A few months ago I broke my nail clean in half from side to side, it was seriously the worst pain I have ever experienced. It's pretty similar to circumcision because the nail is as fused to the nail bed as the foreskin to the glans. I'm still in a lot of pain with it, I can't do a lot and it's my right hand! I got an acrylic put on last week to protect it.
Go to the doctor and ask them to pull your nail off with a local anaesthetic and see how much pain you're in. You could try asking for him to remove your foreskin if you really think it doesnt hurt.
BTW, it is illegal in both the USA and the UK, it only takes one person to call on those laws...
1 Many older men, who have bladder or prostate gland problems, also develop difficulties with their foreskins due to their surgeon's handling, cleaning, and using instruments. Some of these patients will need circumcising. Afterwards it is often astonishing to find some who have never ever seen their glans (knob) exposed before!
Have these men never had an erection??? It's exposed when they get an erection and when they have sex.
"Man-Nurse" says this:
"I can personally attest to this now, because I worked for six years as a certified nurse aide prior to becoming an RN. I worked with countless intact men, mostly European immigrants in Chicago: Poles, Serbs, Lithuanians, etc. Younger men and older men. Men who could walk to the bathroom, and men who constantly soiled themselves. Men who had indwelling Foley catheters and men who didn't. Men who were impeccably clean, and men who were homeless. Men who were healthy, and men who were critically ill and severely immunocompromised.
Never once did I encounter an adult male patient who had ever had a medical problem due to being intact.
Not only that, but during the cleaning of patients, I only ever worked with two nurses (that I remember) who would actually go through the rigmarole of retracting the foreskin, cleaning the glans, and replacing the foreskin. That's what we were taught in CNA and nursing school, but almost everyone would leave it alone. I suspect most people who work with a high intact population do the same. If it never presents a problem, it's always clean, and you're just causing discomfort, why do it?
In fact, female patients are far more prone to fungal and bacterial genitourinary infections than male patients are?yeast infections, urinary tract infections, abscesses, etc. And we know that this is largely due not only to their shorter urethra, but also to their labial folds?their "excess" skin. Why don't we cut that off? Why isn't female circumcision considered for infection prophylaxis? That's how we think of male circumcision. Except the reality is that, as with male patients, the 'benefit' of circumcision would be negligible, because the number of serious complications with women staying 'uncircumcised' is extremely minor."
2 Some older men develop cancer of the penis - about 1 in 1000 - fairly rare, but tragic if you or your son are in that small statistic. Infant circumcision gives almost 100% protection, and young adult circumcision also gives a large degree of protection.
Penile cancer accounts of 0.2% of cancer and 0.1% of cancer deaths in the USA, in countries that don't have RIC the rate of penile cancer is the same. Breast cancer on the other hand causes about 10% of all cancers and 7% of cancer deaths, who's up for a mastectomy of their little girls?
3 Cancer of the cervix in women is due to the Human Papilloma Virus. It thrives under and on the foreskin from where it can be transmitted during intercourse. An article in the British Medical Journal in April 2002 suggested that at least 20% of cancer of the cervix would be avoided if all men were circumcised. Surely that alone makes it worth doing?
Cervical cancer causes 2% of all cancers. HPV can be prevented by teaching our children about safe sex and condom use. Also the earlier you have sex the higher your likelihood of cervical cancer so teaching our children to wait can also help.
4 Protection against HIV and AIDS. Another British Medical Journal article in May 2000 suggested that circumcised men are 8 times less likely to contract the HIV virus. (It is very important here to say that the risk is still far too high and that condoms and safe sex must be used - this applies also to preventing cancer of the cervix in women who have several partners.)
A BBC television programme in November 2000 showed two Ugandan tribes across the valley from one another. One practised circumcision and had very little AIDS, whereas, it was common in the other tribe, who then also started circumcising. This programme showed how the infection thrived in the lining of the foreskin, making it much easier to pass on.
Do you not have anything more recent?
Anyway, the African study was halted early because too many of the men contracted HIV. It was also a highly flawed study. For example the men who were circumcised were given sex education and condoms, the men who weren't were not given anything.
5 As with HIV, so some protection exists against other sexually transmitted infections. Accordingly, if a condom splits or comes off, there is some protection for the couple. However, the only safe sex is to stick to one partner or abstain.
It doesn't protect against HIV as I've already said. Here's an article that explains it better than I can.
6 Lots of men, and their partners, prefer the appearance of their penis after circumcision, It is odour-free, it feels cleaner, and they enjoy better sex. Awareness of a good body image is a very important factor in building self confidence.
I take it you're in the USA? Most British are horrified at RIC, read the two threads at the moment! Men who are whole are not necessarily dirty or smelly and I've known circumcised men who are both. We should be teaching our children, boys and girls, how to clean themselves when they bathe. Who are we to make decisions for our newborn's sex life? You are assuming that he is going to meet some very shallow women and you are not teaching him self confidence, you're teaching him that something was wrong with his body and he should only go for women who are shallow. Wow. Good message.
7 Balanitis is an unpleasant, often recurring, inflammation of the glans. It is quite common and can be prevented by circumcision.
Balanitis is caused by poor hygiene (so teach your son to wash himself); infection (not STD, just like we women get thrush) which can be treated easily with cream; STDs (so teach your son about safe sex); allergies and irritants (caused by forcibly retracting the foreskin and/or using soaps or other scented products under the foreskin). In other words it's easily prevented and easily treated.
8 Urinary tract infections sometimes occur in babies and can be quite serious. Circumcision in infancy makes it 10 times less likely.
A UTI can easily be treated with ABx, it only gets serious when ignored. 5% of babies who have a high temperature but no other symptoms of illness probably have a UTI. UTIs are more common in girls (1 in 10 will get one before they're 16) than boys (1 in 30 before 16) due to the shorter urethra, but you're not advocating cutting them, you'll just give your daughter ABx, right? What's the difference?
In up to 40 per cent of cases, there is some form of structural abnormality that predisposes the person to infection.
Other predisposing factors include not going to the toilet often enough (so make sure you encourage your little to go often), hurrying in the toilet and not emptying the bladder fully (all may mean that any bugs in the bladder are not flushed out before they multiply), constipation, inflammation of the vulva (girls) or damage to the bladder nerves. All either preventable or structural so not a lot you can do about it.