The Gomco circumcision device is one of the most barbaric inventions ever created. It was used on my second son at his bris. He shrieked and writhed for the full 20 minutes as if he were being slaughtered, while the mohel smiled and kept saying, “Just another minute.” I knew I had betrayed my beautiful baby. Something in me died that day; something in him, as well. I lost my milk. His sleeping and eating patterns were totally disrupted for 11 months. This was nearly 26 years ago and I still cry whenever I think of it, which is too often. It was easily the worst day of my life. What will it take before people can see babies and humans and understand that the foreskin and male genitalia are sacred?!!!

Long ago I decided that circumcision was wrong and definitely not what I would have chosen for myself if given the chance. I’ve tried restoring my foreskin for periods of 9 to 15 months over the past 18 years. Overall, I’ve spent more than 4 years in traction. And that’s quite enough.

But you never know, I could end up deciding I want to keep trying. Why? Because the result has been stretchier skin, but little new skin growth. And frankly it still looks every bit as cut as it always did. The unfortunate thing is that when I have stretched a while the greater color difference between the inner foreskin and outer or shaft skin makes the scar line more apparent.

Sensation? I have noticed, like a lot of men, a slow progressive loss in sensation over the years. When I have been stretching a while or keeping the skin pulled down in one way or another, I get much stronger orgasms and more powerful and longer lasting erections. At this point, I’m really not interested in wearing devices anymore. What I have found works for me is wearing tight briefs that holds it all in place. In this way, I stay covered, but I don’t have to deal with the hassle. And more importantly, I can enjoy some of the benefits of restoration even though my body has so far refused to grow skin.

I would definitely recommend that people restore. The benefits are great for those who succeed. I would only caution people not to feel down if their body won’t do its part. Everybody can get some benefit even if it doesn’t turn out as you expected or hoped when you started.

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…)

Hi, my name is Tom and I’m from Michigan. Here’s my story and where I’m at now.

I always thought being circumcised was “normal.” As normal and necessary as cutting the umbilical cord on a newborn baby. As a teen, I remember often getting in an argument with a friend who was originally born in Germany about how the uncircumcised penis needed to be cut, because there was “too much” skin, and it was ugly and didnt look like a “real” penis. When I say often, I mean just about every time we’d be out hiking in the forest or were a little far from home and had a piss. I guess comparing penises is something kids do.

Anyways, I always thought I had the most perfect penis that anyone could possibly have. It never came across to me that the reason I always had to wear one-size-too-small briefs was to keep it from rubbing and causing a terrible pain or sensation with nearly every move I made. I always thought it was “normal” to have to experiance that terrible pain when I moved certain ways, or every time I got up or sat down. When I was 17 I decided that (more…)

I wish I would have read something like these stories in time; my two boys have been cut and I regret it with every ounce of my being. My pediatricians never told me of any of the risks, nor the fact that circumcision is medically unnecessary, they never even asked us why we wanted them circumcised. I found out later about dangers and complications from circumcision, and both my boys have had to endure problems from their circumcisions. This surgery has been traumatic, physically and emotionally, for our whole family.

With our first born, E, I am ashamed to say that we hardly discussed it beyond answering the hospital staff’s question of when, and signing the consent form. It was just a given that E would be circumcised because his dad was circumcised. At that point, I had never seen an uncircumcised penis, not even E’s. I never changed his diapers in the hospital. Today I regret that. I should have changed his diapers and seen what he looked like naturally. I feel like even more of an idiot when (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…)

Many years ago, I witnessed an infant circumcision in person at the invitation of a mutilator. He invited me to attend, to prove to me that there is nothing wrong with mutilating babies. He also decided and told me that he would not do a complete circumcision, just a little dorsal slit, to minimize trauma, damage, injury, and blood loss. “I will cut on the center line. There are no blood vessels there.” (Right.)

I decided to go. White mutilator, black baby, southern USA, 1972 or so. With the first probe under the foreskin the baby screams a blood curdling scream and keeps screaming. With the crushing of the center line of the top of the foreskin with the hemostat the baby’s screaming and thrashing ratchet WAY up (he was restrained by tie-downs, put in place in preparation for this human hurricane they already knew from long experience was coming) and when the clamp comes off and the dorsal cut is made the baby begins to vomit—projectile vomiting—the most violent vomiting I have ever witnessed from any human being. Blood from the baby’s penis spurts everywhere. The vomiting interrupts the screaming and the screaming interrupts the vomiting. The mutilator takes out his sewing kit and (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…)