A look into Circumcision
Every mammal has a foreskin- male and female.
Male foreskin is the same as a female clitoral hood〰️ generally called a prepuce. The prepuce is a sheath of skin that covers the clitoral glans, or the entire clitoris, and in men the prepuce/foreskin covers the glans penis. Both are estimated to have about 8,000 sensory nerve endings
What is Circumcision
Circumcision is a surgical procedure that involves forcefully separating the foreskin from the glans and then cutting it off. It is typically accomplished with a special clamp device. Over a dozen studies (studies below) confirm the extreme pain of circumcision. It has been described as “among the most painful procedures performed in neonatal medicine.” In one study, researchers concluded that the pain was “severe and persistent.” Increases in heart rate of 55 beats per minute have been recorded, about a 50 percent increase over the baseline. After circumcision, the level of blood cortisol increased by a factor 3 to 4 times the level prior to circumcision. Investigators reported, “This level of pain would not be tolerated by older patients.”
The foreskin is the most sensitive part of a male’s body – other than the head of the penis itself – with more nerve endings per square inch than any other body part. Circumcision has been likened to having a sharp metal instrument jammed under one’s finger nail, down to the base, and shoved around, back and forth, until the entire nail is separated from the nail bed, and then sliced off.
Why is it done?
Certain groups within Muslim & Jewish communities practice circumcision. Typically the Jewish community will do this on the 8th day of life, and Muslim community between age 4-7. Everyone else either has the belief it’s for better hygiene, “protection” from STD’s, parents think foreskin looks “weird”, I’ve even had male clients tell me they want their son to “look like them”. So apart from the tradition of religious groups (a subject I will not touch here), everyone else is inflicting this procedure on infant males based on vaniety, misguided assumptions about health, or they are simply participating in the system of conveyor belt newborn procedures offered by the medical industrial complex.
Some people say, my baby didn’t even cry, he was “so good”. It’s called “shock”, or freezing which is an automatic, involuntary response to a threat. In a split second, the brain decides that freezing (rather than fighting or running away) is the best way to survive what's happening.
Pain relief
Prior to the mid-1980s, anesthesia was not used because infant pain was denied by the medical community. That belief has changed among many physicians, but an anesthetic still is not always administered due to a lack of familiarity with its use, as well as the belief that it introduces additional risk to the baby. Interesting that while the baby is in the womb they have very little concern for administering opiates during the birth.
There is initial crying – from being restrained and/or injected with anesthesia – suddenly stops when the mutilation begins. Their eyes bulge and then their bodies go stiff. They remain silent and still through the rest of the surgery and appear to the parents to be sleeping when it is over. Sometimes they’re told, “he slept right through it.” This does not mean they are not in pain. It means they are in shock and their bodies have gone into a semi-coma to cope with the overwhelming agony. Total silence likely indicates a baby is experiencing more traumatic stress than a screaming baby.
Behavioral response in babies following circumcision
Various studies investigated the effect of circumcision on infant behavior. Some studies found differences in sleep patterns and more irritability among circumcised infants. (17) In addition, changes in infant-maternal interaction were observed during the first twenty-four hours after circumcision. (18) For example, desire to feed & latch been shown to deteriorate after circumcision.
The Lancet believes that “neonatal circumcision may induce long-lasting changes in infant pain behavior because of alterations in the infant’s central neural processing of painful stimuli.”
I have personally seen male infants unable to breastfeed from the painful after effects. This can lead to elevated stress in the parents which can decrease breastmilk supply and ultimately result in unwanted weight-loss for the baby, sleepless nights, constant crying “colic” and formula supplementation. After circumcision babies are in a moist diaper all day and that is putting pressure and rubbing on the site where the foreskin was removed. It’s not that they don’t want to eat, or aren’t hungry, they are simply in A LOT of pain. I have also seen babies develop infections after circumcision and are then put on antibiotics. Are you starting to see that this unnecessary commonplace procedure can change the course of a child’s emotional and physical health profile? There is a lot of research to be done on the psycho-spiritual effects of this procedure but it most likely won’t happen because where there is profit to be made studies that may disrupt that profit wont be funded.
What about when it’s medically necessary?
In 1949, British physician Dr. Douglas Gairdner explored the “fate of the foreskin” in an oft-cited paper in which he noted that some of the health problems prompting adult men to seek circumcision, including phimosis (trouble retracting foreskin) and balanitis (inflammation of the glans), do not apply to infants (BMJ 1949;2:1433–7). In some rare cases an infant will experience phimosis and will not be able to release urine- this is where a compassionate circumcision is considered necessary.
What about “disease”?
I’ll humor the germ theory perceptions for now. Many people tout that removing foreskin prevents STDs, however there is still no consensus on exactly how the foreskin promotes the transmission of HIV for example. This wide spread idea only ever states that “circumcision might prevent the spread”. Even according to the Lancet, there is no conclusive evidence, only guesswork.
People believe this will prevent yeast infections- however yeast populates within the gut and has nothing to do with “dirty genitals” or “foreskin”. The build-up of smegma underneath the foreskin is due to a lack of proper hygiene which a parent should educate their child on. Similarly fungal build up is not a result of foreskin, this again originates in the gut. What this tells us is that our population is grossly misinformed when it comes to understanding how bacteria works in our bodies, and how easily parents will participate in unnecessary surgical procedures based on hearsay.
What is taken away from the male?
When a baby is formed in the womb, it is physically and emotionally in the safest place they will ever know. Their mother is the ultimate protector from danger and pain. When he is born the adjustment of being out of the womb is precarious and delicate. Extra care & attention is taken to ease the Transition for the baby ensuring they are safe and protected by mother. Skin to skin, co-sleeping & breastfeeding, very few moments of being physically separated from the mom. Building this trust is key from infancy through the first 7 years at which point the child begins their gentle individuation process.
When they experience genital mutilation after birth or at any point they are feeling extreme pain in a part of their body that should only ever feel pleasure. Could this be where violence toward women, lack of trust in women, using genitalia for violence reverberates from?
Sensitivity or lack there of in adult men
There is an area called the “ridged band,” the wrinkly skin at the end of the foreskin, it is loaded with nerve endings that are stimulated by motion during intercourse or masturbation. If a man is circumcised as an infant, says Dr. Denniston, he has been robbed of sensitivity without his consent.
“The ridged band is important for sexual joy. No one has a right to take that away from someone” - Dr. George Denniston
The foreskin also protects a man’s female sexual partners, says Dr. Denniston. First, an intact penis glides in the foreskin during intercourse, reducing friction. Second, the exposed glans of a circumcised penis becomes coarser over time, a process known as keratinization, and is more abrasive to the internal mucous membrane of the vagina. “You take the foreskin away and let the glans callus and you end up irritating the hell out of the vaginal mucosa… Everyone in the US uses lubricants because the basic function of sexual intercourse has been disrupted.”
This is a profound subject to research, but it’s simple to understand. Circumcision is genital mutilation and very rarely is it medically necessary to save a life. I have shared a wealth of resources and articles below for you to do your own research before making a decision that could alter the life of your child forever. Build compassion for yourself if you have already done this to your child. You can make the difference by educating yourself and others, including your own children.
Warmly,
Eyla Cuenca
Related Articles
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3122584/
https://circumcision.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevalence_of_circumcision
Resources
Gunnar, M. et al., “Adrenocortical Activity and Behavioral Distress in Human Newborns,” Developmental Psychobiology 21 (1988): 297-310; Malone, S., Gunnar, M., & Fisch, R., “Adrenocortical and Behavioral Responses to Limb Restraint in Human Neonates,” Developmental Psychobiology 18 (1985): 435-46.
Ryan, C. & Finer, N., “Changing Attitudes and Practices Regarding Local Analgesia for Newborn Circumcision,” Pediatrics 94 (1994): 232.
Howard, C., Howard, F., & Weitzman, M., “Acetaminophen Analgesis in Neonatal Circumcision: The Effect on Pain,” Pediatrics93 (1994): 645.
Benini, F. et al., “Topical Anesthesia during Circumcision in Newborn Infants,” Journal of the American Medical Association 270 (1993): 850-3.
Gunnar, M. et al., “Coping with Aversive Stimulation in the Neonatal Period: Quiet Sleep and Plasma Cortisol Levels during Recovery from Circumcision,” Child Development 56 (1985): 824-34.
Williamson, P. & Williamson, M., “Physiologic Stress Reduction by a Local Anesthetic during Newborn Circumcision,” Pediatrics 71 (1983): 40.
Stang, H. et al., “Local Anesthesia for Neonatal Circumcision,” Journal of the American Medical Association 259 (1988): 1510.
Porter, F., Miller, R., & Marshall, R., “Neonatal Pain Cries: Effect of Circumcision on Acoustic Features and Perceived Urgency,” Child Development 57 (1986): 790.
Zeskind, P., & Marshall, T., “The Relation between Variations in Pitch and Maternal Perceptions of Infant Crying,” Child Development 59 (1988): 193-6.
Connelly, K., Shropshire, L., & Salzberg, A., “Gastric Rupture Associated with Prolonged Crying in a Newborn Undergoing Circumcision,” Clinical Pediatrics 31 (1992): 560-1.
Gunnar, M., Fisch, R., & Malone, S., “The Effects of a Pacifying Stimulus on Behavioral and Adrenocortical Responses to Circumcision in the Newborn,” Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry 23 (1984): 34-8.
Milos, M., “Infant Circumcision: ‘What I Wish I Had Known,’” The Truth Seeker (July/August 1989): 3.
Ryan & Finer, “Changing Attitudes and Practices,” 230-3; Boschert, S., “Majority of Circumcisions are Performed Without Analgesia,” Family Practice News 34 (2004): 63.
Stang et al., “Local Anesthesia for Neonatal Circumcision,” 1507-11; Brady-Fryer, B., Wiebe, N., Lander, J., “Pain Relief for Neonatal Circumcision,” Cochrane Database Syst Rev.Oct 18;(4) (2004): CD004217; Garry, D. et al., “A Video Study of Pain Relief During Newborn Male Circumcision,” Journal of Perinatology 26 (2006):106-10.
Rabinowitz, R. & Hulbert, W., “Newborn Circumcision Should Not Be Performed without Anesthesia,” Birth 22 (1995): 45-6.
Schechter, N., “The Undertreatment of Pain in Children: An Overview,” Pediatric Clinics of North America 36 (1989): 781-94.
Paige, K., “The Ritual of Circumcision,” Human Nature (May 1978): 42; Anders, T. & Chalemian, R., “The Effects of Circumcision on Sleep-Wake States in Human Neonates,”Psychosomatic Medicine 36 (1974): 174-9; Brackbill, Y., “Continuous Stimulation and Arousal Level in Infancy: Effects of Stimulus Intensity and Stress,” Child Development 46 (1975): 364-9.
Marshall, R. et al., “Circumcision: II. Effects upon Mother-Infant Interaction,” Early Human Development 7 (1982): 367-74.
Howard, C., Howard, F., & Weitzman, M., “Acetaminophen Analgesis in Neonatal Circumcision: The Effect on Pain,” Pediatrics93 (1994): 641-6.
Dixon, S. et al., “Behavioral Effects of Circumcision with and without Anesthesia,”Journal of Development and Behavioral Pediatrics 5 (1984): 246-50.
American Academy of Pediatrics, “Report of the Task Force on Circumcision,” Pediatrics 84 (1989): 388-91.
Richards, M., Bernal, J., & Brackbill, Y., “Early Behavioral Differences: Gender or Circumcision?” Developmental Psychobiology9 (1976): 89-95.
Marshall, R. et al., “Circumcision: I. Effects upon Newborn Behavior,” Infant Behavior and Development 3 (1980): 1-14.
Telephone conversation with CRC office, 1994.
Anand, K. & Hickey, P., “Pain and Its Effects in the Human Neonate and Fetus,” New England Journal of Medicine 317 (1987): 1325.
Taddio, A. et al., “Effect of Neonatal Circumcision on Pain Response during Subsequent Routine Vaccination,” The Lancet 349 (1997): 599-603.