CBC was excellent Yesterday

Yesterday I made the long drive from Maple Ridge, over the bridge to Surrey, then over the Patella to New Westminster and finally over the Pitt River bridge back to Maple Ridge. As I was switching through radio channels, realized that CBC had a piece of circumcision on. Started listening. Now, whenever there are educational programs, that are related to work, I listen, but this was particularly poignant.
The first speaker (I heard) was discussing how the Canadian Pediatric Association was considering changing its guidelines on circ due to some new studies in Africa, which showed that circumsized men were less likely to develop AIDS. Interesting, but then he went to to discuss the cultural differences between Africa and Canada, and how this could make a huge difference.
In 1991 we travelled to Zimbabwe and Zambia. We were told horrific statistics about the population that had AIDS. The Zambian government, concerned about its workers, had tested all the miners in their diamond mines. There was a 50% positive HIV rate. They tested the physicians and discovered a 100% HIV rate. Sex there was obviously used differently than in the western world. The other very sad statistic was that half of the babies were being born HIV positive.
On the weekend I went to a party. Lots of parents, grandparents and children attended. Eventually about six of us were left. One of the enebriated men, whose wife and six week old son were there, announced that it had been a really bad day for his son recently, when he was circumsized. Now some of you will understand when I say that this was a group of childbirth educators, midwives and others; that talking about circing your son did not go over very well. This man actually said that he did it because he thought that is what everybody did. Since I know they attended childbirth classes, and know it was covered, it was a bit bleak to hear him say this. It means that the men are also not picking up the information.
The next speaker on CBC continued on with an interesting conversation about pain in neonates. He pointed out that 50 years ago we paralyzed babies to do open heart surgery because we did not think they felt pain. As researchers have done more and more experiments they have realized just how exquisite pain is for neonates. (Neonates are babies under 28 days of age.) This speaker discussed how some practitioners now freeze baby boys before they are circumsized, and how he is sure it hurts, but that he thinks it might be like other surgeries and also hurt on day one and day two, and maybe day three, but these babies are not given pain medication then. He also pointed out that other research shows that babies who have been circumsized have a much more intense reaction to immunizations and other forms of pain. The last really interesting thing he discussed is how we now know that neonates actually experience all pain much more acutely than adults or older children.
What an eye opener.
I had now arrived at my friends home, and turned off the car and listened to the last speaker before going in.
This was a woman, whom I expected to be quite fanatical, since she runs an anti circ organization in the US, and has been its head for 26 years. She did have a number of interesting things to say, some of which were quite surprising.
This organization does not think that circs should be stopped for religious reasons (Jewish and Muslim boys) but that males should be left intact until the age of majority, when they can decide if they want the procedure done or not. Interestingly she said that the Americans are going against religious freedom laws by circumsizing babies, and not letting them self determine their religion.
She did point out that non circumsized men have fewer infections and are cleaner, however she then talked about sexual dysfunction and how this occurrs much MORE frequently in non circumsized men. It makes sense. The forskin allows the glans to stay very sensitive, and react to touch. When the boy is circumsized his penis is much less sensitive. (A good example of this is rubbing the inside of your fourth finger gently, and then rubbing the outside of your pointer finger gently. You will see immediately that the fourth finger is much more sensitive, because the skin has been protected much more than the "pointer" finger.
This was all really interesting, and gave me some new views to help parents decide of circumcision or not. Mostly, I would like to go and listen to the whole programm again. It was excellent.