Does your OBGYN perform circumcisions? - Page 2

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

I want to remind everyone of the purpose of this forum:

Mothering questions routine medical circumcision and advocates for informed consent. TCAC hosts discussion of the reasons to avoid circumcision, the history of the procedure, medical issues and studies, complications, the needs and rights of the child, care of the intact child's penis and other educational topics. We are not interested in hosting discussion on merits of routine infant medical circumcision.

[lalaland42]

Originally Posted by SubliminalDarkness

Because it's business. Do you remember the uproar years ago about pharmacists that didn't want to dispense the morning after pill? And people were up in arms, saying if they didn't want to dispense medications, they shouldn't be in that line of work.
I think the same logic applies to OB/GYNs and circumcisions. It's part of what that field of medicine does. If they don't want to do them, they should pursue another field of medicine.

Yes, my OB/GYNs performed circumcisions.

OBs here don't perform circs, pediatric surgeons do. And unless it is for a religious (or true medical) reason, you don't get it done at the hospital and it isn't covered by insurance. I don't see why it is the OB's line of business when they are really there to ensure the baby gets here safely. It is a pediatricians' job to care for the baby post birth.

[BugMacGee]

Depends on where you live. Here, on the West Coast, pediatricians do them.
It's a required skill for their board exams if I recall correctly.
I know some who don't like doing it, especially those who are from non-circing cultures. I wish they would just refuse to do them. Sigh.

[Drummer's Wife]

Maybe the problem with MD's refusing to perform a circ, whether they are an OB, Ped, or Urologist, is that it would be picking and choosing which procedures they feel like doing. I know to us here on TCAC, circumcision is a black and white issue, but for medical professionals - who are taught the benefits in school - it isn't always. Plus, they essentially work for their patients. If a patient wants or needs a procedure, docs aren't supposed to let their own values, ethics, religion, etc., get in the way to the point where they deny care. I know that sounds crazy since we are talking about circ'ing...

[brant31]

Originally Posted by Drummer's Wife

Plus, they essentially work for their patients.

They have a simple way to deal with that in every other country: neonatal circumcision is never medically indicated and the patient is the baby, not the mother or the father. Some physicians unprofessionally confuse that with who is paying the bills.

[SubliminalDarkness]

Originally Posted by brant31

I think that's rather the point. Operating on boys' penises is most definitely not part of that field of medicine, in any sense. That is why OBs themselves are writing medical journal articles calling for everyone in their specialty (fetuses and female bodies) to rapidly exit the practice of male circumcision.

In theory, it should be exclusively the province of Pediatric Urologists or Andrologists.

I've heard various rationales for my OB/GYNs perform them, and they make varying levels of sense.

Originally Posted by Drummer's Wife

Maybe the problem with MD's refusing to perform a circ, whether they are an OB, Ped, or Urologist, is that it would be picking and choosing which procedures they feel like doing. I know to us here on TCAC, circumcision is a black and white issue, but for medical professionals - who are taught the benefits in school - it isn't always. Plus, they essentially work for their patients. If a patient wants or needs a procedure, docs aren't supposed to let their own values, ethics, religion, etc., get in the way to the point where they deny care. I know that sounds crazy since we are talking about circ'ing...

Agreed. There are some other 'sticky' related subjects, and I imagine many would not feel the same about those.

[Drummer's Wife]

Originally Posted by brant31

They have a simple way to deal with that in every other country: neonatal circumcision is never medically indicated and the patient is the baby, not the mother or the father. Some physicians unprofessionally confuse that with who is paying the bills.

Oh, I get what you are saying. I was just wondering if that was part of why more MD's don't refuse (even if they are opposed to circumcision). Since the poor helpless baby can't consent for himself, the parents have the ultimate say.

It's so routine, here in the US, for either OB's or Peds to offer circumcision - I am curious as to why that is (besides demand).

*I have no idea why that smilie appeared at the to of my precious post. I'm typing from my phone and couldn't figure out how to delete it.

[lawmama1984]

I'm with midwives this pregnancy, but had an OB with DS1. He does not perform circs. Included in his new patient folder of info was a typed letter stating that he refuses to perform them b/c he is ethically opposed to them, the reasons why, and encouraging patients to do more research if they still want to circ. I actually kept a copy of it on my computer, I think it's that cool.

[mama24-7]

Originally Posted by OhioJenna

Yes, my OBGYN performs them in the hospital. He has circ'd both of our sons and we've had no problems.

welcome to MDC. and congratulations on your pregnancy! i do hope you'll stick around, read the posts & stickies.

i'd like to suggest a correction to your post. you said "...we've had no problems." you are not actually the one who has the problem w/ your child's circumcision - your child is the one who will have the problem. you may be worried, inconvenienced, or more if your child suffers from his circ, but you will not be the one w/ the problem. unfortunately, the children who are circ'd, will live w/ their less-than genitals their whole lives; the parents only have to deal w/ it for a few years, more or less.

it is a shame that your doctor doesn't tell his/her patients that circ is not a medically sanctioned procedure (no med org in the world recommends it & some flat out say it's bad, don't do it - the dutch just put out a statement that i'll try to find if you'd like it), that's it's really not a decision a parent has the right to make & that it is simply too risky to chance your child's life for.

i do hope that you will read & ask questions here so that should your next child be a male, he will be left as he was made. there are many parents here who made the same mistake w/ their first boy(s) and learned more & left their subsequent boys whole.

sus

[jenP]

Originally Posted by mama24-7

i'd like to suggest a correction to your post. you said "...we've had no problems." you are not actually the one who has the problem w/ your child's circumcision - your child is the one who will have the problem. you may be worried, inconvenienced, or more if your child suffers from his circ, but you will not be the one w/ the problem. unfortunately, the children who are circ'd, will live w/ their less-than genitals their whole lives; the parents only have to deal w/ it for a few years, more or less.

Well said. My in-laws could have said the same thing about my husband's circumcision when he was an infant. It seemed at the time that all went well. There was no unusual bleeding, no infection, no urinary problems, and all healed as expected. So if you had asked his parents back then, they would have said the same as you, "no problem."

Well, let me tell you, there are indeed problems!!!! Problems that only became apparent when he became sexually active - so how would his parents possibly have known about that? And problems that are only getting worse every year.
And all because his mother's OB did not explain the problems that could occur much later down the road. As I'm sure yours did not, either. I've only ever heard of doctors describing the risks of circumcision in terms of immediate risks like bleeding or infection. They conveniently leave out the lifelong changes to sexual function - so how can they possibly say they obtained "informed" consent??

For all you mama's who circed, I am so sorry that doctors are still not telling the whole story about this procedure.

Jen

[calngavinsmom]

Where I live, Peds do the circs and it costs around $300 before hospital discharge or $350 as an outpatient procedure. Talk about incentive to get it done sooner

When I had each of my boys, the ped came in, asked if I wanted them to be circed and I said no (of course) and they each replied "good". Well if it is so darn "good" that I keep my boys whole, why the heck are you offering to cut them then eh?

I do know of a few peds in my area that will not do them. My friend was asking a potential ped about it and she said she doesn't do them because ethically she doesn't agree with how they are done......my friend found another one who apparently doesn't have a problem with the ethics

Take care!

[jenP]

Originally Posted by Drummer's Wife

If a patient wants or needs a procedure, docs aren't supposed to let their own values, ethics, religion, etc., get in the way to the point where they deny care.

All very true - in the case of a patient who actually wants or needs a procedure. Baby boys don't want or need circumcisions.
And, refusing to do a circumcision on a healthy neonate on ethical grounds is NOT the doctor letting his/her own personal ethics/religion/values get in the way. It would actually be a case of the doctor adhering to stated medical ethics. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, committee on Bioethics, 1995, Doctors have "legal and ethical duties to their child patients to render competent medical care based on what the patient needs, not what someone else expresses."
So really, it's more like the doctors who DO perform circumcisions at the parents' request are the ones letting their own personal feelings (their belief that genital cutting for cultural reasons is a parental right) get in the way of delivering competent, ethical medical care to their patient.

[jenP]

Originally Posted by nainai0585

I fought dh at first when getting our oldest circ., and we argued and debated for at least 2 months before ds was born. In the end I needed to relent and let dh get what he wants.....for once

Yeah, it is really sad how men can get so adamant about wanting to cut their sons. A real shame how it causes so much strife in so many marriages (just poke around this board and you'll see so many posts from women whose instinct is to protect their babies but whose otherwise logical husbands get all emotional and demanding and incapable of rational discussion about circumcision.) It really all boils down to, the man was circumcised as a baby, it is too hard for him to process through his possible feelings of trauma, victimization, and loss, so his way of dealing with it is to tell himself that circumcision is great and to "prove" that it's great by doing it to his son. And thus it continues for another generation, a shame really.
I wish your husband healing and peace with who he is, what was done to him, and what he did to his first son. He and you have a chance now to protect your second son. It takes a big, big person to admit something wrong was done to him, and an even bigger person to admit they did something wrong to their child. Difficult as that is, the big payoff, however, is that many men and women find TRUE and lasting peace and healing when they keep their future son(s) intact. I wish that peace and healing for you and your family.

Jen

[ShadowMoon]

My OB performed them but preferred not too. She even thanked me for not making her do it to ds. I didn't drop her because of it though. After working with me through my birth, her practice now offers info and contacts for local doulas, explains the benefits of an intervention free birth and offers info on other aspects of natural birth. People learn and change at their own pace. If you have a great doctor, don't give up too quickly. They can always change and you just might be their catalyst to do so.

[serendipity22]

She even thanked me for not making her do it to ds.

No parent ever made an OB perform a circ.

It seems a lot of doctors blame the parents for circ.
This is way of avoiding responsibility for their behaviour.

Any doctor can refuse do an infant circ.

[syd'smom]

I had a doctor refuse to write me a prescription for birth control, for his religious reasons - so docs could surely refuse to do a medically unnecessary, cosmetic surgery on an un-informed, un-consenting baby.

eta: my obgyn would have done it in her office about a week after the birth. Luckily we had a daughter, and then I found my crunchy side, mothering, a midwife and 3yrs later had ds born into a warm pool at home - no circ needed, of course!

[Sijae]

I won't support any practitioner who performs circumcisions.

[calngavinsmom]

Doctors are under NO obligation to preform circumcisions. Circumcision is a cosmetic procedure with no clear benefit to the patient so why should they not be able to refuse?(ethically why should they be able to do it at all?)

Here is a great memo from Saskatchewan....check out bullet point #3
http://www.courtchallenge.com/letters/skcoll2.html

Take care!

[an_aurora]

I have never seen an OB/GYN perform a circ here. They are all done by pediatricians, or by the residents.