FACEBOOK: Circumcision Regret Mom Shares Son's Story

 

I ran across the rant of a circumcision regret mom on my Facebook news feed and thought it would be worth a post on my blog.

Advocates of circumcision are always trying to minimize the risks and complications of male infant circumcision. "The risks are minimal," they say, without really getting into any detail.

But what are those risks?

The risks of male infant circumcision include infection, partial or full ablation, hemorrhage and even death.

It is difficult to come up with concrete numbers for many reasons, namely that doctors and hospitals are not required to report the number of adverse outcomes in circumcision, the complications are often attributed to something else, and parents are complicit with doctors in keeping complications under wraps. At 1.3 million circumcisions a year, male infant circumcision is a money-maker, and thus doctors and hospitals have financial incentive to minimize adverse male infant circumcision outcomes.

But there's a risk that is not often talked about, even though, according to research, it is fairly common, particularly in circumcised males; meatal stenosis, a narrowing of the urethra which makes it difficult to urinate.

I'm not going to say much on this post; I will merely copy/paste the rant, and cite research on the topic immediately following that.

All I will say is that ANY risk is unconscionable, given that male infant circumcision is elective, non-medical surgery on a healthy, non-consenting individual.

The mother's rant was as follows:

Meatal Stenosis. What?
Does your son have it? Do you know what it is?
I didn't, 6 years ago. I'd never heard of it until I started learning about infant circumcision harm, far too late, I might add, to protect my son.
Meatal Stenosis, 100% caused by circumcision.
It's a good thing that I do now. It could have saved my eldest son's life.

Studies Have shown approx. up to 26% of circumcised males develop it- at least 81% in some communities(Israel), experts believe.
I learned about it because of the volunteer work that I do, although he didn't present with typical symptoms. The pediatric urologist told my husband that he was lucky I caught it. I wasn't sure, it was only my instinct and knowledge that saved him. He has it severely, btw. (Edited to add, the pediatric Urologist of nearly 20 years, does about 10+ of these a week, and has NEVER done one on an intact child).
Would you have caught it in your son? Do you know what the symptoms are?

Tomorrow my son has to have a surgery.
A surgery he should never have to have, CAUSED because of the vicious amputation he should NEVER have had to suffer within a day or two of his life. Circumcision.

I will ALWAYS speak out to protect those that can be spared the agony he had to, and has to, endure because a Father wanted the same for his son. He was a victim too. The same old story.....

I will ALWAYS speak out to help STOP this scourge in America.
I will ALWAYS speak out to protect Babies that can't speak or scream 'NO!'.
'Unfriend' me if you are tired of seeing my posts. I, however, am tired of seeing babies suffer, endure years of agony and even death. I'm so tired of it. Tired of seeing MY baby suffer. It makes me nauseous. I have regretted not fighting harder for the last 6 years, and to make it up to him, I will fight till my last breath.
Informed consent? They didn't mention one of the many complications, including Meatal stenosis, to us when we had to sign. That is NOT informed consent. That's deceit.
Were you told?

Fu*k you circumcison. See you in the grave clamps.

That said, here are links to the research, as well as relevant quotes:

"The condition is called meatal stenosis and the risk of developing it is 16-26 times higher in circumcised than intact boys under the age of ten.

Meatal stenosis can occur several years after circumcision, and may lead to infection if left untreated. The only solution is a minor operation under general anaesthesia."

Male circumcision greatly increases risk of urinary tract problems

"Meatal stenosis is markedly more common in circumcised than genitally intact males, affecting 5–20 per cent of circumcised boys."

Cultural background, non-therapeutic circumcision and the risk of meatal stenosis and other urethral stricture disease: Two nationwide register-based cohort studies in Denmark 1977–2013

"Meatal stenosis as a complication is often missed by the clinician because children do not usually have late follow-up after circumcision. The symptoms of pain are often mistaken for symptoms of a lower urinary tract infection and symptoms of distal urethral impairment of urinary flow are usually ignored for many months until parents witness the child's voiding habit."

Clinical presentation and pathophysiology of meatal stenosis following circumcision

"Meatal stenosis is a relatively common acquired condition with a symptomatic presentation that occurs in 9-10% of males who are circumcised; the frequency may be ashigh as 20% after circumcision if the condition is defined as a meatal diameter of less than 5 French."

MedScape: Meatal Stenosis

"Circumcision is one of the most common surgical operations throughout the world, and meatal stenosis is one its late complications."

Lubrication of circumcision site for prevention of meatal stenosis in children younger than 2 years old.

Related Posts:

GUEST AUTHOR: Meatal Stenosis

JOHNS HOPKINS: Meatal Stenosis Article Scrubbed from Website

JOHNS HOPKINS: Meatal Stenosis Article Scrubbed from Website

Intactivists have taken notice that Johns Hopkins Medicine scrubbed a very telling article from its website.

The article in question is one that admits that meatal stenosis is a common complication of circumcision, and it outlines a procedure to correct it.

The article was still available as late as May 23 this year, but intactivists noticed that the article went missing after they tried to access it recently.

Luckily we now have the Wayback Machine which faithfully archives articles such as these.

The archived page can be accessed here.

To archive the article even further, I've taken the liberty of copying it word-for-word and posting it here.

Furthermore, I took a screen shot and I'm including it in this post also.

2010

A Kid-Friendly Approach to Meatal Stenosis

September 08, 2010

Ming-Hsien Wang, M.D.

Pediatric urologist Ming-Hsien Wang had seen one too many parents with complaints about their child’s “office procedure” to correct meatal stenosis, a common complication of circumcision characterized by a difficult-to-aim urinary stream and painful, prolonged urination due to the development of scar tissue at the urethral meatus and frequent urinary accidents. Not only was undergoing meatotomy with only a topical anesthetic in a physician’s office traumatic for the child, but then he had to use a dilator daily for several weeks following the procedure to prevent one side of the meatus from adhering to the other. Among the complaints were complications like bleeding, infection, voiding problems leading to urinary retention and bedwetting, and recurrence of the stenosis. So Wang decided to follow a kinder, kid-friendly approach. 

“I’d rather the child go to sleep with brief, quick sedation, and use magnification to excise the scar tissue and invert the urethral edges out precisely so there is no need for self dilation,” Wang says. “The cure rate is close to 100 percent.” 

In children who are not toilet-trained, Wang explains, the meatus frequently rubs against a wet diaper and over time causes the loss of the delicate epithelial lining of the distal urethra, resulting in adherence of the lining and leaving a pinpoint orifice at the tip of the glans. While studies show generally good surgical outcomes with the office procedure, Wang stresses there’s less pain and risk of complications like recurrence with her reconstruction approach. Parents are happy, too. 

“Parents say the child is urinating so much better,” Wang says. “Also, the child is no longer wetting his bed, or he’s only wetting his bed twice a month rather than every night.” 

For more information, call 410-955-2914.

This article is now missing, and the original link now redirects somewhere else.

Here's the original link:

http://www.hopkinschildrens.org/a-kid-friendly-approach-to-meatal-stenosis.aspx

Find the uploaded screenshot below:

 Click to enlarge

The question is, why was this article scrapped suddenly?

My only guess is that it's damning evidence.

At a time when male infant circumcision is in decline here in the US, and when Johns Hopkins is trying desperately to push male circumcision in Africa, they can't have articles like this raising eyebrows.

To sell the image that male circumcision is this "risk-free" surgery, medical organizations that advocate it must make sure to present only articles and "research" that presents male circumcision in a positive light, and conversely, hide all evidence of adverse effects.

As they say, however, you can fool some people, some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time.

Sooner or later, people are going to find out the truth, and Johns Hopkins will have to explain why they kept important information from parents and male patients.

Related Posts:

GUEST AUTHOR: Meatal Stenosis

Politically Correct Research: When Science, Morals and Political Agendas Collide

Phony Phimosis: How American Doctors Get Away With Medical Fraud

What Your Dr. Doesn't Know Could Hurt Your Child

BabyCenter Keeping US Parents In the Dark About Circumcision

Mogen Circumcision Clamp Manufacturers Face Civil Lawsuit

GUEST AUTHOR: Meatal Stenosis

OK.

So I've been following the ramblings of a knowledgeable intactivist on Facebook, and I've recently run across something in my news feed that I think merits a guest author post on my blog. I am trying to convince him to start his own blog, but until he does, I think his best should at least be posted SOMEWHERE.

I've seen elsewhere in medical literature that meatal stenosis is a problem most common in circumcised males, and I've understood that it is a narrowing of the meatus, or hole at the end of the penis, but I had no idea how much impact this may have on the well-being of men.

After reading this man's post on the matter, a lot of things suddenly make sense. For example, I myself have actually noticed that there is a different sound when men urinate. And I've often heard of men having problems with urine retention, the "drip" factor, and problems with the urination stream.

A friend of mine, who I know for a fact is circumcised, has confided to me that he has constant UTIs, and that doctors tell him he needs an operation to correct a problem with his urethra. OF COURSE! My friend's meatus and/or urethra are probably narrow, most likely due to his circumcision, causing him urine retention and his constant UTIs!

Learning about my friend, and learning about so many other cases, and reading these thoughts from my online friend gets very frustrating, as UTI reduction is one of the most prominent rationales used by circumcision advocates. According to some, a slight reduction of UTIs within the first few years of life, is quite possibly the only observable benefit of male infant circumcision, if the current body of medical literature is correct. (And many say it is questionable.)

What is the meatus? What is meatal stenosis? How does this impact a man's well-being?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Jason F.!

The following was copied and pasted from a status on the Facebook wall of Jason F. with his permission.

Meatal Stenosis and Its Impact on the Well-being of Males
Jason F.

Hey boys and girls,

Time for my periodic rant about circumcision and meatal stenosis.

Most of us know that meatal stenosis is a routine undesired consequence of infant circumcision. However, even many people who include it in their list of complications don't really know what it is, how it looks, or how it actually affects males.

Stenosis means narrowing. The urinary meatus (in English pronounced mee-AY-tus or mee-AT-us) is the peehole. Many people mistakenly call this the urethra, but the urethra is the tube that carries urine from the bladder to the meatus. The meatus is the terminus of the frenulum, which in turn is the distal end of the male raphe, the seam that runs from the anus, across the perinaeum, across the scrotum, up the ventral side of the penis, and forms the peak of the frenulum and meatus.

First thing to understand about the meatus is that it is supposed to be large. The design of the male urethra is that it becomes linearly larger in diameter from the bladder to the meatus, allowing urine flow to accelerate as it moves through. The widest part of the urethra is just at the meatus, and actually the amazing design of the distal urethra prompts a vortex effect to help pull urine outward. This allows the male to empty his bladder efficiently and completely.

Meatal stenosis occurs when irritation, abrasion, infection or injury allow scar tissue to form and the urinary meatus to narrow. The size of the opening may decrease by half or more. The effect on urination, or ejaculation, is obstruction. What was previously a wide-open highway narrows to a lane or two at the terminus. This disrupts the flow of anything coming down the urethra and creates churn in the fluid dynamics of the urethral chamber toward the end. The effect is a certain amount of reflux, and occasionally backward pressure on the bladder. This can result in retained urine in both the bladder and urethra, as well as damage over time to the bladder muscle. Plain English: cut boys and men drip more.

If there is enough back pressure from meatal stenosis on the central urethra itself, the body may respond with some degree of scar tissue and formation of urethral stricture. This risk is heightened somewhat by urethral infections, which may be more common in circumcised boys because of greater ease of pathogens entering the constantly-exposed meatus and less-efficient flushing of the meatus during micturition.

Friends of mine know that I have been saying for years that I can nearly always tell whether the guy at the urinal next to me is circumcised or intact merely by the sound of his urine stream. Intact males have on average a notably more forceful stream. They generally empty their bladders more rapidly and more thoroughly than circumcised males.

Meatal stenosis risk is much higher in boys circumcised in infancy versus later in childhood, and almost unknown in intact boys and men. The phenomenon is rare where infant circumcision is not routine, so many urologists worldwide have seldom or never encountered it. The medical profession in the United States has begun to grudgingly acknowledge that meatal stenosis is common, but they tend to put the figure low at 5-15% of boys. They decline to admit that it is limited almost exclusively to circumcised boys.

In my personal experience, about ½ to ¾ of all neonatally circumcised males undergo some degree of unnatural meatal narrowing by adulthood. That means about 700,000 new cases every year, a national disgrace. Thousands of American boys undergo surgery to address their advancing meatal stenosis, making it one of the most common surgeries after circumcision. This, along with surgery for readherent prepuce remnant, skin bridges, skin tags and iatrogenic chordee, is just part of the US circumcision industry. It's a booming, if depressing, business for pediatric urologists and a never-ending tragedy for American boys and their families.

The presence and absence of meatal stenosis side-by-side

Photo from the Global Survey of Circumcision Harm.