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It's very regional in the U.S. by now, rates going down in general, but staying highest in the South and Midwest.

Our 5 year old DS is but suffered complications from it :(. I didn't really research it at the time of his birth I just went with what was the "norm". We were team green with DD but decided early on if she was a boy she would have been left intact. I have a ton of guilt for circumcising our son and will never do it to any future children.

@septca: I understand the point you are trying to make, but what stands out the most to me in your comparison to birth is that was a decision you made about YOUR body. In the most general terms, your child will be born regardless of your method of birth. As for circumcision, you are making a decision for ANOTHER persons body, a decision that can not be undone.

I went into the whole thinking we would circ, until I was informed that the hospital does not do them, as they do a general anesthesia for the procedure and they will not do that on newborns.

So my son is not circed.

@lauraeabel: I disagree. Intention matters and as I said, the explicit intention of female circumcision is to lessen or eliminate female pleasure so women will be faithful to their husbands. It basically makes sex into an obligation at best and excruciatingly painful at worst, not to mention the likelihood of infection and complications. I know there's argument that male circumcision can somewhat decrease feeling but unless something goes terribly wrong, it doesn't eliminate feeling altogether. Circumcised men get plenty of pleasure from sex... I think it's offensive to people who have circumcised their sons to suggest its comparable to FGM.

@lauraeabel: I'm sorry, and I really do not mean to start a totally unrelated flame war, but @MrsSCB is correct in the total lack of similarity between "female circumcision" and male circumcision. In fact, most who are familiar with the procedure agree that "female circumcision" is actually a huge misnomer, as they are very different procedures, from a purely anatomical perspective. The way that even many people in those areas where it is practiced refer to it as either Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) or Female Genital Cutting (FGC).

I spent several years living in an East African country, in an ethnic area where FGM was traditionally practiced, even though it was outlawed in that country as a barbaric practice. It is a procedure that, when performed traditionally, comes with a very high mortality rate, and women who have had this procedure done have much higher rates of infections and complications and death in childbirth. It can leave women permanently disabled.

This website actually has a pretty good comparison of the two procedures: http://www.sociology.com/2013/05/circumcision-vs-female-genital-mutilation-fgm/

Again, I'm sorry to weigh in like this, and I hope it doesn't feel like piling on, but this is something that I've seen personally, and it is an extremely emotional issue for me- it is so tragic and heartbreaking to see young girls' lives disrupted in such a horrible way. And many African activists, lawmakers and medical professionals have been working tirelessly to send this practice into the history books where it belongs!

I agree comparing FGC to make circumcision isn't fair. Some forms of FGC sew the labia together to make sex impossible and put women at a huge risk of infection. It's not removing a piece of skin for a symbolic or health purpose. The goal is much different - reducing sexual pleasure. I know some argue male circumcision has the same impact but I would point out its impossible to compare those who were circumcised from birth to those who weren't. You can only compare those who were circumcised later in life to their previous experience and that is a different beast all together.

I will say sometimes FGM activists ignore some of the deep cultural beliefs surrounding FGM - in can be impossible for a woman to get married unless she has gone through the procedure. But it's still regarded by the international community as a practice incredibly dangerous and demeaning to women.

It's not fair to say their are no health benefits to make circumcision. It reduces the rates of stds and UTIs and penile cancer. The benefits are modest and so I wouldn't fault anyone for no thinking they justify surgery. But there are no health benefits to FGC.

I understand the logic that it is cutting the genitals without consent. But regardless of your feelings about the effect of male circumcision, I think we can agree that parents do not do it with the purpose of subjugating their sons. That however is the case with FGC. I think that it is unfair of victims of FGC to compare the two.

@MrsSCB: @lauraeabel: @Ms.Pumpkin: @anandam

This is one thing my husband is VERY set on. He definitely wants a son to be circumcised. However, the fact that we're adopting is throwing a little twist in! I am not sure if the child we get would be circumcised or not!

@littlek: I'm feeling confused; could you explain how my comment offended you? I know you didn't say it was a big deal. You both brought up the point you had never seen one before and I was trying to say uncircumcised doesn't look vastly different from circumcised. I was also sharing my point of view, not debating anything (as your original post intended), so I feel hurt by your comment.

@lauraeabel: I do see how people could take offense to the comparison, but I feel like your point was that this was only a personal dilemma you're working through in your decision - not a judgement you're passing on others? (For the record, in my mind, the two are not really comparable.)

@JoyfulKiwi: I totally think the two types of penises look different. Just saying'.....

I'd never really thought of it too much until I met DH. He's in the it's unnecessary disfigurement camp. He convinced me.

LO is... and all future boys will have theirs too.

Interesting story with LO, normally it's done when they are born but LO had some fatty folds ... might be saying it wrong... so the docs recommended waiting because if they did it then it's likely to re-grow. So he didn't have his done till about 2-3 weeks after he was born.

I only have a daughter, but if she had been a boy we would not have circumcised. I was going to ultimately leave the decision with my husband considering he knows more about having a penis than I do, and he was against it.

Currently pregnant now and if this baby is a boy, he will most likely be circumcised. I think if I felt passionately against it, DH wouldn't really fight me about it, but we feel perfectly comfortable having it done.