Sans titre

If you are circumcised at birth, there is no way to know the difference and sitting around ‘thinking’ what you are missing out on is just pointless. Likewise, an uncircumcised man saying that he is better off than his counterpart is really just wishful thinking. Is he? He’ll never know. Without sounding sexist, women who offer their opinions on what is better for a man’s part is like a man trying to tell a woman what’s best for hers. What’s more pleasurable for her is one thing, what’s better for him is a whole other.

I was circumcised at 25, my choice. Do I wish it was done at birth? Yes. Why wasn’t I? For all the same reasons most boys *are*, to look like their fathers. How many times did I see my father naked? Not enough for me not to be done, I saw far more of my friend’s naked and they all were.

So what were MY experiences? You’d think having it done at 25 I would have a pretty firm grounding on before and after…

Problems with foreskins? Oh yes. Growing up in a society where most of my age group were circumcised, one notices those who weren’t. Also in that young and ’ sexually exploring phase’, I also saw a fair mix. Of all those that I saw that weren’t circumcised, over 60% had serious cases of Phismosis (where the foreskin can not be retracted) that needed to be surgically corrected in some way. Also, my father at about 40 developed serious and very painful infections due to his foreskin, despite us being a hygienic family. I myself developed sores/small ulcers from intercourse where the movement of the foreskin tore the inner skin and the trapped fluids caused minor infections. Having a foreskin is more work and can be problematic.

What do women prefer? I had numerous partners while with and without. In all honesty, not one really cared either way. My partners came from Australia, America, France, England and South Africa and South America, so we have a very broad spectrum. The American girl FWIW did not care, for those of you in the US. Of all the girls, some climaxed like crazy and some didn’t, with and without so there is little or no correlation there. On oral, most girls did, foreskin or not and that all came back to do it again shows that they didn’t really care. In conversations what did they say? The American girl said that she thought a circumcised penis looked more aesthetically pleasing, though liked my foreskin; the South American girl did not like a circumcised penis and an Australian, now my wife, really only likes a circumcised penis, though admittedly has had no 'hands on’ experience with an uncircumcised one (funny enough, though being circumcised when I met her, she did not do oral for over a year - showing for her in anyway foreskin or not had nothing to do with it). In all we have a pretty broad spectrum of opinions which tell, me in anyway, that if a woman is well adjusted the status of your penis does not really matter nor poses any sort of sexual problem.

- For some women, circumcised does make a difference. When I had a foreskin I was seeing a French girl who had zero issues with my skin, probably as it was what she was used to. One day, during intercourse, we pulled my foreskin back (for the hell of it) and held it there. She said, within the first few movements, 'oh that feels really good’. From that point on, she always reached down on her own accord and pulled the skin back when we were having sex. That sort of says something, though I agree it probably is not this way for all women.

What do I prefer? 25 years with a foreskin, 10 years without. I hands down prefer being circumcised. Here’s why:

- No matter how often you wash when you have a foreskin, your penis develops a smell.; whether or not that smell is unpleasant depends on who you are. Smegma does build up if you do not wash every day and it does smell and smell unpleasant. Sorry, that’s the truth and sexual encounters, intercourse, oral or hand, can more spontaneous if you are not worried about whether your penis is going to smell or be slimy.

- Depending on the length of your foreskin (some are long, some are short, some are tight some are loose), sex with a condom is unpleasant and messy. The condom does not sit in place and with the glans (head of the penis) wanting to move in and out of the foreskin, the condom becomes very loose and stretched out. Not only that, but the condom also prevents the natural movement of the glans through the foreskin, so sex can be less than spectacular, more akin to wearing a rubber boot. The only way to do it is to retract the foreskin, apply the condom and hope for the best.

- Things get trapped under the foreskin. Form pubic hair and urine to body fluids during intercourse, they all get trapped under the foreskin. Trapped pubes are painful, trapped fluids, especially the next morning, are just gross. Waking up to spontaneous morning oral or sex is less than common when there is a unpleasant paste from the previous evening under the foreskin. Trapped urine is smelly! A circumcised penis is cleaner and easier to deal with.

- Sex is better. Yes, very selfish but sex with no foreskin, despite what all the anti circ lobby try to tell you, IS better for the man. This is not my imagined state of mind, it’s fact. A doctor during a check up once asked what I thought and when I said it was better, he said that that was interesting because every man he encountered, circumcised in latter life, all said the same thing. But bare with me on this one, as I have to explain why it’s better, based on lots of research, talking to doctors and having played extensively with my own penis before and after =):

The anti circ lobby digs up some pretty fanciful evidence about the foreskin, though I wonder how many of them actually have one? The foreskin has two sides, the inner and the outer. The outer is just like skin on the rest of your body, no more sensitive, no less. The inner IS more sensitive but only in a sexually aroused situation (which is why many men like having the area behind the head rubbed or stimulated during sex play) but only part of it and it is far from being packed with millions of mind blowing sexually specific nerve endings (there are also NO rigid bands as one older study claimed; can you imagine, a rigid band would prevent any sort of erection!!). The amount of the sensitive skin is also dependent and the length of the foreskin, a longer one will have more and shorter one will have less. In a circumcision, the 'proper way’ to do it is to leave as much inner skin as possible, while removing the outer. This method, called sleeve reduction, sees the inner skin pulled back and joined to a reduced outer, resulting visually in either a colour change on the shaft of the penis or a slight scar line. The further towards the body the scar line the more inner skin that was left. A skilled surgeon will strike a balance of inner and outer, preventing the circumcised penis’ skin from being too tight.

Where some of this hoo-har about loss of sensitivity comes from would be from men, circumcised later in life, who’s surgeon removed all the inner skin and placed the scar as close as possible to the glans (head of the penis); either because the surgeon prefers to hide the scar, or the patient does not want to see one. In this case I fully agree, that yes, there will be reduced sexual sensitivity. The inner skin is an important part of the sexual function of the penis. To me, this sort of circumcision should be banned though I do feel it is the responsibility of parents to ask, and doctors to explain, just how a penis works and how a circumcision should be performed.

So what you have, in a good circumcision, is the sexually sensitive inner skin being exposed all the time. Where before this skin would only be exposed for a short period of time in intercourse, rubbing mostly against the head of the penis, it now has full contact with the walls of the vagina. In every way possible this is a huge improvement and for more pleasurable as the stimuilation is firm and direct. I personally have found no real difference in 'lasting power’, something I feel is more linked to the brain and self control and in 10 years, my sensitivity has not decreased one bit. Where sex was ok, it is now fantastic, with every part of my partner’s vagina able to be felt during intercourse as well as oral and hand jobs being far more intense and varied.

For the guys out there with a circumcision that fits the above description and feel that they are missing out on something, sorry, you’re not. That’s as good as it gets! The rest is in your head.

So there is my view. We are about to have a son and despite it now being the unpopular choice, we have decided that we are going to have him circumcised. Not to look like me, as I know that is the lamest excuse to do anything, but because from all the reading I have done and through my own personal experience, I know that there are benefits to circumcision.