How to find a foreskin friendly doctor?

[mquester]

In less than a month I'm relocating to the Fort Worth Texas area and will need to find a new pediatrician for our 8 month old son. I plan to ask the doctor if she knows/has heard of anyone in that area she can recommend later this week.

Is there a list online of foreskin friendly doctors somewhere? Our son's pediatrician was SO great -she'd practiced in England for over a decade and she helped convince us to leave ds intact. She's been really supportive of my bf'ing too

How do I know? Just phone potential docs and ask?

Thanks in advance,
MQ

[A&A]

First of all, I'd ask whether or not they perform circs themselves. That will tell you a lot.

[PuppyFluffer]

I think whether they perform circs or not may or may not tell you much. I think it is a regional thing for ob's to do them instead of peds. I interviewed one ped and asked what he thought of circ. He said he did not do them, that the ob does them and went on about it being parent's choice.... (we didn't select him as our dr, for several reasons.) He implied that most all ob's take care of that so I think that is the norm in my area.

[Frankly Speaking]

That's a tough one MQ. If you find a doctor who really is against circumcision, that doesn't guarantee that he will know and understand not forcibly retracting, the normal trauma of separation, no specific age for normal retraction, the correct diagnosis of phimosis and all of the other issues. However, if he/she is strongly opposed to circumcision, he/she will probably be open to information and will probably be willing to work with you and accept your information.

There has been a lot of discussion about setting up a data base of information of foreskin friendly doctors on the internet. As far as I know, no one has done it yet. I've thought about it and what it would entail and have come to the conclusion that it would be a mammoth endeavor and beyond my techincal knowledge and time constraints. Hopefully, some day, someone will do it.





Frank

[wysmom]

I got lucky with dr.s When I told my OB no circ. he said "Good answer." he refuses to perform them b/c they are medically unnecessary. The same with my sons Ped. I made sure on the first well baby appt. to tell him that our son was not circ. and we did not want him forcibly retracted. The dr. said intact was best and he would never think of forcible retraction. I just got lucky. After reading all the threads on circ. I can't believe how many drs. are not properly educated on the issue.

[~Jenna~]

You could maybe email someone at the website - what is it called? - drs against circ or something like that and see if they have anyone in your area. did any of that make sense????

Nevermind - it was doctors opposing circ - and the website doesn't work anymore.

You could always go to a LLL meeting and ask some of the mothers there. LLL can't endorse any health care practitioners but the moms can make reccomendations.

[mquester]

Originally Posted by ~Jenna~

You could always go to a LLL meeting and ask some of the mothers there. LLL can't endorse any health care practitioners but the moms can make reccomendations.

Good idea! I'll check and see if there's a LLL in the area we're moving to. I guess I'll also call ahead and make sure to say "don't retract!" before the doctor comes near my kid at the first visit.

It's so ridiculous that parents know more about their son's anatomy than most doctors and we have to assume a medical professional will try to cause harm to our child!

[Frankly Speaking]

Originally Posted by ~Jenna~

Nevermind - it was doctors opposing circ - and the website doesn't work anymore.

I just checked it and it worked fine for me. Here is a link:

http://faculty.washington.edu/gcd/DOC/

You can also find their website at The NOCIRC site if you lose the link in the future. It's under "Affiliate Organizations."



Frank

[~Jenna~]

oh well i had the wrong address!

[Sarah]

If you run a search on yahoogroups- you might find a local DFW moms club that fits your style- they might be able to help you. Also, I think that the large hispanic population will probably have forced lots of peds to get with the program to learn about caring for intact patients. Just interrview I guess- doctors and people- that's going to be the best way to find out.

In my neck of the woods we have a pair of very "intact friendly" peds... but they happen to be CLUELESS in terms of breastfeeding- the fact that they have a positive attitude about keeping your foreskin does not mean that they are excellent doctors.

On the other hand... I can't imagine an excellent Dr. who lacked the ethics to be an intactivist.

Love Sarah

[Frankly Speaking]

My definition of an excellent doctor would be one who can think logically and rationally and one who also keeps up with current information and technology. I think those who do that would instantly see the uselessness of circumcision and would be well aware of the controversy and would have investigated the issue.

Unfortunately, many people, not just doctors, do not think logically and rationally and think they have learned all they need to know when they graduate from school. Those are not likely to be very foreskin friendly or very receptive to new information regardless of the source.





Frank