{"id":3001,"date":"2019-10-31T12:02:43","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T19:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nebulous-oyster.flywheelsites.com\/?p=3001"},"modified":"2022-11-28T10:03:39","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T18:03:39","slug":"one-in-500-newborn-boys-experience-acute-complications-from-circumcision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jennifermargulis.net\/one-in-500-newborn-boys-experience-acute-complications-from-circumcision\/","title":{"rendered":"One in 500 Newborns Experience Acute Complications From Circumcision"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"One

One in every 500 boys will experience an acute complication due to circumcision. Is this a risk parents should take?<\/p><\/div>\n

“I didn’t really think that much about not circumcising my son,” a doctor friend admitted to me as we hiked through Lithia Park last weekend. “Didn’t research it … I just trusted my gut. It didn’t seem necessary, so we didn’t have it done.”<\/p>\n

When her son was born in a hospital in northern California she and her husband, who was circumcised as an infant, chose to leave his penis the way nature intended.<\/p>\n

They weren’t willing to risk that their son might have complications from circumcision.<\/p>\n

Besides, not operating on his penis right after birth just seemed like the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

“That’s not very doctorly of you,” I joked. “Trusting your mommy gut.”<\/p>\n

“I know, I know,” she laughed. “But remember it wasn’t so much part of the culture where he was born. Folks just weren’t doing it there, and they were discouraging parents from having it done.”<\/p>\n

Circumcision rates vary widely from state to state<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Boys in the Pacific Northwest are least likely to be circumcised. A friend whose husband was born in rural Eastern Oregon confided that he’s not circumcised though he was born at a time when the majority of boys in the United States were.<\/p>\n

Rugged pioneer stock, the mamas out in Eastern Oregon aren’t afraid to do things differently.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, boys in the southern states are much more likely to be circumcised.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I heard from a reader<\/a> last week that pediatricians in her home state of Alabama always react to her son’s intact penis with perplexity and sometimes even with horror.<\/p>\n

Alabama doctors so rarely see an uncut penis that they aren’t sure what to make of it.<\/p>\n

“You’d better get that fixed!” one doctor told her recently, suggesting she had been a negligent parent because she had not circumcised her son.<\/p>\n

Most American doctors have little experience with intact babies<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Doctors in America are usually circumcised or married to men who are circumcised.<\/p>\n

American doctors have little experience with normal, intact, healthy penises.<\/p>\n

They also are often ill informed about the risks of the procedure. They themselves may have experienced complications from circumcision that they are not even aware of.<\/p>\n

“What did they do to you?” a Scandinavian woman asked an American man while they were making love<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She was upset that part of his penis had been amputated.<\/p>\n

Taking off the foreskin deprives the penis of both length and width<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The foreskin protects the glans of the penis, keeping it moist and sensitive.<\/p>\n

A circumcised penis has a head that has hardened (“keratinized” is the medical word for this).<\/p>\n

Losing sensitivity is one of the many complications from circumcision men experience.<\/strong> This Scandinavian woman couldn’t believe it when her American lover told her that circumcision was considered normal in the United States.<\/p>\n

“I am against it,” a Jewish doctor who performs circumcision almost daily confided in me off the record. “I think it is totally unnecessary but I don’t think it’s dangerous or harmful.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A post on Facebook reads: Please pray for my grandson. He’s in the hospital. This newborn was circumcised and started bleeding from his penis. Acute complications, including hemorrhage and even death, happen in 1 of every 500 boys who are circumcised, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Though considered a routine operation,\u00a0complications from circumcision are more common than many parents realize.<\/p><\/div>\n

So it’s no wonder that Maggie Rhode, a mom from Memphis, Tennessee, thought she was bringing her 3-month-old son in for a safe operation in August.<\/p>\n

A botched operation<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Infant

Infant male circumcision can cause extreme pain and serious complications. Photo via Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

The circumcision at Christ Community Health Center, the doctors told her, would take only 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

Instead it lasted three hours.<\/p>\n

The doctors horribly\u00a0botched the circumcision<\/a>. Then they handed Maggie Rhode her son, who was screaming in pain, without telling her that anything had gone wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I went home and I discovered that my son\u2019s penis was not there, I immediately froze, like, oh my God,\u201d Rhode, who is speaking publicly about what happened to Baby Ashton, told My Fox Memphis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Baby Ashton went to the doctor with healthy genitalia. Now he has a partial penis.<\/p>\n

He urinates through a hole in his penis and screams in agony, his mom said.<\/p>\n

Complications from circumcision much more common than parents realize<\/strong><\/h2>\n

One in 500 boys will experience acute complications from circumcision, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics<\/a>, and that’s probably a conservative estimate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One in 500.<\/p>\n

How many unnecessary acute complications is too many?<\/p>\n

Will it ever be time to say enough is enough?<\/p>\n

When do we stop listening to the AAP<\/a> and start trusting our mommy gut?<\/p>\n

When do we decide as a culture that taking a sharp knife to a boy’s genitals within the first few days of his life without his consent and for no good medical reason is unacceptable? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Norway has been trying for years to introduce legislation to outlaw non-medical circumcision.<\/p>\n

Zimbabwe is reporting that the mass circumcision campaigns supposedly to curb HIV transmission (three scientifically faulty studies have shown that circumcision reduces the spread of HIV) are actually spreading HIV<\/strong> because circumcised men feel they’ve been “vaccinated” and now refuse to wear condoms.<\/p>\n

An infant in Sacramento, California, Brayden Tyler Frazier, died after complications from a circumcision in March 2013.<\/p>\n

The year before another infant died after contracting herpes from a Rabbi who sucked on his penis as part of a religious rite.<\/p>\n

My friend’s son’s penis has adhesions due to a botched circumcision<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The penile adhesions<\/a> irritate him and cause ongoing bleeding. Five years old, this little boy cries whenever he gets an erection.<\/p>\n

I found out a close family member also suffered a circumcision complication<\/a> that has embarrassed him his entire life.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“[C]omplications of circumcision do represent a significant percentage of cases seen by pediatric urologists,” reports this article<\/a> in the Scientific World Journal<\/em>. “Often they require surgical correction that results in a significant cost to the health care system.”<\/p>\n

There are at least 18 complications from circumcision, according to Stanford Medical School<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Circumcision complications include:<\/strong><\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. Bleeding<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Infection<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Adhesions and skin bridges<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Meatal stenosis<\/strong> (a narrowing of the urethral opening that can make it difficult for a boy to urinate)<\/li>\n
  5. Amputation of the head of the penis<\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Death<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I met a pregnant woman recently who knows she is having a boy.<\/p>\n

    This pregnant mom didn’t do her research with her oldest son so she circumcised him.<\/p>\n

    Then she felt deep regret<\/a> over\u00a0the choice she and her husband made.<\/p>\n

    But even so, she circumcised her second son. She felt it was the wrong choice but did it anyway, because she didn’t want him to look different from his brother.<\/p>\n

    Her third son is also circumcised!<\/p>\n

    And now she doesn’t want to circumcise this baby boy but, again, she feels she has no choice.<\/p>\n

    Really? When you know better<\/a>, can’t you do better? Instead of continuing to do something you know is wrong?<\/p>\n

    I really hope she changes her mind.\u00a0<\/strong>Her son will thank her when he’s older.<\/p>\n

    Find out more about circumcision in the chapter, “Foreskins for Sale,” in my book, Your Baby, Your Way<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Articles related to complications from circumcision:<\/strong>
    \n    One Mom’s Regret<\/a>
    \n    Keep America’s Baby Boys Intact<\/a>
    \n    How Much Baby Tylenol is Safe?<\/a><\/p>

    Published: November 13, 2013
    \nUpdated: November 28, 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “I didn’t really think that much about not circumcising my son,” a doctor friend admitted to me as we hiked through Lithia Park last weekend. “Didn’t research it … I just trusted my gut. It didn’t seem necessary, so we didn’t have it done.” When her son was born in a hospital in northern California […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[8275],"tags":[9081,289,466],"yoast_head":"\n1 in 500 Boys Experience Acute Complications From Circumcision<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One in 500 boys experience acute complications from circumcision, says the American Academy of Pediatrics. 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