BODY TALK

More And More Adult Men Are Snipping Off Their Foreskin And Here’s Why

482142585“I felt relieved,” Adam tells the New York Post about his recent circumcision. “I felt like King David.”

On New Years Day two years ago, 39-year-old Adam, who declined to give his last name for “personal reasons,” says he decided to kick off the new year by chopping off his foreskin.

“I planned to start the new year right,” he says.

Adam was born in France. He now lives in New York’s West Village. Growing up, his parents wouldn’t allow a bris for fear that it would create an external sign of being Jewish “in a hostile world.” And so Adam went his whole life wishing he were circumcised.

Immediately after the procedure two years ago, Adam and his rabbi went to a nearby park to bury his foreskin, a practice which symbolizes “putting the negativity back into the earth.”

Of course, deciding to get the snip was easy. The recovery, on the other hand, was a different story.

“There was a five-week recovery before I could use it,” Adam says, explaining the recovery regimen included remaining bandaged for 10 days and soaking his scabbby junk in Epsom salt twice a day for 30 minutes.

But, he says, it was all worth it in the end. “It looks better,” he says.

34-year-old Boris can relate. The Staten Islander decided to get circumcised last year after marrying a Jewish woman.

“I thought about it my whole life,” Boris explains. “It’s unfortunate I had to wait till I was 33.”

The procedure cost $1000 and took about 40 minutes, during which Boris lay on a table covered with a sheet. After the anesthetic kicked in, “the actual thing takes maybe a minute.”

Boris describes the first two weeks following the procedure as “horrific, especially the swelling.” Luckily, he had Vicodin (and his loving, supportive wife) to help get him through the worst of it. Sex was off limits for about two months. The reason being that an erection can cause extreme soreness. Urinating was not a problem, he says, although he admits “the next six months weren’t normal.”

Though there are no official statistics yet, mohels and doctors claim they’ve seen an uptick in adult male circumcisions in recent years.

“Circumcision is hot,” urologist Dr. Paul Turek tells the New York Post. Turek estimates that about half of his adult patients, many of whom are well into their 20s, get circumcised purely for cosmetic reasons. “They’ll come in and say, ‘I think I need to get cut.’ Some men don’t like [the foreskin]–their partners don’t like it.”

Dr. Ian Kerner, a New York-based sex expert, agrees.

“I’ve met American men who were uncomfortable that they weren’t circumcised, and it’s caused them social embarrassment,” says Kerner. “In some ways, it’s the same reason someone would get a nose job. It’s elective surgery, but it makes you feel better.”

What do you think about adult male circumcision? Sound off in the comments section below.

Related stories:

Cut Or Uncut: Which Do You Prefer?

Here’s The Real Reason Why You’re Circumcised

Man Goes To Hospital For Circumcision, Wakes Up With No Penis

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