When my son was a few months old, a lady told me he was going to hate me because I did not have him circumcised. I have frequently read where mothers think that their sons will thank them for having them circumcised. Perhaps if their sons remain in denial or ignorant of the foreskin, they will. However, as the circumcision rate continues to go down and information regarding the harm of circumcision and function of the foreskin becomes more main stream, the odds of being thanked for mutilating their sons' genitals are decreasing. Parents who choose to circumcise their sons today must be prepared to explain later why they knowingly removed not just a normal, healthy, functioning body part, but the most sensitive part of their son's body.
This page is dedicated to the men who are angry that their cries of protest were ignored or who were not given the information needed to give informed consent. They are not thanking their mutilators for violating their bodies. It takes very strong men to publicly speak out and admit what these men have. Don't take their message lightly.
From The Fox Without A Tail ...
A Fox, caught in a trap, escaped with the loss of his brush. Henceforth feeling his life a burden from the shame and ridicule to which he was exposed, he schemed to bring all the other Foxes into a like condition with himself, that in the common loss he might the better conceal his own deprivation.
He assembled a good many Foxes, and publicly advised them to cut off their tails saying "they would not only look much better without them, but that they would get rid of the weight of the brush, which was a great inconvenience." One of them interrupting him said, "If you had not yourself lost your tail, my friend, you would not thus counsel us."
Another version ... http://www.planetozkids.com/oban/legends/fox-tail-aesop-fable.htm
From A circumcision suicide ...
The fact I cry out about being circumcised makes people laugh.. They love to show me hate..
From The Unspoken Aspects of having a Foreskin ...
For me, this experience was (and still is) vastly different. My friends described the sensations of orgasm as something limited to the penis. For me, orgasm was something that not only felt good for my penis, but also felt good for my entire body. Orgasm for me is not some sudden surprise coming, either, but rather something I can feel coming on from the very moment I begin masturbating (or these days, making love). And even when the moment comes, orgasm for me is peak to a gradual and fulfilling crescendo of sexual pleasure, where it reaches an apex after I ride waves of pleasure up and down, and slowly wind down enjoy the aftermath of that feeling.
It is like all of the pleasure that comes from my penis when I ejaculate being multiplied by a factor of 5, and having this intense pleasure everywhere in my entire body at once for about a whole minute, leaving me writhing, and convulsing in ecstasy as I climax. It feels like my entire body is tingling—from my toes, up and down my spine, all over my back, chest, abs, and groin, and all the way to the top of my scalp, leaving my body gently convulsing (sometimes shaking) in pulsing ecstasy. (During this time, I also happen to ejaculate.) And afterward, when my penis begins to become flaccid, even the slightest touch on my penis feels really good, and takes my breath away in a really good way.
This was vastly different from what my friends described, which to me sounded like about 10 minutes of work for 5 seconds of sudden pleasure, followed by boredly staring down at the penis, quickly taking the hands away, and waiting for it to go down (because touching the glans right afterward hurts them for some reason).
From Realization of Circumcision ...
After that painfully obvious realization my disgust was dwarfed by the most intense anger I have ever felt. I felt violated. As though I had just learned that I was sexually assaulted as a baby. Which literally is what it is, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never seen circumcision as anything different. I still don’t understand how anyone can.
From The Vulnerability of Men ...
First of all, you need to understand that circumcised men are cornered on this issue. They were circumcised without their consent and have no inherent knowledge of what being intact is like. Even though they rarely will discuss the issue, they are keenly aware that they have been surgically altered in a very private way. There are several ways for a man to deal with this issue but the safest way, psychologically speaking, is to believe at all cost that the surgery performed on them was an enhancement and is preferred by women. Confirmation of this belief is essential to their sexual self-image.
Men who have been circumcised have an extremely difficult dilemma. For them to acknowledge that the practice is unnecessary and harmful means that they must acknowledge a painful personal reality. For that reason circumcised men can be forgiven if they don't want to lead the parade in the fight against routine infant circumcision. I can empathize and therefore understand completely why so many men will voluntarily offer their sons up for the same procedure without giving it a second thought. To do otherwise opens them up to some vulnerable feelings that can be most unpleasant.
From Circumcision Grief ...
I had a part of my body taken away from me that I can never have back. I'll never know what it feels like to experience sex as I was meant to, as people that are uncircumcised experience it. People can talk this up or down or say whatever they want about it, but that's how *I* feel. And I have every right to be angry that a part of my genitals were amputated when I was an infant. It's a part of my body that I wish I had that was taken away from me because of what basically is a fucking retarded tradition.
From Long-Term Adverse Effects of Circumcision ...
Circumcised males often feel great anxiety regarding their circumcision. This manifests itself in a reluctance to talk about circumcision or an assertion that ‘I’m circumcised and I’m fine.’ Some traumatized males also have a compulsion to reenact or repeat the trauma. These feelings emerge as the ‘adamant father’ syndrome. Typically, a circumcised father will irrationally and adamantly insist that a son undergo circumcision, although this is contrary to contemporary medical advice.
Some circumcised doctors also exhibit anxiety by pushing medically unnecessary circumcision on their patients or writing medical journal articles to defend the practice. This has caused the medical literature on the subject of male circumcision to become voluminous and polarized because other doctors write letters and articles to refute the false claims of circumcised doctors.
From May the foreskin be with you! ...
Say I am having a shower and as I am toweling myself off my foreskin gets pulled back, revealing the head of my penis. When I begin to dress, if the head is still out and it touches the fabric of my underwear, it is so uncomfortable and sensitive that I have to pull my foreskin back down immediately before I can finish dressing. That’s how sensitive it is. And that’s also how much sensitivity you lose when you are circumcised.
From Evan's Letter to His Parents About His Circumcision ...
When I have sons, I will NEVER subject them to circumcision. Knowing how it's done, and all the risks, I would feel like a failure as a parent to put my child through it. It simply is not my right to make potentially harmful, and unnecessary alterations to a body that is not mine. It's a shame you never realized this, and now I have to live with the consequences of a decision that I had no say in, and thus was a violation of my basic human rights. I hope one day soon this practice will be viewed as the barbarity it is, parents like you will wake the heck up, and that the laws in this nation protecting baby girls from genital cutting will be rightfully extended to boys as well.
From OUR BODIES, OUR CHOICES - PART I ...
I was permanently damaged by my circumcision. A surgery, badly performed, left me with severe scarring and extreme sensitivity which actually causes unbearable irritation during certain sexual activities. This sensitivity has grown worse as I get older. Basically, too much flesh was removed from one side. I learned as an adult that I came home from the hospital with stitches in my penis. Upon examination, it is clear that a major vein was severed and the cut was too deep.
Compared to the grotesque damage which can be seen in images in various forums and activist groups about circumcision(these images of adult men with severely deformed penises as a result of circumcision are almost unbearable to look at it), mine may be an ungrateful complaint; my sex life has been basically normal. The damage, because Americans are so accustomed to the circumcised penis, wouldn’t register unless you looked closely. I’ve even been asked to pose nude and appear naked onstage. I don’t know anything other than the sex life I’ve had, yet I can’t help but wonder what my sex life could be like had I been allowed to keep the body nature designed.
From Greg's Story ...
I will always be angry, sad, and depressed. There hasn't been a day that has gone by that I haven't thought about what was done to me. There hasn't been a day that has gone by that I haven't been depressed. There hasn't been a day that has gone by that I haven't been angry that I have been mutilated. There hasn't been a day that has gone by that I haven't been upset that I have been put at risk for death, infection, have been sexually diminished to the point where sex or masturbation has become a chore, with no feeling, painful, and uncomfortable and how I have been so outraged that my sex has been stolen from me and diminished and that I may never feel what sex is truly supposed to feel like as nature intended!
From Recovery from a Botched Circumcision ...
In that moment, I went from feeling like a freak with a birth defect to feeling surgically mutilated. I had never suspected that my circumcision performed on me as an infant was to blame for the pain, or that my scar tissue formation was abnormal for a circumcised male, but the truth of the matter shocked me...
Men like me exist in misery, but are marginalized. Even more indignation stems from the fact that a few doctors know that damage like ours happens, but still continue this practice. Their willingness to continue to recommend circumcision means that people like me are treated as "acceptable losses or risks." I am a human being in pain, and not just some unrecorded number."
From Circumcised as adult: One man's report ...
To cut my long story short (no pun intended), orgasm decreased tremendously. The continuous “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” described above turned into “ah ah ah” at most. Masturbation (which I’m not a fan of for personal/desensitization reasons, but I realize many people like it) lost pleasure altogether. Barely a sound comes out. Ejaculatory force decreased, with the loss of the previously powerfu, propelling Orgasm, and indeed the penis is dry and uncomfortable. It’s been a year now, and I can’t wear boxers because it hurts when my uncovered head rubs against clothing. I bought the Manhood protection device, and it does help somewhat. I realize that soon my head will lose all sensation and it won’t hurt anymore, but that’s not consoling one little bit.
From WISHING THEY WERE LEFT INTACT: ADULT MEN DISCUSS THEIR CIRCUMCISIONS ...
I will warn all of you in advance, this article has been emotionally difficult to write and also that what these men have to say may be hard to read, but I urge you to hear them. They have a moral right to be heard.
From Jonathon Conte: Motivations of an Intactivist ...
So there was this period where there was a lot of internalized emotion: anger, depression, resentment, and a variety of other things that I was really struggling to deal with. I didn't have anyone to talk about this with. I felt very isolated. I felt hopeless. I felt that what had been done to me was so deeply impacting that it was an incredible burden for me to bear. And I didn't know how to deal with it, so I kept it bottled up for many years.
The fact I cry out about being circumcised makes people laugh.. They love to show me hate..
From The Unspoken Aspects of having a Foreskin ...
For me, this experience was (and still is) vastly different. My friends described the sensations of orgasm as something limited to the penis. For me, orgasm was something that not only felt good for my penis, but also felt good for my entire body. Orgasm for me is not some sudden surprise coming, either, but rather something I can feel coming on from the very moment I begin masturbating (or these days, making love). And even when the moment comes, orgasm for me is peak to a gradual and fulfilling crescendo of sexual pleasure, where it reaches an apex after I ride waves of pleasure up and down, and slowly wind down enjoy the aftermath of that feeling.
It is like all of the pleasure that comes from my penis when I ejaculate being multiplied by a factor of 5, and having this intense pleasure everywhere in my entire body at once for about a whole minute, leaving me writhing, and convulsing in ecstasy as I climax. It feels like my entire body is tingling—from my toes, up and down my spine, all over my back, chest, abs, and groin, and all the way to the top of my scalp, leaving my body gently convulsing (sometimes shaking) in pulsing ecstasy. (During this time, I also happen to ejaculate.) And afterward, when my penis begins to become flaccid, even the slightest touch on my penis feels really good, and takes my breath away in a really good way.
This was vastly different from what my friends described, which to me sounded like about 10 minutes of work for 5 seconds of sudden pleasure, followed by boredly staring down at the penis, quickly taking the hands away, and waiting for it to go down (because touching the glans right afterward hurts them for some reason).
From Realization of Circumcision ...
After that painfully obvious realization my disgust was dwarfed by the most intense anger I have ever felt. I felt violated. As though I had just learned that I was sexually assaulted as a baby. Which literally is what it is, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never seen circumcision as anything different. I still don’t understand how anyone can.
From The Vulnerability of Men ...
First of all, you need to understand that circumcised men are cornered on this issue. They were circumcised without their consent and have no inherent knowledge of what being intact is like. Even though they rarely will discuss the issue, they are keenly aware that they have been surgically altered in a very private way. There are several ways for a man to deal with this issue but the safest way, psychologically speaking, is to believe at all cost that the surgery performed on them was an enhancement and is preferred by women. Confirmation of this belief is essential to their sexual self-image.
Men who have been circumcised have an extremely difficult dilemma. For them to acknowledge that the practice is unnecessary and harmful means that they must acknowledge a painful personal reality. For that reason circumcised men can be forgiven if they don't want to lead the parade in the fight against routine infant circumcision. I can empathize and therefore understand completely why so many men will voluntarily offer their sons up for the same procedure without giving it a second thought. To do otherwise opens them up to some vulnerable feelings that can be most unpleasant.
From Circumcision Grief ...
I had a part of my body taken away from me that I can never have back. I'll never know what it feels like to experience sex as I was meant to, as people that are uncircumcised experience it. People can talk this up or down or say whatever they want about it, but that's how *I* feel. And I have every right to be angry that a part of my genitals were amputated when I was an infant. It's a part of my body that I wish I had that was taken away from me because of what basically is a fucking retarded tradition.
From Long-Term Adverse Effects of Circumcision ...
Circumcised males often feel great anxiety regarding their circumcision. This manifests itself in a reluctance to talk about circumcision or an assertion that ‘I’m circumcised and I’m fine.’ Some traumatized males also have a compulsion to reenact or repeat the trauma. These feelings emerge as the ‘adamant father’ syndrome. Typically, a circumcised father will irrationally and adamantly insist that a son undergo circumcision, although this is contrary to contemporary medical advice.
Some circumcised doctors also exhibit anxiety by pushing medically unnecessary circumcision on their patients or writing medical journal articles to defend the practice. This has caused the medical literature on the subject of male circumcision to become voluminous and polarized because other doctors write letters and articles to refute the false claims of circumcised doctors.
From May the foreskin be with you! ...
Say I am having a shower and as I am toweling myself off my foreskin gets pulled back, revealing the head of my penis. When I begin to dress, if the head is still out and it touches the fabric of my underwear, it is so uncomfortable and sensitive that I have to pull my foreskin back down immediately before I can finish dressing. That’s how sensitive it is. And that’s also how much sensitivity you lose when you are circumcised.
From Evan's Letter to His Parents About His Circumcision ...
When I have sons, I will NEVER subject them to circumcision. Knowing how it's done, and all the risks, I would feel like a failure as a parent to put my child through it. It simply is not my right to make potentially harmful, and unnecessary alterations to a body that is not mine. It's a shame you never realized this, and now I have to live with the consequences of a decision that I had no say in, and thus was a violation of my basic human rights. I hope one day soon this practice will be viewed as the barbarity it is, parents like you will wake the heck up, and that the laws in this nation protecting baby girls from genital cutting will be rightfully extended to boys as well.
From OUR BODIES, OUR CHOICES - PART I ...
I was permanently damaged by my circumcision. A surgery, badly performed, left me with severe scarring and extreme sensitivity which actually causes unbearable irritation during certain sexual activities. This sensitivity has grown worse as I get older. Basically, too much flesh was removed from one side. I learned as an adult that I came home from the hospital with stitches in my penis. Upon examination, it is clear that a major vein was severed and the cut was too deep.
Compared to the grotesque damage which can be seen in images in various forums and activist groups about circumcision(these images of adult men with severely deformed penises as a result of circumcision are almost unbearable to look at it), mine may be an ungrateful complaint; my sex life has been basically normal. The damage, because Americans are so accustomed to the circumcised penis, wouldn’t register unless you looked closely. I’ve even been asked to pose nude and appear naked onstage. I don’t know anything other than the sex life I’ve had, yet I can’t help but wonder what my sex life could be like had I been allowed to keep the body nature designed.
From Greg's Story ...
I will always be angry, sad, and depressed. There hasn't been a day that has gone by that I haven't thought about what was done to me. There hasn't been a day that has gone by that I haven't been depressed. There hasn't been a day that has gone by that I haven't been angry that I have been mutilated. There hasn't been a day that has gone by that I haven't been upset that I have been put at risk for death, infection, have been sexually diminished to the point where sex or masturbation has become a chore, with no feeling, painful, and uncomfortable and how I have been so outraged that my sex has been stolen from me and diminished and that I may never feel what sex is truly supposed to feel like as nature intended!
From Recovery from a Botched Circumcision ...
In that moment, I went from feeling like a freak with a birth defect to feeling surgically mutilated. I had never suspected that my circumcision performed on me as an infant was to blame for the pain, or that my scar tissue formation was abnormal for a circumcised male, but the truth of the matter shocked me...
Men like me exist in misery, but are marginalized. Even more indignation stems from the fact that a few doctors know that damage like ours happens, but still continue this practice. Their willingness to continue to recommend circumcision means that people like me are treated as "acceptable losses or risks." I am a human being in pain, and not just some unrecorded number."
From Circumcised as adult: One man's report ...
To cut my long story short (no pun intended), orgasm decreased tremendously. The continuous “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” described above turned into “ah ah ah” at most. Masturbation (which I’m not a fan of for personal/desensitization reasons, but I realize many people like it) lost pleasure altogether. Barely a sound comes out. Ejaculatory force decreased, with the loss of the previously powerfu, propelling Orgasm, and indeed the penis is dry and uncomfortable. It’s been a year now, and I can’t wear boxers because it hurts when my uncovered head rubs against clothing. I bought the Manhood protection device, and it does help somewhat. I realize that soon my head will lose all sensation and it won’t hurt anymore, but that’s not consoling one little bit.
From WISHING THEY WERE LEFT INTACT: ADULT MEN DISCUSS THEIR CIRCUMCISIONS ...
I will warn all of you in advance, this article has been emotionally difficult to write and also that what these men have to say may be hard to read, but I urge you to hear them. They have a moral right to be heard.
From Jonathon Conte: Motivations of an Intactivist ...
So there was this period where there was a lot of internalized emotion: anger, depression, resentment, and a variety of other things that I was really struggling to deal with. I didn't have anyone to talk about this with. I felt very isolated. I felt hopeless. I felt that what had been done to me was so deeply impacting that it was an incredible burden for me to bear. And I didn't know how to deal with it, so I kept it bottled up for many years.
Dr. McKnight has passed away.
The late John Erickson is spot on when he says, "it's not circumcision that needs to be studied; it's circumcisers." See for yourself by searching the names he mentioned, and more, at Circ Leaks.
Van Lewis has passed away.
For more of what men have to say, visit
Mutilation Nation
Pleasures of the Foreskin
Saving Our Sons Men Speak
I DID NOT CONSENT photo campaign
Foreskin Restoration
Mutilation Nation
Pleasures of the Foreskin
Saving Our Sons Men Speak
I DID NOT CONSENT photo campaign
Foreskin Restoration
Circumcision: The more you know, the more you're against it!
Updated October 24, 2013
Updated October 24, 2013