What's Lost? List
What Far Too Few Know 

"To make an informed choice, parents of all male infants should be given accurate and unbiased information." Circumcision Policy Statement, American Academy of Pediatrics, March 1, 1999.

When a baby boy's normal intact penis is circumcised, this is what is lost -- forever-- and loss of most of these items reduces sexual pleasure, gratification, and fulfillment.

1. His multifunctional FORESKIN, which comprises up to 50% (sometimes more) of the mobile skin system of the penis. If unfolded and spread out flat, the average adult foreskin would measure about 15 square inches (the size of a 3 x 5-inch index card). This highly specialized tissue normally covers the glans and protects it from abrasion, drying, callusing (keratinization), and contaminants of all kinds. The effects of these losses on male and female sexuality have never been studied.

2. The pleasures of his RIDGED BAND -- the primary erogenous zone on the male body. Loss of this delicate belt of densely innervated, sexually responsive accordion-like corrugated tissue reduces the fullness and intensity of sexual response -- male and female.

  3. His foreskin's "GLIDING ACTION" -- the hallmark mechanical feature of the normal, natural, intact penis. This non-abrasive gliding of the penis in and out of itself within the vagina facilitates smooth, comfortable, pleasurable intercourse for both partners. Without this gliding action, the corona of the circumcised penis can function as a one-way valve, scraping vaginal lubricants out into the drying air and making artificial lubricants essential for comfortable intercourse.

  4. Thousands of coiled fine-touch receptors called the MEISSNER'S CORPUSCLES -- the most important sensory component of the foreskin. Also lost are branches of the DORSAL NERVE and between 10,000 and 20,000 SPECIALIZED EROTOGENIC NERVE ENDINGS of several types, which can feel slight motion and stretch, subtle changes in temperature, and fine gradations in texture.

  5. His FRENULUM, the highly erogenous, V-shaped, web-like, tethering structure on the underside of the glans; frequently amputated along with the foreskin, or severed, either of which destroys its function and potential for pleasure.

  6. Approximately half of his temperature-sensitive smooth muscle sheath called the DARTOS FASCIA.

  7. The IMMUNOLOGICAL DEFENSE SYSTEM of his SOFT MUCOSA, which produces plasma cells, which secrete immunoglobulin antibodies, and antibacterial and antiviral proteins such as the pathogen-killing enzyme lysozyme.

  8. LYMPHATIC VESSELS, the loss of which reduces the lymph flow within that part of his body's immune system.

  9. ESTROGEN RECEPTORS -- the purpose of which is not yet fully understood and needs further study.

  10. The APOCRINE GLANDS of his inner foreskin, which produce PHEROMONES -- nature's powerful, silent, invisible behavioral signals to potential sexual partners. The effect of their absence on human sexuality has never been studied.

  11. Specialized epithelial LANGERHANS CELLS, a component of his immune system in his whole natural penis.

  12. The pink to red to dark purple NATURAL COLORATION of the glans. The connective tissue which protectively fuses the foreskin and glans together while the penis develops is ripped apart during circumcision, wounding the glans and the foreskin remnant, leaving them raw and subject to infection, scarring, pitting, shrinkage, and eventual discoloration.

  13. The pleasures of his full PENIS LENGTH and PENIS CIRCUMFERENCE because its double-layered wrapping of loose and usually overhanging foreskin is now missing, making his circumcised penis truncated and thinner than a full-sized natual penis.

  14. Several feet of BLOOD VESSELS, including the FRENULAR ARTERY and branches of the DORSAL ARTERY. The loss of this rich VASCULARIZATION interrupts normal blood flow to the shaft and glans of the penis, damaging the natural function of the penis and altering its development.

  15. Every year boys lose their ENTIRE PENISES from circumcision accidents and infections. They are then "sexually reassigned" by castration and "transgender surgery," and expected to live their lives as "females."

  16. Every year many boys lose THEIR LIVES from the complications of circumcision, a fact the profiteering billion-dollar-a-year circumcision industry in the U.S. obscures and ignores.

   17. His SENSE OF TRUST and EMOTIONAL BONDING with his mother are damaged and replaced with fear, confusion, and a sense of betrayal by the mother.

  18. The excruciating pain which he can neither fight nor flee damages his SELF-CONFIDENCE and HARDINESS and LOWER HIS PAIN THRESHOLD below that of intact boys and girls. (Amputating a boy's multi-functional foreskin is a low-grade neurological castration, which cripples and diminishes the sexual experience for both men and women. The natural foreskin is not dangerous -- it makes sex as Nature intended possible.  The radical sexual surgery we call "male circumcision" is dangerous, harmful, and reduces the range and intensity of sexual pleasure for the disendowed victim and his sexual partners.)

Also posted at: >http://www.SexuallyMutilatedChild.org/lost.htm

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