Studies are conflicted on whether it reduces risk of diseases, but what’s definitely true is that removing the foreskin removes most of the nerves associated with pleasure for the penis.
Of course it doesn’t take away all sexual pleasure, but people who get circumcisions later in life report that their sexual pleasure from sex and masturbation is greatly reduced from before the circumcision. This likely also applies to babies, although there’s no conclusive evidence to support that since people who were circumcised at birth report “normal” amounts of sexual pleasure, though it’s unknown if they and uncircumcised people have the same “normal”.
The reason circumcision became popular in the Western world outside of Jewish and Muslim culture is because of John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor of Corn Flakes, founder of the Kellogg cereal company, and activity against “immoral” sexual activity like masturbation. He invented Corn Flakes as a food to deter masturbation, as he believed that a cause of “unnatural” sexual appetites was flavorful food, so he made a blander source of nutrition to combat the urge to masturbate. He also heavily advocated for circumcision for both children and adults because he believed that it would decrease sexual pleasure for the penis, which would also discourage masturbation.
Take it from a Jew who’s been jerking the gherkin since he was 12: It doesn’t work. Don’t circumcise your baby unless it’s for a religious reason, or if the baby is born with a condition that requires it.
Oh, and among people who both enjoy sex with people with penises and care about whether or not it’s circumcised, it’s pretty evenly split about which variety they actually prefer, with the biggest factor in the preference being that individual’s culture.
Edit: There are a lot of non-Jews criticizing the practice in Judaism. I completely understand, and your criticisms are valid. All I can speak for is my own experience and what I’ve been able to look into. In my case and the case of many Jewish men that I’ve talked to, both religious and non-religious, the rates of resentment for circumcision are much lower among them than among non-Jews who have been circumcised. I understand if you still believe it to be wrong, but do not put out hate speech in the comments. This includes name-calling and generalizations about any particular cultures. If you still believe that it’s wrong for Jews and Muslims to do it, and that religion doesn’t justify it, you are entitled to your opinion. Just please be respectful about it.
Another edit: To build on the first point, consent of the child is a big issue that many parents face when deciding whether or not to circumcise. All I can say about that is that it’s a lot less risky to health to do it in infancy rather than as an adult. Again, I can only speak for myself, but if I hadn’t been circumcised as an infant, I’d be saying a struggle today about whether or not to do it, and it would be painful, mentally traumatizing, and risky, even if done with anesthesia. Yes, it is medically unnecessary in the vast majority of cases, which is why I reiterate that NON-JEWS SHOULD NOT DO IT. Please talk to Jews and get their perspectives before you judge because I can guarantee that they had the same considerations that you’ve had.
Third edit: If you’re not Jewish, there will just be aspects of the Jewish experience that you won’t understand on an intrinsic and fundamental level, just like there are things that I’ll never understand about your culture because I don’t belong to it. It seems that so far, I’m the only Jew who’s given a perspective on this, so these debates on the morality of circumcision are missing a crucial element.
Stepping out of the comfort of my lurking zone to respond to this. I am probably one of the extreme few people who were circumcised twice, once as a baby as a non religious choice by my parents and then once again due to medical reasons in adulthood.
I didn’t know any better as a child or young adult (before my medical issue) and felt normal function and feeling, so I cannot answer the question of reduced feeling or pleasure from the get-go, but I can confirm that after my second circumcision my sexual pleasure and experience having sex was tanked. It is not just uncomfortable having sex due to the lack of skin, but I have drastically less feeling there too. While my situation may be extreme, it’s important to understand that the research is true and does show a decline in pleasure for those who do get circumcised later in life and I believe that is enough evidence to not have your child circumcised.
There is one very key piece of this puzzle though, as a parent it is your responsibility to properly teach your child how to wash and care for your parts to prevent illnesses and medical issues. There seems to be some taboo (at least in my childhood and even adulthood with parents I know today) about addressing proper hygiene and care for genitals. These skills and the importance of maintaining this hygiene is what will lead your child to a healthy and happy sexual life. I can argue this all by first hand experience. My medical issue was directly related to improper knowledge of hygiene from my parents who were too afraid to teach me about it.
It’s really important for parents to teach their male children how to take care of an uncircumcised penis and unfortunately there’s a lot of miseducation out there on this topic.
Parents should never pull the foreskin back to clean when their child is a baby/toddler. The foreskin will retract naturally as they age and once the kid can retract it themselves is when you encourage cleaning when retracted. Until then, clean the penis like you would a finger.
This is the biggest one. I’ve had a few GP doctors tell me to forcibly retract the skin when they were a baby “or they’d have problems later”. That and shaming us for not circumcising, we’ll regret it blah blah. Also the nurse at the hospital kept insisting we chop it off, came back every few hours to ask if we changed our minds. Got to be very bizarre and annoying.
This was in conflict to the doctor who visited us in the hospital room, a seasoned pediatrician. Who said don’t force it back and the true mechanics behind it, their is a membrane that will rip if forced. If we did force it, we could scar our child’s penis. Also this aligns with John Hopkins and other serious medical advice.
It is scary out there when male general practitioners have no idea the proper way to care for a natural penis. Just know that even though someone has a degree, they can still be arrogant and uninformed.
I’ve read so many stories of medical practitioners forcing the foreskin back on babies!! I’m grateful to have never come across a doctor like that when my kid was little.
This is what I’m talking about. Absolutely baseless and abhorrent.
This is why I think it should be illegal for doctors to perform circumcisions without a proper medical reason, and that religious, non-medical circumcisions should only be performed by specifically licensed religious authorities like mohels or whatever the Muslim equivalent is called. It should be a highly specialized profession to reduce complications like this. I’m so sorry that all this happened to you.