LA Times Readers Comment: Concern and regret over circumcision

Reading the "Fine-Touch Pressure Thresholds in the Adult Penis" report, seeing it all there in black and white, I am so infuriated and filled with grief at the same time, I just shut down. It is utterly beyond me how this assininity got started-- that people could so haphazardly do such things to their sons, and then stand to defend it in the name of whatever, take your pick-- traditional family practice, religion, amorphously defined medical "reasons", whatever, it makes no difference. And to see it has gone on for 1,000s of years all over the world. I suppose though it took a long time for human sacrifice to end, too. So why should the collective stupidity of humanity be any surprise in this context?

I never felt like I got the kind of sensory feedback/stimulation during sex or masturbation that I "ought" to be getting. Intuitively I have always known something was missing. To this day, too often I have little or no definite sensate feeling during intercourse except in that the basic circumstances of intercourse bring me to climax, but not because of a great deal of buildup or pleasure on the way there; on these occasions, which is 99.9% of them, the only pleasure is when I ejaculate, which is also a let-down in the sense that it isn't quite fulfilling. Meanwhile, the typical sex partner I have had in life has seemed to enjoy the buildup whether it led to what she would call an orgasm or not, seeming to get a great deal of pleasure just out of the act itself. Gee, now I know why. She is having 4 times the fun I am!

Basically, we circumcised men have been robbed of something very basic and fundamental to our humanity. It has affected us no doubt is ways we can't even begin to catalog-- though we should try.

I am actually afraid of my own anger and grief around this issue. I am afraid if I let it out, I have no idea just what it will look like or even if it will be safe for me or others to see it or be around it. So I keep it inside, and when it arises, I shut down. But there it is. It's there. And unlikely to go away any time soon, with or without a catharsis. So I have to stop writing about it now, it's just too much to keep focus on.

I have to assume that when they say "four times as sensitive", they mean with the foreskin pulled back. But, is it always pulled back while inserted in the woman's vagina? It seems that on the withdrawal stroke it might not always be. On the other hand, the sensation to the man may be increased by the foreskin itself rubbing back and forth over the penis. (I've been circumsized myself, thus don't have the answer to this).

-ax

The inner foreskin is itself the most sensitive part of the penis. It's not just there to protect the glans (or "head"). Plenty of circumcised men have great sex lives though, so if it's already been done to you, don't worry about it too much. It's a really bad idea to keep doing it though, and it is hugely sexist that even making an incision on a girl's genitals without removing any tissue is a crime, but boys do not get the same protection.

Look at it this way. If you leave a baby boy intact, and he wants to be circumcised, he can go get it done (it hurts less if you wait, it's safer, and the results are cosmetically better). If you circumcise a boy, and he wants to be intact, you've got a problem.

If my son wants to be circumcised when he's 18, I'll pay for it, and help him find the best surgeon around. Until then, it's *his* body (not mine), and no-one's going near his genitals with a scalpel.

thanks for the info. I guess I can go cry in a corner now. (just kidding!)
-ax

I am cut but not as radically as it's done in the US, so I know (sort of) what being intact must feel like.
And it's a huge difference. Orgasms from the glans alone are "flat" and relatively unsatisfying, there is also no "buildup" as you said. The additional feeling from the foreskin makes you want to explode.

As far as I know, women get same feeling from their vaginal canal and inner labiae. I think this is an easy explanation that shows what's wrong with this kind of mutilation. I'm wondering why doctors aren't looking into this.

Anyway, I know it's hard to take at first - but don't sob, don't rage, stay calm and think about how to spread the word.

Cause no one gives a shit about men's health and lives. You've been on this board for a while, you should know that. If any doctors have, they've long ago been ostracized and tranferred to practice in Siberia.
-ax

..even doctors who are publically speaking out against MGM never came up with that kind of research. But maybe the support they would receive for that is too low resp. the hostility too drastic..