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My pathway from being a proponent of [[circumcision]] to an opponent was long.
When roughly 5 years ago my son was diagnosed with a symptom-free (a so-called physiological) [[phimosis]], I would have immediately approved of a [[circumcision]], due to my belief in the alleged benefits.
I would have eagerly granted him the "better aesthetics" and "better endurance". In the beginning, I could not understand why my wife resisted and refused to agree to a [[circumcision]]. I had always thought she was as convinced by my "enhanced" [[penis]] as I was - but that wasn't the case.
Instead she went to see a child urologist. When she saw my son and his harmless [[phimosis]], she was shocked about the flippancy with which our paediatrician wanted to circumcise our son.
A really key experience came two years later. I had by then read on several internet forums that the surface of a circumcised glans gradually becomes thicker and sensitivity fades. So I tried to fight the callused skin with facial defoliant cream. I did not feel any pain, it did not even feel unpleasant.
I was circumcised at the age of 10. Since my parents are of Turkish ancestry, the question of "why" is irrelevant, even though I later learned that a German paediatrician advised it because my [[foreskin]] was not retractable.
We all know today that [[phimosis ]] during childhood is normal and certainly not a reason for [[circumcision]]. I think that if I had experienced pain BEFORE the procedure, I would still remember it today. But the pain came AFTER the ritual. The circumciser was a Turkish doctor. To this day I don't know if my parents knew this man beforehand. All I know is that he circumcised many boys in our circle of acquaintances.
I remember my parents preparing me. It would be important and would bring me benefits. It was explained to me as if it was something self-evident. The first visit to the dentist, the first day at school ...
== Martin Wolper, 39 ==
I was born in the 70s, my older brother had already been circumcised due to an alleged [[phimosis]], and I remember that, from the day I could think, it was said that I had a narrowing of the preputial orifice and when I was about to start to go to school, that it would "have to be done". My parents really believed that, in good faith of doing the best for me. After all, back then in the examination protocols for children as young as two years old [[phimosis ]] was diagnosed. At an age, where this condition is anatomically totally normal.
I remember the examinations of my [[foreskin]] as very unpleasant and painful, and I remember trying to resist them until pre-school age. After that, I believed my parents‘ explanations that it would be necessary and not cause any problems.
When my [[penis]] was still intact, which was up to almost 7 years of age, I myself never felt any need to pull back my tight [[foreskin]]. This was always just of special interest for the doctors. I never had any infections. Only the ballooning during urination was a bit unpleasant, which was also seen as an urgent indicator for an urgent [[Circumcision|foreskin amputation]]. What a ridiculous assessment! Today, being almost 40 years old, I stretch my way to a new [[foreskin]] with customary devices, and I gain almost half a centimetre a month. For an unhindered flow of urine, it would have taken just few more millimetres of preputial opening. How easily could I have been helped with the most simple methods of careful stretching, without sacrificing my otherwise unscarred and uninfected [[foreskin]].
Even though my parents openmindedly discussed my [[phimosis ]] with me (sometimes with others as well, which I always perceived as very embarrassing), they never really explained to me how a [[foreskin]] was supposed to function. My dad, who was still intact by that time, never showed me the [[foreskin]] on his [[penis]] and how my [[penis]] would look after the [[circumcision]]. I only remember my mother once mentioning that a single cut could be placed in the [[foreskin]], but that it would then "hang like rag", so cutting it off would be better, and that a lot of other boys had that, too. A therapy with creams was never tried on me, and people who claimed a [[phimosis ]] could be treated with stretching were ridiculed. The doctor who was acquainted with my parents, who eventually performed the operation when I was six years old and who had "examined" me several times before (meaning he tried to forcefully retract my [[foreskin]]) also wasn't man enough to demonstrate to me how a [[foreskin]] was to be retracted and, most importantly, what my [[penis]] would look like after the operation. I very vividly remember the moment when I first saw my [[penis]] afterwards, deeply shocked about the blood-red naked glans, but the doctor quickly said it had all gone perfectly and that I wouldn't need to be worried.
No one told me beforehand that my [[penis]] would be altered in appearance for ever and could never again be experienced in the intended way.
# My coming out publicly concerning my own experiences of [[circumcision]] in the wake of the debate about the recent full legalization of forced [[circumcision]] for any reason. The proponents have provoked and hurt me with their outrageous statements in such a way, that I could not abstain from publicly speaking out and getting involved.
Finally, I want to say that I am very glad to see that it seems to be most common these days to treat [[phimosis ]] first with creams, sparing more boys [[circumcision]] more often. Today, I would maybe have been spared as well ... in any case, my example shows that at primary school age, one is simply too young to grasp the late effects of such an irreversible intervention, and that even with sympathetic support by my parents, feelings of powerlessness and being at someone‘s mercy still persist.