surgery produces trauma and harm to the patient. Circumcision also produces tissue loss and loss of function, therefore, circumcision should be performed only after the individual reaches the age of consent.[11]
See also
External links
Edel, Dean (17 August 2015). Infant Circumcision And Trauma – With Dr. Dean Edell
, Kindred. Retrieved 20 November 2022.- Tinari, Paul D..
Circumcision Permanently Alters the Brain: The surgery subjected the infant to significant trauma
, Circumcision Resource Center. Retrieved 20 November 2022. - Narvaez, Darcia F. (11 January 2015).
Circumcision’s Psychological Damage
, Psychology Today. Retrieved 14 November 2022. - Marotta B (17 February 2022).
The Cultural Trauma of Circumcision
, Hegemon Media. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
References
- ↑ a b c (2003).
Trauma
, The Free Medical Dictionary by Farlex. Retrieved 13 November 2022. - ↑
Boyle GJ, Goldman R, Svoboda JS, Fernandez E. Male Circumcision: Pain, Trauma and Psychosexual Sequelae. Journal of Health Psychology. 2002; 7(3): 329-43. DOI. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
- ↑ Aydoğdu B, Azizoğlu M, Okur MH. Social and psychological effects of circumcision: A narrative review
. Journal of Applied Nursing
and Health. 2022; 4(2): 264-71. DOI. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
- ↑ Boyle GJ. Circumcision of Infants and Children: Short-Term Trauma and Long-Term Psychosexual Harm . Advances in Sexual Medicine. 15 April 2015; 5(3): 22-38. DOI. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
- ↑ a b Batterley M, Metters J, Smith D. Male Circumcision-Based Trauma: Should it be Shown Greater Recognition?. PsyArXiv. 18 January 2023; Preprint: 1-13. DOI. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
- ↑ Cold CJ, Taylor JR. The prepuce. BJU Int. January 1999; 83, Suppl. 1: 34-44. PMID. DOI. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
- ↑ Goldman R. The psychological impact of circumcision. BJU Int. 1 January 1999; 83 Suppl. 1: 93-103. PMID. DOI. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
- ↑ Taddio A, Goldbach M, Ipp M, Stevens B, Koren G. Effect of neonatal circumcision on pain responses during vaccination in boys. Lancet. 1995; 345: 291-292. PMC. DOI. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
- ↑ a b Taddio A, Katz J, Ilersich AL, Koren G. Effect of neonatal circumcision on pain response during subsequent routine vaccination. Lancet. 1 March 1997; 349: 599-603. PMC. DOI. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
- ↑ Boyle GJ, Ramos S. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among Filipino boys subjected to non-therapeutic ritual or medical surgical procedures: A retrospective cohort study. Annals of Medicine and Surgery. 2019; 42: 19-22. PMID. PMC. DOI. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
- ↑ Myers A, Earp BD. What is the best age to circumcise? A medical and ethical analysis. J Biosoc Sci. September 2020; 34(7): 560-72. PMID. DOI. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
