I read your web site, Circumcision Online News with interest. You asked for suggestions or comments. Hence, here are my comments. I was uncircumcised for most of my life. It will be two years next July, I went through the circumcision procedure. I do not want my foreskin back for anything. I have no need of it. Its only use, is to create a maintenance problem. A few points that I need to comment on.

Men and boys with foreskins urinating into the toilet, (or trying to) and while so doing, generously spraying the floor and the area around the facility. There were three uncircumcised boys in our household. We managed to keep the area around the toilet quite wet. My Mother complained to us about our poor aim and told us we must do better. She never equated the problem to our foreskins. I don’t think she would ever admit that it was anything else, but carelessness. She was very proud that her boys were not circumcised.

My Mother does not yield easily when she gets an opinion. She is now age 93 and still insists that things must be done her way, to the dismay of her children, who trying to apply some reason.

When I was eight years old, I caught my foreskin in the zipper of my corduroy knickers. It would not come uncaught. My Mother tried to free me, but couldn’t. My Father was 30 miles out of town, delivering a horse he had sold. I had to lie on my bed, in a very unhappy state, waiting for my Father to return home to release me from my unfortunate predicament. He was able to get me free by cutting the zipper pull out of the pants and spreading it with pliers. I can remember the swelling and later the infection. When soaking in the bath tub, the puss would come out of the abscess on the left side of my foreskin. The knickers were never worn again, as the damaged zipper did not offer much privacy.

"Older men in the nursing homes". My Mother has been in and out of a care home. In visiting my Mother, my wife and I have seen old men in the home, in various degrees of ability in caring for themselves and various degrees of being continent. I have wondered, if an old man, in the above mentioned mental condition, is not circumcised, how is the foreskin kept in a condition that it is not a hot bed for the growth of various cultures? If I ever have to go to a care home, I would not want the problem for me or my care givers having to contend with the maintenance. That was a large factor in my decision to seek circumcision.

Not often, but from time to time, I would get an irritations under the foreskin. Over thirty years ago, I had such an occurrence and I called our family doctor. He prescribed some medication and it clear up in time. I asked him about circumcision and his response was, “that is too drastic”. As it did from time to time, over a year ago, the irritation returned. I went to our local urologist and asked about circumcision and his reply was, “it is not necessary”. It seemed, sometimes the irritation was transmitted to my wife, therefore, we used condoms during those times. We felt, this is ridicules.

My wife spoke to a nurse friend, who’s former husband is a general surgeon. She suggested I call him. I did, and he told me to contact the urologist that I had seen the previous month. From the Yellow Pages, I called an urologist’s office in a town 50 miles from us. The receptionist informed me that they do circumcisions and, if the patient prefers, the doctor will perform the procedure in his office.

I made an initial visit and a week later, on a Tuesday, late in the afternoon, I returned to the doctor’s office for the operation. I received a shot of Novocain in the shaft of the penis and the foreskin was removed with a pair of scissors. The operation took less than an hour. The stitching took more time than the rest of the procedure. My wife drove the 50 miles home. When we got home, I drove myself to the drugstore for gauze. I was out of work the next day, Wednesday and returned to work on Thursday. We visited our son and his family that week-end. We did not tell them of my experience and I did more than I would have, if I had been home. The recuperation was much easier than I had realized. The stitches started coming out, on their own and the soreness was gone within the first week and the swelling in three weeks. If I had known how easy it all was, I would have had it done 30 years ago.

The urologist charged a total of $625.00, which included a pre-visit, the circumcision and two subsequent office visits. Blue Cross & Blue Shield paid a total of $383.00, plus we paid another $60.60. The $443.60 was accepted by the doctor, as payment in-full. I feel the cost was very reasonable.

Physicians advertise in various forms. They tell you the type of medicine they practice and the procedures that they do. I have never seen circumcision included, as one of their procedures. If urologist would let the public know that this procedure is available, the few remaining uncircumcised men might have it done or perhaps sooner, rather than later.

Sincerely, Joseph