.......To most Norwegian people circumcision is something that is done to a Jewish boy in infanthood or to a Muslim teenager. And of course there are those "unlucky" boys and men who īhad to get it doneī. (I myself was thinking pretty much the same).
As an infant I had problems with eczema both on my hands and from time to time on my foreskin. For this I was treated with hydrocorticoid ointments, which definitely has itīs side effects.
The inner part of my foreskin (in periods) became fragile and tightened around the head of my penis. Once I got an inflammation of my urinary tract as well. So I was told of circumcision as an option when I was a young boy, and for sure I did not want to get any part of my penis cut away. My attitude was based on fear and was as following: No way!!! - This cutting practice is not going to happen to me! (I was afraid of being mutilated.)
Growing up I therefore did my very best to ensure that my foreskin became loose enough. Eleven years old, as I got some new classmates, I discovered after the gymnastics class that one of the new boys in my class was circumcised. And as most of my friends I thought he had to be Jewish. But we came to know by asking him that the reason was otherwise
Some years later in the Christian congregation I had joined in my early teens, another one of those circumcised boys came to enter the fellowship. - And of course neither he nor his parents were anything close to Jewish.
Through my teens I had no big problems with my foreskin, except when this eczema of my childhood returned. Same recipe as in earlier years, and the same result: sore, fragile foreskin (mostly the inside of it) that made retracting it unpleasant for any purpose. But as this condition never persisted for any long period of time I didnīt want to make a lot of fuzz about it. By about the age of 25 or 26 I had the first cases of eczema and inflammation also inflicting the outside of my foreskin. By using diverse creams and ointments I got rid of it though
Some years later I visited Israel and thinking of many millions of Jewish men plus some hundred millions Muslim men, and a lot of Americans too living as circumcised men; I realized that it could not be any major problem to them, perhaps it even was beneficial?
Then about six years later, in march 1998, I had concluded that it might be the right thing for me to have a circumcision done. Still I was too frightened to ask a doctor. If only I could talk to somebody who had done this as a grown-up, and not to long ago. One day after training at my local Gym it was like a voice said Why donīt you ask if he ever have thought of circumcision as an option. I almost did, but alas I thought it would be too embarrassing asking such an intimate question. (In a case like this either you must belive in telepathy, or perhaps as I do: in The Holy Spirit).
A few weeks later my comrade missed training for reasons at the time unknown to me Until the day I met him in the shower room and discovered that herecently had been cut.As I now had the possibility of asking a friend who had being circumcised just few weeks ago, I soon asked, as I also told him my story.
This was of great help to me, and within few weeks I went to a hospital to order an operation. In July 1998 I was cut, and I it was a tight circumcision uncovering my glans ("penishead") totally. The operation was done in about 20 minutes, under which I was fullyawake. Local anesthesia was used then, but afterwards I did not have to use any painkillers. After some hours I felt a soreness, and this endured for about an hour. After that itīs just been great.
What would I then advise people to when it comes to circumcision?
- Let each boy and man get truthful medical information, and let each boy or man decide for himself (if possible)! - I would think though that many teenage boys and men alike would benefit from this little operation, at least for uncovering the outer part ofthe glans. It is not difficult for me to recommend a fuller (or tighter) circumcision either, as I myself has experienced this as a very good solution to the foreskin case.