I am a 20 year old man who has just realized the mutilation that has been done to me.

When I realized what I was ignorantly robbed of, it hit me like a brick and I cried for three days. I called my mom asking why I was circumcised. She was in disbelief why I would even wonder. Her defense was it’s much prettier, women hate foreskins (I’m gay, by the way), it gives them infections, and, “Well God commands it and God knows what he’s doing.” I am Christian, as well, but I see God much more caring and liberated. Needless to say, I am not speaking to my parents while I process my emotions. My dad’s typical response for subjects like this is, “It’s just the way to do things.”

Ever since I was seven I felt something was missing. Fortunately, I was one of few who was always able to pull the skin up over the head when flaccid and most of it (very tightly) when erect. I came into my mom’s and her boy friend’s bedroom and (more…)

I first found out about it when I was a kid at camp and didn’t like the idea that someone had cut off part of my body. Especially there. As I grew up, and learned more and more information through sex education, etc., it started to bother me more, to the point where by my late teens it would make me feel bad if I thought of it or if it ever came up. It always struck me as unfair, finding out the shabby reasons or being told it didn’t really matter much one way or the other. If it didn’t really matter either way, then why was it done to me? A lot of my friends weren’t cut. [Editor: Note how this young man has difficulty naming what was done to him.]

Physically, I haven’t known any different, but I suffered psychologically from the feelings that go with having a healthy part of my body cut off without my consent. I really feel violated by it. I also hate the fact that while discovering sexuality, like all guys do around puberty, involved me finding the scar and being bothered by the fact that I was cut. I don’t think discovering your own body should involve that kind of thing at all. A kid shouldn’t have to deal with that. It wasn’t done for any medical need but because my parents happened to think it was ‘cleaner’ or ‘healthier.’ I really don’t think I’d have had trouble having to spend an extra 5 seconds in the shower to clean it if it meant having my whole sex anatomy intact the way the male body is designed. I find it appalling that the medical community allows this to continue, whose body is it anyway? It still pisses me off to this day (more…)

I got circumcised when I was 18 because of various, stupid, and insecure reasons (got made fun of in school, etc), and not knowing at all the Hell I was getting myself into. Being young and naive, I did not look into the dark history or anything else about circumcision before I got it done. I did it strictly for the look, and of course the doctor did not tell me any of the consequences. I actually was told thatIi would have more sensation which I know now is the biggest lie in the world. After they did it I basically had no sensation or feeling at all in my penis. I knew something was completely not right but I thought if I just waited maybe things would change but it only got worse. I was in total denial for a while until one day reality hit me. And it hit me hard. When I called up the doctor to tell him how upset I was he said that it’s just me and that kind of thing does not happen. He cut me off and said he’s busy and not to call him again. Then he hung up on me. They never even charged me for having it done, which I didn’t understand at the time. I think he knew after I talked to him that he screwed up not telling me what the consequences were and they were hoping that I didn’t pursue legal action.

Sexually I went from a 10 to basically a zero and I did not really understand what was going on and had no idea what to do. I got into a deep dark depression and basically have been really depressed since then. I have gotten a little better and I am not so suicidal and self destructive anymore but it comes back to haunt me all the time. I have nightmares every once in a while. I just can’t believe people and doctors can completely ruin a person’s life like that and still get away with it. It does not make any sense at all.

I finally tried to sue but they said I waited too long. I wasted too much time locked up in my room being depressed and numb. If only I had known I could and looked into suing earlier. I joined the Pittsburgh chapter of National Organization of Restoring Men to get some kind of help. They assist men in non-surgical restoration of their foreskin. I’ve been restoring for 3 1/2 years, and have grown a lot of outer skin. I’m almost completely covered when flaccid. I started with t-tape and the pill tube method, and now using the Recap Inflatable and Recap Softy, which does a really good job at tugging. I have no increase in sensation, which is what I’m really worried about, and don’t know if I ever will. I’m just trying to be patient and to keep hoping that with time I will get something back. My brain still kinda remembers how unbelievably good it always felt being intact and how I so enjoyed it then, so that makes it even worse. I know it will never be like it was but any improvement of sensitivity is better than what it’s like now. This is definitely going to be a long journey and healing process.

I began restoring my foreskin at age 55 because masturbation and sex with my wife was becoming more and more difficult due to lack of sensitivity. I had no idea it was because I was circumcised at birth. I did an internet search on improving sensitivity and found so much information it was mind boggling. After some thought and discussion with my wife I decided to try to restore some of the damage that was done. I found that the reason for the loss of sensitivity was the keratonization* of the head due to the lack of protection that a foreskin provides. Years of rubbing against clothing and having to masturbate without a foreskin caused most of the damage.

The method I chose to use to restore was manual tugging and t-tape. I did have a bit of a head start because I was cut loosely. After 7 months of restoration I’m happy to report amazing progress. When flaccid the shaft skin covers about half the head which has caused the keratonization to disappear and leave me with a very shiny head when fully erect.

The sensitivity that has returned is overwhelming at times. To be very frank I never used to get any pre-cum due to lack of sensitivity. I wasn’t even aware of that phenomenon. When fully erect I am beginning to be able to learn how to use the shaft skin to stroke with during masturbation. I need to do this at this point because it is almost too sensitive to directly stoke the area with the hand like I used to. I plan on continuing this process although it probably will be more difficult to get such great results as I continue.

*(Ed: keratonization is a response by the skin to external influences resulting in skin hardening and the growth of additional layers of skin. Similar to callusing.)

As long as I can remember even as a child of 3-4 years-old, I always hated the feel of the glans of my penis rubbing against my briefs. I hated the discomfort in the winter with the cold making my glans almost feel like it was burning. I used to place my penis inside a sock during the winter if I wanted to go outside and play.

I remember when I was 10 years-old my parents sent me to a summer camp. The first day of camp, when we all went into the bathhouse to change into our swim trunks, I saw my first whole penis. He was one of the counselors and I was just taken back by the looks of it. Then I started to look around and noticed a few of the other boys my age (more…)

I was curcumcised when I was about three or four years old. It was done wihout an anesthetic and it hurt like bl**dy hell!!!!

I don’t remember most of the operation itself but I do remember the time immediately before and the some of the time after. Oh how it hurt!!!!!!!

Although I don’t have any problem with my parents getting me circumcised, I have great arguments with the way they had me done!

I’m actually pro-circ by definition but would think carefully about when and how (BUT NOT WHETHER!) I had my son circumcised. I would not want him to go through the pain I had!!! My God, it was awful!!!!!!!!!!!

In my suburban Chicago late 70’s/early 80’s upbringing, it was the norm. Everyone was circumcised.

My mom explained it to me when I was a pre-teen—in graphic detail. When I say graphic, I mean she took my penis and pulled the shaft skin up, covering the glans, and then showed me where it was cut. She also told me how afterwards, the skin often “got stuck like glue” to the glans and my pediatrician had to force the skin back to break the adhesions. My mom told me that she continued to pull it back until I was bathing myself.

It didn’t bother me much until I had my first real girlfriend and my first sexual encounter. When it was over, she asked if (more…)

In order to make sense of my feelings on the issue of circumcision, I wrote this history which
helps me to understand how my thoughts developed.

3–6 years old:
My earliest clear memories (3–4 years old) is the recollection of sneaking around the locker room every chance I could to try to see as many penises as possible. I was always very pleased when I saw someone with foreskin, but it was ALWAYS on an “old man”, NEVER on another kid. My logic told me that for some reason, I also had an old man’s penis. I knew I was a kid and wanted to look like the other kids including my two older brothers. My father was intact (I only saw him a few times in my life), but I NEVER wanted to look like him. Eventually I realized that some “old men” were circumcised and some were not. I was then more confused about the different types of penises, but figured that all old men would look intact—the process just took more time with some people than with others. I can’t say that I recall thinking that there was something drastically wrong with me, but simply that I had an old man’s penis (though, without pubic hair, etc.).

Having watched my nieces and nephews trying to sneak around when they were little (there is nothing subtle about it), I now understand why people sometimes seemed to give me strange looks and cover themselves as I was trying so hard to “innocently” look (more…)

I was born at Community Memorial Hospital in Sidney, Montana. At that time it was rare for anyone to escape the knife, although I know a few who did. It was probably considered medical malfeasance at the time if they missed you somehow. The majority of boys in the U.S. are still cut, but the rate is getting down a lot closer to half nationwide, though it’s much higher in some states and much lower in others. It’s like the luck of the draw anymore, rather than a done deal, although the chance of growing up with the dick you were born with is still poor.

Having been cut twice, I feel I am qualified to write on this topic. I remember about the time of puberty, around 12 years of age or so, how uncomfortable (more…)

Like most Americans, I had no clue what circumcision was, exactly. As a child, I was told that it was simply something that boys had done. Instinctually, I knew it was wrong since it made no sense that every single male would be born defective. While at college in the late 1990s, I was browsing the web and came upon the topic. It was a crudely drawn diagram of normal male anatomy and the subsequent removal of the foreskin. It struck me as very creepy and primitive.

A few years later, I got married and soon was expecting my first child; a boy. Prior to finding out the gender of our child, I revisited the circumcision topic. I read all of the alarmist literature on the subject; doctors and parents talking about how circumcision prevents UTIs, penile cancer, cervical cancer, and all sorts of random infections. It struck me as fearmongering. I found out that no organization in the world recommends routine circumcision and haven’t in a long time, with the single exception of when circumcision advocate Edgar Schoen led the AAP circumcision task force. I found out that infant circumcision for is almost unheard of in most of the world and is seen as a religious ritual, not a medical procedure.

Later, I learned that my inital impression of fearmongering was correct. (more…)