Standard practices re. circ in Germany?

[justKate]

Hello.  My best friend is living temporarily in Germany for the next year or so, and has boy/girl twins due in July.  She's definitely planing on circing the boy (from a convo before she knew the sexes), but I'm hoping that somehow it just isn't done in Germany.... Maybe if it's harder to get one (unlike in the US), she won't do it.  What's the standard practice re. circ in Germany?

She is staying somewhere called Otterbach, I think?  They are not military.  Any info is much appreciated!

[Terrilein]

I've never heard of it being done except for medical reasons. I'll google though if I can get another hand freed up tonite.

[bremen]

circumcision is not standard in german hospitals. it is something she would specifically need to request, not something that will be offered.

it is done relatively frequently on muslim esp turkish boys.

she will most likely be asked about why she wants it done. hopefully that will encourage her to think things over a bit.

[justKate]

That is very good to hear.  She and her husband speak no German, so I really am hoping it is just too difficult for her to get it done.  And then by the time they return to the US, when the babies are more than a year old, she will have gotten over it, more or less.

Thanks for the info, it is very reassuring.

[Terrilein]

From what I've found, it's not quite considered illegal but she would definitely have to pay for it herself as this proceedure is not covered by public health insurance unless it's medically indicated. From what I've read the majority of doctors who could perform this surgery wouldn't do it for cosmetic or religious reasons alone. So depending on where she lives she might or might not have access to a willing foreskin butcher.

two intersting articles in German:

http://www.aerzteblatt.de/v4/news/news.asp?id=37979&src=suche&p=zirkumcision

http://www.aerzteblatt.de/v4/archiv/artikel.asp?id=61273

[P.J.]

Originally Posted by Terrilein 

From what I've found, it's not quite considered illegal but she would definitely have to pay for it herself as this proceedure is not covered by public health insurance unless it's medically indicated. From what I've read the majority of doctors who could perform this surgery wouldn't do it for cosmetic or religious reasons alone. So depending on where she lives she might or might not have access to a willing foreskin butcher.

two intersting articles in German:

http://www.aerzteblatt.de/v4/news/news.asp?id=37979&src=suche&p=zirkumcision

http://www.aerzteblatt.de/v4/archiv/artikel.asp?id=61273

Interesting articles. But where do the millions of Turks get their baby boys circ'ed then?? I guess Turkish doctors...?

So do not tell your friend that she'd probably have to find a Turkish doctor.

[justKate]

That's really good to hear.  I'm not going to tell her anything--just hope that it's too much trouble or too costly, and with managing newborn twins she'll be too overwhelmed to worry about it.  Hopefully.  Thanks to all for the info.

[Terrilein]

Is her family military? I was just thinking that docs on base would probably do the job for her. But if she's not then she might be hard pressed to find anyone to do it if she's not in a big city.

[justKate]

Nope, not military.  Her DH is a defense contractor, and he works on the base, but they don't receive military health care.  Fingers crossed that this little boy "slips through the cracks...."

[nia82]

In my mom's school most children were muslim (Lower Saxony) and they were not circed until 10-12 years old. It was some sort of big party involved in the whole thing and the boy afterwards was considered a "man". They had them circed under full anesthesia in the hospital. Often my mom noticed the boys were sick and got infections, quite frankly more often than not. She always felt for the boys who told her they are in quite some pain. So I don't know about circing a newborn... Certainly not done in my more rural area. My sister is a MD at Goettingen university hospital and she refused to do the surgery. She said though that she wasn't aware of newborn circs, rather older infants under full anesthesia. But she's not in the peds department so she doesn't know what happens on a daily basis.

[sosurreal09]

A lot of Drs refuse to do circ now...we just need 100%

[justKate]

Thought I would give an update if anyone is interested.  Two baby boys were born on June 11 @ 35 weeks, with only a short NICU stay.  They're doing great at home with mama now, and weren't circ'ed because they were in the NICU.  The military docs there only do it on Tues and Thurs during the first 10 days of the baby's life, so my friend wasn't able to get them there in time.  Yay!  Hopefully she'll forget about it by the time they get back to the States next year.

[Terrilein]

Well, hopefully she'll think it's too cruel to have it done when she gets back to the states. But still, good that the boys got spared the snip.