Is Circumcision a good practice?

This is a long story, so if you want JUST my personal point of view, scroll all the way to the bottom.

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I'm an 18 year old intact male. The other men in my family were all circumcised at birth, but the doctors refused to perform it on me; My mother had a difficult labor, and none of the doctors on staff were properly trained for the (circumcision) procedure. They feared that they could either disfigure, or even kill me (shock), so they told my mother to bring me back when I was 8 months old. My mother figured that it simply wasn't worth the risk, and that causing me pain at such a young age was wrong. I'd later respect her decision; i'm glad I would have the choice later in life.

However, I had my first crush on a girl when I was 12 years old. One day, we were playing around with our webcams, and she dared me to show "it" to her. When I showed it to her, her first reaction was "EWW, you're not circumcised?!" I told her "No. . .," and she replied with "Oh my god, I feel so sorry for you! I could NEVER be with a guy that's not cut. You should go to the doctor and get it done!."

Now, I think every guy on Earth would feel completely shattered at this point; our $%!@ is the epitome of being a man; without it, we wouldn't be defined as a male anymore. Every guy worries about his size, but to have someone outright tell you that they think your $%!@ is DISGUSTING and AWFUL, and that it revolts them hurts the ego far more than you could possibly imagine. To get a rough idea, imagine telling a nervous, virgin teenaged girl that she's fat and ugly, and that she needs a surgical procedure in order to look normal; She would become upset and begin to hate her body. Anyways, I never brought it up again. . .until I heard more and more of my friends making the occasional joke about circumcisions. I would overhear more and more girls talking about how much they hated the foreskin, and that they've heard guys didn't" have it done" in Europe, so they would never want to move there. Hell, even my brother would make jokes at my expense, by jokingly threatening to "do it to [me] while you're sleeping." I felt very betrayed that he wasn't on my side, and that he chose to cast me out just because other people did.

Later, I would begin to do research on circumcision. I immediately found the website www.circlist.com, and viewed the pictures and read the personal experiences, I noticed that many stories - especially the stories from women - had a very bizarre, sometimes sick fetish for circumcised $%!@es. The site even advocates female clitoral hood removal, and has experiences of women who had demanded to be circumcised!! I would then watch "Penn and Teller's BULL$%!@!: Circumcision," and see the footage of it being done to babies, and the information about how it removes over 20,000 nerve endings. I couldn't bear to watch it being done, and I was 100% deadset against circumcision.

Then an internet forum had a thread entitled "shrinking foreskin." In it, an intact male discussed that he had began to permanently retract his foreskin, so that he could "have the best of both worlds." He claimed it was a great way for an intact male to feel how the glans feels different when exposed, and that it's completely reversible if not desired, unlike a "real" circumcision. So, I said "what the hell? I'll try it." So, I walked around with my foreskin peeled back for about a week, and here was my experience:

After initially feeling very sensitive, I began to not mind it as much. I actually enjoyed feeling the head rub against my underwear, and noticed that the head went from being small and red, to being plump and a darker purplish/megenta shade. This looked very masculine to me. . .very erotic, and I preferred the way it looked. But, how does it feel? The flesh of the glans feels drier and thicker. . .I could rub it harder when $%!@ing and last 10-15 minutes, whereas if I rubbed it that hard before i'd $%!@ in about 2 minutes. I noticed that the friction of thrusting began to feel GOOD instead of painful, and that the bottom of the head, near the frenulum began to feel sensitive to stroking and soft touch, whereas it wasn't sensitive at all before. Most of all, I noticed that my orgasms have become more intense; I began to shoot HARD when ejaculating, could last as long as I wanted and the after effects of the orgasm would last about an hour after I came!

After doing this, I realized that circumcision doesn't exactly remove sensitivity. . .it just CHANGES sensitivity, because of nerve endings in the glans called "Pacinian Corpuscles;" these respond to pressure and friction, whereas the nerves in the foreskin, called "Meissner's Corpuscles" respond to light touch and stroking. People say that the foreskin feels better for a female, but with the way they hate it in America? They'll probably never know, and if you're using a condom (with the high rate of HPV, HSV and HIV today, you should be) it'll feel exactly the same for her, regardless of your status.

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. . .Okay, you can stop scrolling down. Here's my updated view on the issue: Circumcision is wrong to do to babies, because it's been clinically proven to cause pain and shock (ya think?!). i would NEVER, EVER do that to a baby, especially without the use of anesthetic (which is only topical and takes over 60 minutes to take full effect). However, circumcision DOES seem to make sex feel better in many ways, and even if it takes longer to reach orgasm when the head is constantly exposed, they'll - at least for me - be the best orgasms you've had in your life.

Circumcision should be done in late childhood, or the early adult years; This way, he can be informed and make his own decision, and he can use anesthetic and not even feel it being done. Further, a few countries around the world (Mainly Japan and Israel) are beginning to use a CO2 laser, which causes NO PAIN, NO BLEEDING, and fully heals in only two days. Stitches are still required, but claims are made that they come out easily (no caked-on blood), and aren't in for as long as when performed with a scalpel (10 days, and takes over 3 weeks to heal). If done before puberty, erections will not be an issue, so there will be very little risk for tugging/snapping of the sutures. By the time you're ready to have children, and he's old enough to have made the decision on whether or not he wants it performed, itll be common worldwide and be far less invasive than it's traditionally been.

Being cut does NOT make sex a dry, dull and joyless experience. Being exposed seems to actually heighten the response of the Pacinian Corpuscles, and make the underside of the $%!@ very sensitive to soft stroking and licking. It seems to be worth it for the sexual enhancement, and now i'm very open to the idea of having it done once I save up the money (doctors offices do it under local anesthesia for <$300. I was really surprised to come to this conclusion after being so dead against it. If you want to do research, do UNBIASED research; if you don't have an intact $%!@, talk to people who've had it done later in life.

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