Good personal hygiene should be a daily ritual because any part of the body that is not cleaned properly can smell. If you do not wash your butt or armpits they will smell bad. Your penis will smell too if you do not wash it. Circumcised penises are easier to clean but that should not be a reason for you to get your son circumcised. More parents have come to realize that circumcision is not medically necessary. The sad part is that many do not know what to do about their son’s uncircumcised or intact penis. Improper care of the intact penis is one of the reasons that children need circumcision later in life. Another reason is trying to retract the foreskin of the penis before it is ready to be retracted is another reason.

The best thing is for parents to let it alone and let the child wash his penis on his own. He will get to know when it is ready to be retracted and will do that at the right time. Many problems that occur in an uncircumcised penis are due to forced retraction of the foreskin by parents or health care providers. Initially, a baby’s foreskin is difficult to pull back over the penis. The glans penis or the head of the penis is always hidden that is covered by the foreskin. By the time a boy is about three (a bit longer in some cases) the foreskin is fully retractable. Till this time you need only to wash the outside of the penis with soap and water.

Clean underneath the foreskin when it is easy to retract. Remember to replace the foreskin over the head of the penis after cleaning and rinsing. An intact penis has an increased risk of getting an infection if not cleaned properly. This makes it extremely necessary that proper attention is paid to personal hygiene care.

Smegma is the white secretion of the sebaceous glands of the foreskin. This is what has to be cleaned. However, this is not produced during childhood and the secretion tends to increase only during puberty. Teaching personal hygiene to your son should start as soon as he starts understanding the meaning of cleanliness and starts having his bath on his.

The important thing to know in personal hygiene is to clean the smegma. At the same time it should be understood that this secretion is the body’s natural way of providing lubrication for protection as well facilitating the foreskin to slide easily over the head of the penis. Once it is removed it will appear again.

Make sure that your son’s medical attendants know that his foreskin is not to be forcibly retracted. As the child grows let him retract the foreskin on his own. By the time your son is fifteen cleaning the penis comes easy as the foreskin is fully retractable. Teach him that personal hygiene will protect him against penile infections.

The pluses and minuses of circumcisions has always been a debatable issue. However, it should be accepted that the foreskin over the penis is there for some reason otherwise it would not be there at all. Nature is not known to place extra organs in the body without any reason. The fact that the sebaceous glands secrete smegma, is no reason to remove the foreskin. Smegma is the white secretion that accumulates underneath the foreskin. If nature put the foreskin where it did, then it also made it possible to slide it over the head of the penis by producing smegma. Removal of penile foreskin is an assumption made by cultures that insist upon circumcising infant boys. However, the fact is that intact penis is normal. In United States, parents of nearly 55-65% of all newborn boys opt for circumcising their sons. Not all are motivated by religious beliefs. Many parents do not want their sons to have an intact penis under the belief that it is un-clean.

The decision to circumcise or not is easy for those whose religion asks them to. For others it is a decision that should be taken after due understanding. Over 80% of the world’s males are intact and the US is the only country where non-religious reasons are more prevalent for circumcising young boys. However, attitudes are changing fast because of new information on the subject. It is wrong to believe that surgical removal of the foreskin causes less pain in infants. According to comprehensive studies, the pain in a newborn is not only similar but even greater.

To get your child circumcised is exposing him to extreme trauma. There is no experimental anesthetic that reduces or eliminates pain caused by surgical removal of foreskin in infants. Some infants do not cry simply because they are in a traumatic shock due to the overwhelming pain. The procedure also affects mother-infant interactions.

There are risks involved in circumcision. Complications include hemorrhage, surgical injury, infection and although rare, even death. The rate of complication in hospitals and in the first year is as high as 38%. Although intact penis requires more attention to personal hygiene there is no evidence to support that circumcising means that you can ignore it.

The incidence of urinary infection in men with an uncircumcised penis is as low as 1 in 1000 and is easily treatable with natural remedies as well as antibiotics as the case may be. Although difficult to ascertain accurately the incidence of penile cancer in intact males is as low as one in hundred thousand.

As a routine the procedure is done within 10 days of birth, often within 48 hours, in a hospital or at home in case of a religious ritual. To get circumcised for reasons that circumcising heightens sensation and sexual gratification then you are mistaken. There is no evidence to support this contention either.

Circumcision is a surgical removal of the foreskin of the penis and as with all surgical procedures, you should be aware of the surgical complications involved. The common practice is that the foreskin is pushed over the head of the penis and clamped with a metal or plastic ring so that it does not move back. If it is a metal ring, it is removed after cutting of the foreskin and the wound heals in five to seven days. In case of a plastic ring a suture is placed tightly around the foreskin. The tissue is pushed into the groove in the plastic. Within a matter of a week the plastic falls off and you have a healed circumcision. The health care provider will normally use a local anesthesia to numb the penis. This may be a topical cream, which is less effective or an anesthetic injection may be given in the penile shaft or the base of the penis.

This appears to be a safe procedure but surgery of any sort has complications. The first is anesthesia complications. Anesthetizing is a complex process in which the dose of the administered drug has to be carefully arrived at. Any negligence or oversight in the regard may have a serious outcome. This is all the more true in case of young children. It is generally believed by proponents of circumcision that it does not cause much pain in children. The fact is that no one, not even infants, is immune to pain. If the infant does not cry it is due to shock and not because of absence of pain.

If you go by religious beliefs then you would come to believe that uncircumcised penis is a necessity. It is contended that the foreskin has no use at all. It is also suggested that the presence of the foreskin is a hindrance to satisfactory sex. However, opinions on this differ. Moreover, there is no scientific evidence to prove the claims.

In as far as circumcision is concerned complications are defined very conservatively and benefits are described generously. The fact that there are medical complications like bleeding, infection and injury are often underplayed either due to religious compulsions or some vested interests. Many hospitals report high rate of complications of circumcision.

No intrinsical value is assigned to intact penis nor is there any reason to perform surgery for removal of foreskin. Surgery complications of circumcision have a high rate, more than 20%. Risks include excessive loss of foreskin and amputation of glans penis, which may require transfusion. It is interesting to note that doctors fare no better than nurses.

There are also psychological implications of circumcision. A change in infant-mother bonding is commonly observed after removal of foreskin. There is a shortage of data as there have been few studies on this subject. Whatever is known of surgical complications of circumcision is based on information relating to immediate postoperative period prior to discharge from hospitals.

Analyzing routine circumcision risks is a complex issue. Some will describe it as a shocking brutality while others call the surgical procedure as a safe life-annuity. Because of this, despite there being few indications for doing it and ill defined benefits and significant complications the operation is frequently performed. Circumcision has been discussed in detail in quite a few medical papers presented by eminent surgeons and researchers. The net outcome still remains the same that there are neither intrinsic benefits nor any harm apart from minor surgical in getting circumcised. It is also true that circumcision benefits are usually highlighted and complications underplayed due to one reason or the other. This is evident from the fact that many studies focus more on benefits rather than minuses of circumcision. It is also a fact that despite a high rate of complications arising from surgery, most are minor problems and easily addresses. The rate of serious problems is abysmally low. No wonder then that circumcision is a matter of individual preference.

Before you get your son circumcised it is advisable to do a risk analysis that is to balance the pluses and minuses. Studies related to benefits of circumcision provide conflicting results. Some of them have shown clear cut benefits while others refute the claims. Most pediatric associations concur that routine circumcision is not a medical necessity. When we mention routine circumcision it excludes removal of the penile foreskin necessitated due to an underlying problem. The better way to arrive at a decision is to consult your doctor if you want your infant son circumcised. Sometimes teenagers have a condition known as phimosis or abnormal tightness of the foreskin preventing retraction over the glans. Circumcision in such cases may be recommended by the doctor.

Poor personal hygiene is mostly responsible for most health risks associated with an intact penis. Smegma, the white secretion from the sebaceous glands, tends to accumulate underneath the foreskin. If this is not cleaned properly (daily) the penis may start smelling. This could also lead to bacterial or fungal infection.

Circumcision is a surgical procedure. Any risk assessment that you do should include complications arising from surgery as well as anesthetizing. Surgical complications include bleeding, infection, redness at the site of surgery and excessive removal of foreskin. There are also instances where there was partial amputation of glans penis.

Acquired phimosis is also seen in severe. Overall implications of a poorly carried out circumcision can be catastrophic. Immediate complications can be classified as a surgical mishap. Besides surgical there are also anesthetic complications. The case against an uncircumcised penis seems to be very weak indeed

As mentioned earlier, circumcision is a matter of personal preference. Most of the times, it is a parental decision and the child getting circumcised has no role to play. Parents should also weigh the long term risks involved against the benefits of circumcision.

Circumcision, irrespective of whether it is for adults or for newborns, is a controversial matter. There is so much misinformation and religious sentiment involved that is impossible to sift fact from fiction. On one side are reports that UK was prompted to review its circumcision policy due to deaths associated with neonatal circumcision due to unrecognized infection or clotting disorders. On the other side are claims of definite biological advantages like protection against urinary tract infection (UTI), reduced risk of sexually transmitted disease in promiscuous men and prevention of penile cancer. Circumcision is also believed to enhance sexual experience as circumcised men have more sensation in the penis. Regardless of the debate, adult circumcision does have some advantages for men with uncircumcised penis who have phimosis or difficulty in retracting their foreskin. Such people have three options before them. They can do nothing and wait for the problem to get worse or better or remain stable. Forcible retracting can worsen the condition. The second option is to opt for a dorsal slit to open the foreskin simply by cutting a one or two inch longitudinal scar at the top of the foreskin. The third, of course, is to get circumcised.rn

It must also be conceded that the discussion about phimosis and circumcision is simple as compared to UTI and circumcision. There are two confliction opinions in this regard. One set of experts argue that circumcision can cure urinary tract infection while the other set claims that it causes it. Thomas E. Wiswell, a US Army pediatrician is accredited providing a sensational statistic that circumcision resulted in ten to hundred times reduction in urinary infections. His findings too raised a lot of controversy at that time. Even after so many years it is still open to doubt whether treatment urinary tract infection is possible with circumcision or not.

Urinary tract infection is a bacterial infection that affects any part of the urinary tract, from the kidneys down to the urethra and penis. Although UTI can cause a great deal of discomfort, it is easily treated with the aid of antibiotics.

Urinary tract infection symptoms include frequent and painful urination; need to urinate at night, pus or blood in urine and mild fever, if the infection is in the bladder. Kidney infection presents symptoms like vomiting, groin pain, night sweats, high fever and extreme fatigue.

It boils down to balancing risks against benefits of circumcision. On one side is the fact that UTI is relatively less common and easily treatable. The flip side is that circumcision is a surgical procedure that has certain known complications including bleeding and surgical mishaps.

The answer may be found in a recent study that concluded that a circumcised boy is 3.7 times less likely to be hospitalized for UTI. That puts the ball in your court again. Circumcision is a personal preference and the decision should be taken after proper risk analysis.

Your beliefs or notions can make you do things that you would not otherwise do if you had a choice. It is your religious notion that makes you expose your child to risk of surgery for getting him circumcised. Circumcision was initially a religious sacrifice to mark the change in status of a boy that is his entry into adulthood. Other dimensions of circumcision are that it was considered to ensure virility or suppress sexual desire or attractiveness to women or an aid to personal hygiene where bathing was impractical. Earliest evidence of circumcision comes from ancient Egypt. However, the Greek disliked circumcision as considered a man fully naked only when the penile foreskin was fully retracted. This led to the decline of the custom. Circumcision is still practiced in some African ethnic groups and adolescent boys are circumcised to mark their entry into warrior status or adulthood.rn

Circumcision as part of religious beliefs surfaced in 50 AD when it was decreed that circumcision was not necessary for non-Jewish people converting to Christianity. This was the first act that differentiated early Christianity from Rabbinic Judaism and also instrumental in the Jewish decree of that made circumcision requirement even more strict. Circumcision is also practiced by Islam. It is however not mandated by their scripture. It is also not a precondition for conversion to Islam or performing religious duties. It is a sign of belonging to the wider Islamic community. Muslims are currently the largest religious group practicing circumcision. However, there are certain key difference between Islamic circumcision and Jewish circumcision.

According to certain religious notions, an uncircumcised penis is considered to be impure. It may be due to the fact of secretion by the sebaceous glands of the foreskin that tends to accumulate if not cleaned daily. Another reason may be that circumcision was believed to suppress a man’s sexual desire.

Infant circumcision without any underlying spiritual beliefs was taken up in the English speaking world in about the year 1900. This was basically due to the germ theory of disease that proposed that microorganisms cause disease. This created a germ phobia and body secretions were considered to be dirty. The penis became to be considered dirty due to its function.

Judaism beliefs maintain that circumcision or Berit milah is a welcome of an infant into a covenant between God and the children of Israel. This is supposed to happen on the eighth day after a boy is born unless not possible due to health reasons. It is a ritual that is performed in presence of family and friends.

Decision for getting circumcised comes easy for those with spiritual notions. For others it is has to be a considered decision after weighing the pros and cons of the surgical procedure since medical science is still ambivalent about the benefits of circumcision. However, when it is a question of beliefs then reason is usually relegated to the back seat.

More Myths about: Penis Stretching | Penis Extensions