PTSD in connection to circumcisions?
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Okaay...
I've been a doctor for more than 3 years, and i have done countless circumcisions. I've never had any patient (or patient's parents for the young ones) follow-up to me with any PTSD complaints and such.
The circumcision that the Bible speaks about is, indeed, focused on the circumcision of one's heart, choosing a life that practices GOD's holiness, instead of sinful living.
The removal of the foreskin, or cutting it up at least to liberate the penile head is for health and hygienic purposes. The smegma needs to be removed (very foul-odored and teeming with bacteria) to avoid infections in that area.
As for a child possibly not "surviving" the stress of a circumcision procedure without having any trauma XD well, in my experience, if the parents themselves don't understand the procedure, and therefore, fail to encourage their sons properly, further aggravating the situation by transmitting their own fears to their sons who are to be circumcised/being circumcised, there lies the problem. The boy will become even more afraid, and will find the procedure as more of a torture activity instead of a health necessity. In this case, i believe the parents need to be educated and informed about the procedure and why it is being done. If they brought their son for circumcision half-heartedly, i refuse to perform the procedure, since i i know that a lot of drama will ensue XD totally unnecessary.
In our country, having a circumcision in males is actually a "rite of passage into manhood". Any boy 8 years old and above who have not been circumcised usually get teased and end up being called gay. It's not a good thing, i know. But it implies that i boy who refuses to get circumcised has no courage at all. To some extent, i agree to that. The pain is actually very tolerable, virtually non-existent during the procedure, even if it's done with the patient awake and using only local anaesthesia, of course. So if a boy couldn't "endure" such a simple, practically painless procedure, i do wonder about the boy's upbringing. Whether he is being spoiled rotten, or being trained to become tougher to, at least, bear with painful or scary experiences one can go through in life.
If the boy has a phobia at the sight of blood, that's a different story. I find that some kids (and even parents) are afraid of seeing blood, which would make the procedure, again, a dramatic event XD but i do my best to re-assure them before, during, and after the procedure. If they profess that they really can't go through with it, i never force them. But when they agreed, i patiently "walk them" through the procedure, as short as it may be. When they see that the bleeding is well controlled after suturing the cut skin, and that it's done fairly quick and painlessly, they all just laugh at their initial panic XD and they proudly call their newly-circumcised boy a young man.