Those who are circumcised and remember the surgery: did it hurt?

In a word yes, though not as much as other pain i have endured from migraines and wisdom teeth, i was circumcised under sedation as a boy, despite which the pain was intense, i think cutting the frenulum would have been the worst, however it was all quick, not long term pain, actually it was the persistant irritation from the stiches that was perhaps more annoying, and a relief when they were removed

I cannot comment as I narrowly avoided the snip, however my brother and my cousin have told me what they do and don’t remember.

My brother remembers does not remember the procedure or any pain as he was very young. My cousin remembers everything and remembers pain for a number of weeks afterwards. He said he remembers the pain of the scar would become worse each time he urinated and he remembers shooting pains through his body from chafing the glans on his clothing while being active.

@djboy Are there conditions that show up later in life that make this surgery advisable?

@djboy Are there conditions that show up later in life that make this surgery advisable?

For my oldest uncle who was a Major in the Army Air Corps and served in the South Pacific during WW2, he contracted an infection due to the climate and it required circumcision. According to my father, who was the youngest in his family, it was very unpleasant for him.

@djboy Are there conditions that show up later in life that make this surgery advisable?

I've heard only second-hand stories about it, so take this post with a grain of salt. Yeast infections can be stubborn and repetitive because an older immune system is less able to fight off the candida fungus, and often older males can suffer from incontinence, increasing the moisture under the foreskin which can create a more favorable environment for infections. I've also heard that nurses find it easier to insert and remove catheters with circumcised patients and for those who require frequent catheterization for prostate or kidney issues and also have phimosis or otherwise difficult-to-retract foreskin, this could be recommended as a quality-of-life procedure.

I am not sure. But in my adopted dad's case it was needed and suggested. Nothing else seemed to be working.

Mine was done in 2008 by NHS and I had a general anaesthetic. All I felt was the line being inserted in the back of my hand, pain-wise on a par with a regular blood test, ‘slight scratch’ as they say.

They applied a local before I came round so it felt weird coming home with no feeling in my junk. However, when that wore off I was amazed (relieved) that there was zero discomfort. In fact it was the opposite, wearing briefs it felt more comfortable from the off.

Despite being a tight cut, I could get erections without straining stitches so that wasn’t an issue. Nocturnal erections did wake me but a visit to the toilet and bringing up my knees in bed helped.

The nine soluble stitches were sometimes a bit prickly after a few days which made me walk slower and more carefully for the period but that was the only discomfort. Good result

Not at all. My surgery was when I was 33 years old. My foreskin didnt retract when my penis was hard so after having sex it was very irritated and itchy days after, so I decided to get it removed. I was told I was going to be given general anesthesia but when I get to the surgery room the anesthesiologist gave me a spinal blockage wich was something I was very afraid of, cause the thought of a needle going through my back really gave me the creeps. Anyway I didnt feel anything, no pain at all with the injection. I was awake during the surgery and the guy doing it often made jokes which made me laugh "Im gonna get your penis so pretty that you could go take a walk to the park showing it" haha.

I didnt feel any pain after it either. I remember they told me I couldnt have sex of course, cause the stitches could break if my penis got hard. Well, when you try not to, your body seems to go the opposite way cause my penis got hard after three days of not having an orgasm, but I didnt feel pain nor my stitches broke. It felt very tense though.

The only uncomfortable feeling I had was my glans touching my underwear, it felt odd but not painful, but this sensation disappeared as days passed by.

From all the anecdotes I’ve heard and read, it seems to me that discomfort associated with circumcision doesn’t necessarily come from the wound itself. Where older boys and adults have undergone the procedure to cure non-retractable foreskins, it’s the sensitivity of the glans that they recount. I’ve heard it described as feeling like an electric shock when clothing or whatever touches a newly denuded glans penis. I rarely if ever hear anyone say the cut line caused pain post-op. Others, as in my case, may not feel much (if any) discomfort.

Is this a fair assessment?

@dwayne This high sensitivity of the freshly unhooded gland may have been the case for me but it was long ago.. I mostly recall itching with stitches

From all the anecdotes I’ve heard and read, it seems to me that discomfort associated with circumcision doesn’t necessarily come from the wound itself… Is this a fair assessment?

From hearing from those I know who have experienced later-life retraction or circumcision at an age where they can understand and express the feelings they’re having are exactly this “electric shock”

bringing up my knees in bed helped.

HA! Ah, that comment reminded me of the first week after surgery. I was cut extremely high and tight and I guessed the reason why was because of an inexperienced surgeon and the fact that I am a 'grower' - my flaccid state gives absolutely no hint that I'm 7" at full mast, so I suspect he didn't realize just how little skin he had left me to work with (there had been no conversation about style of cut and I didn't know enough to ask about it at the time - the pre-internet information desert was very real). After my first painful erection I slept with my knees up, occasionally letting one leg down and cracking my knee when it got uncomfortable. Even after two weeks I my erections were still pulled down and to one side from lack of skin with the head being pulled into a flat-mushroom shape and whitened from tension. The sensation was very similar to the feeling of pushing too hard on the cartilage in tip of your nose. It took months for the remaining skin to stretch out to a comfortable tension. But like you, I found the prickly stitches were probably the worst part of the early recovery.

this “electric shock”

My first experience with a bare head coming into contact with underwear was years before surgery and I think I understand the electric shock analogy in terms of intensity, but for me it wasn't negative. It was more like the first time I tried Vietnamese Che Ba Mau - I didn't know what to expect and my straw was at the bottom of the glass, right in the liquid sugar. My first sip was the most intense sweetness I had ever experienced. It was very much like that moment, but after surgery I knew what to expect and rather enjoyed the last remnants of hyper-sensitivity while it lasted.

At birth here so again don't remember is. But I am sure it stung at the time.

I was cut 3 weeks ago. I had it under general anaesthesia, so the procedure itself wasn't painful of course. Afterwards it wasn't painful, but those stitches are really uncomfortable, I still have some of them in, rhe doctor said it will take 3-4 weeks for them to dissolve. The fact I'm still coming off an SSRI that causes erectal dysfunction probably helps with recovery a lot, since I hardly ever get erections these days.

About 4 years ago my Dad had to get circumcised at the VA. He was having problems retracting. While he was there the doctor told me he had 7 other men around dad’s age that day. All with similar issues. They gave dad some strong pain pills to last him for a week or two. He said the first week without the pain pills had some moments where he felt pain. But otherwise he was ok. He heeled up pretty well and quickly.

This, by far, was the most surprising account to read. How old is your father, and when did he serve?

Initially, when the US Army began its circumcision campaign, there were two almost opposite approaches. Men who wanted to join highly selective and prestigious units were turned down until they were circumcised by their private physicians. At the same time, draftees were ordered to get circumcised shortly after they were drafted. As a result, circumcision became the standard of care, and most service members, regardless of rank or regiment, were circumcised for hygienic and preventive reasons. The rates peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, reaching well over 90 percent, but remained high for the subsequent decades.

One of our family friends, who was a surgeon stationed in Germany, once said that "short arm" inspections were often carried out on NATO troops, particularly Brits and Frenchmen, and many were circumcised before their deployment to the Gulf. Apparently, sand getting under the foreskin was a real problem, and the "directive" was to remove as much foreskin as possible. There were quite a few men who returned from those wars without their foreskin.

I was circumcised at birth so never really thought about the procedure until I started reading the posts in the ZB forums. I always thought of it as something done to newborns because "that's what they always do". I was born in the sixties and it was probably standard in the hospital where I was born. I don't know if my parents where given the choice..

My uncle was born at home in the 1930's and I guess at that time it wasn't the standard I remember my grandmother telling us that my uncle was circumcised by another doctor in the town several days later . This was apparently at the insistence of my Grandfather who was Jewish.

It seems that this physician had the reputation around town as being a "horse doctor". My grandmother was horrified at the procedure but I guess it was a success because he went on to have 3 children. My father was also cut but by the same doctor who delivered him. I doubt my grandmother didn't witness that procedure.

Having been through it twice the only painful part was the prick of the nerve block injection and the occasional nocturnal erection.

@deedub "The *prick* of the nerve block, or the nerve block of the prick?

I was circumcised at 51 years old, two years ago. I had general anesthesia. I didn't have any pain waking up or even in the days that followed. Maybe just a tiny bit of discomfort, but nothing significant. I stayed naked as much as possible, as is my habit. It's true that at 51, you get fewer spontaneous erections.

In conclusion, based on my experience and my age at the time of my circumcision, I can't say that the operation was painful.

Most guys I know that have been cut say the same that the injection hurt more than the recovery. I think your experience is very normal tbh @deedub

When I read @Mrssnipgirl I'm glad I was asleep. Unsure if it was real general anesthesia, or just some kind of gas who would make me sleepy while they did a local injection.

Most people say that circumcision doesn't hurt very much, but I was circumcised at birth and couldn’t walk for almost a year.

I was circumcised last year. I was pretty afraid of the pain. The local anesthesia was a bit uncomfortable but wasn't really painful. Unfortunatly, the tip of my glans wasn't really anesthesized and the frenumlum inserted right there so that was pretty painful. But recovery was faster then expected. Also I didn't feel much pain. Of course erections at night were uncomfortable but not painful.

@Jap0000 why having that in adult age, if I may inquire?

I had phimosis since puberty started I think. But I was too shy to tell my parents and I was very ashamed of it in general. So it took a few years to go to the doctor and tell him about my problem.

My circumcision took place at the age of seven under general anesthesia. God knows why that was necessary. I still remember very clearly waking up at home feeling terribly sick from the anesthesia. I was disoriented because I had been put to sleep in the hospital operating room. And now, suddenly, I was at home on the couch. There was a thick bandage around my penis. That hurt a bit, especially when running and jumping and playing. I didn't like any of it because I also didn't understand why it was necessary …

I was awake and a local anaesthetic was used when I was cut. I was talking to the nurse. It felt like a lot of tugging and then a chomp then I didn’t feel anything until the anaesthetic started wearing off. It never hurt that much when recovering apart from erections.

I was given a script for some but I didn’t take any pain pills during recovering it didn’t hurt much