When my father was born, he was not circumcised. At age six, he reportedly developed an infection and was circumcised, apparently without anesthesia, as he suffered great pain.

When I was born about 20 years later, according to my mother, he insisted that I be circumcised, so that I would not suffer the pain that he experienced! In those days, doctors erroneously believed that infants could not feel pain, because the nerves were not yet myelinated. They even did open-heart surgery without anesthesia!

My father apparently believed that all intact boys developed infection, so in his mind, my infection would be inevitable. When I was born, little information was available. I believe that he was well-meaning and trying to protect me based on the limited information available, so I do not bear feelings of hatred and resentment

I learned that I had been circumcised when I was nine years old. I was so shocked that I lapsed into silence and could say no more.

In my community at that time, only about one-half of boys were circumcised, so I learned what I was missing. Needless to say, I was NOT happy about my loss, but there was nothing to be done.

Later as an adult, I learned about the existence of non-surgical foreskin restoration because of BUFF’s announcement. I started to restore right away.  At this time, I am fully restored and have been for several decades.

I became an intactivist after NOCIRC was organized.

Human skin grows from the inside. The outer layer continually flakes off and collects on the human body. Smegma is a mixture of moisture, skin oil, and exfoliated skin. It does accumulate under the foreskin of males and in the vulva of females.

Since most American men have been circumcised for several generations, they lack a foreskin and preputial sac and do not accumulate smegma, so they know little about it. In the absence of any actual experience, many Americans have come to believe myths about how gross, smelly, nasty, unsightly, and generally horrible smegma is alleged to be.

In reality, smegma is normal, natural, harmless, and beneficial. It is beneficial because the oil in the smegma contributes to the health of the mucosa that covers the glans penis and the inside of the foreskin. 

Circumcised men cannot enjoy the benefit of smegma because they lack a preputial sac to collect the smegma, but restored men have a preputial sac and can collect beneficial smegma.

Smegma does not hurt or itch. It may harmlessly remain in the preputial sac under the foreskin for extended periods of time. Humans evolved over a million years as did the foreskin and its health-giving functions. They did not have showers with hot and cold running water. They lived with smegma to bathe their glans penis in beneficial skin oil.

If left undisturbed for a long period of time, smegma may harden and become difficult to remove. In such cases, the smegma may be soaked with vegetable oil to soften it for removal.

When smegma is not removed for a very long time, bacteria may grow in the smegma and cause it to become smelly. It may easily be washed away with warm water.

Birley et al. (1993) recommended not using soap and restricting washing to prevent balanitis.

There is much false information on the Internet. It is falsely claimed that foreskinned men must retract their foreskin every day and use soap and water to wash away every but of smegma. This is very bad advice because soap removes every bit of healthy, beneficial skin oil. It fails to recognize the immunologic physiologic functions of the foreskin.

Circumcised men who have restored their foreskin will accumulate smegma in their preputial sac in the same manner as do intact men.

The intactivist legal organization, Intact Global, has announced its intention to sue the state of Colorado require it to give boys equal protection of the law against genital mutilation as it already protects girls.

There will be a dinner in Denver on Monday, 15 June 2026, followed by a press conference on Tuesday, 16 June 2026.
There will be videos on YouTube later.

It has been reported in the scientific literature that the incidence of boys being circumcised in the United States declined below 50 percent in 2022. There now appear to be more intact toddler boys than circumcised toddler boys.

The intact boys are not equally distributed. There are more intact boys in the Western region, but more circumcised boys in the Midwest region.

There are no signs that the statistics are likely to reverse. The rate of decline has been one percentage point every two years. That appears to be continuing.

The intact boys are healthy and happy. Parents-to-be who see the intact boys are more likely to protect their newborn sons from circumcision.

When today's toddlers grow up, there will be a lot more intact men in America.

Radio segment


Australian radio jock, reality tv star and footballer joked about his new born sons foreskin live on air with his colleagues after bringing it in as a ‘show and tell’ following his circumcision

One aspect of trying to navigate this trauma that's not really discussed in depth yet deserves more recognition is the general state of tiresome I find myself in on a constant basis. I've been depressed about this since the day I found out about it, which was years ago. I don't know if anyone else can relate to what I'm about to say, but parts of my brain feel dead. Like, I can literally feel my brain inactive in certain areas. It's such a weird but very real feeling. I know parts of your brain basically die when you suffer from chronic depression as I have, and I'm no biologist/scientist, but what if those dead sections can never come back to life?

That's something I really fear. That I've been depressed for years straight and that the literal biology and structure of my brain has entered a state of no return. Honestly that's how it feels on so many days. I'm in this constant trauma-induced brain fog state where I have this general "lost" feeling where I'm not sure what I'm doing or what's happening around me. That sounds like textbook dissociation, right? I've definitely dissociated hundreds of times before to escape the pain of this trauma.

I just wish society would stop doing this to children and that my voice could finally be heard. I just want a voice. But I can't even have that.

Im proud to admit that i have completely cut off good friends of mine after finding out that they, after me trying to convince them not to, mutilated their sons. More people need to do this. It hurts losing friends, but i personally cannot find it within myself to associate with anyone who condones or allows routine infant male genital mutilation. I dont care about "ignorance" or any of that shit. If you cut your son, i cut you out of my life. Its really that simple. This is the main reason why i dont associate with my family at all apart from literally one cousin that shares my similar view. Thats it. It sucks being alone but my morality literally prevents me from ignoring that those around me have had their boys mutilated. I just cant do it. I cant be around them, dont want to talk to them and want nothing to do with them.

I use alcohol to numb the intense feelings i have towards circumcision. It does make things feel so much better for a long while, but the feeling never lasts forever. Its always a fleeting happiness. I dont know if there is anything on earth that can make me whole again.

My drinking has become a serious problem in the last few years. I really dont know when to stop and ive tried quitting before to no avail.

Anyone else dealing with this trauma via drinking heavily? I know i cant be alone in that

Hey! 

Is there any forum here where works of literature on MGM could be shared?

Thanks.

Religious liberty is often used as an argument for infant circumcision. Let me present an opposite view.

I believe my body is a very good thing. I believe that my sexual desires, including my desire for wholeness, and my desire for all the sensations that accompany a foreskin retracting over the glans, are a very good thing. I believe my body, including my foreskin, was literally made in the image of God, who has a perfected physical body. I believe that I intentionally chose to come to earth to receive a body because I knew that it would bring me closer to God. I believe that sometime after I die, I will be resurrected in a perfected, physical body—with a foreskin—and that I will be closer to God because of my whole body. I believe little children are born pure, worthy, and whole. And for me, personally, when a medical provider attached a plastabell device around my foreskin and pulled it tight, she or he separated me from one of the most divine parts of my creation. I am spiritually impacted by that. I believe God values consent, deeply, and that he is sad when parents violate the consent of a child on something so personal and long-lasting.
 
I believe God is deeply fair, values individual accountability, and will not damn a child because of the decisions of a parent, including the decision to protect the sacredness of a child’s body and leave it whole. I believe everyone should be allowed to practice whatever religion they want, according to their own beliefs. A belief system should not have authority to make permanent changes to a child's anatomy because that child may grow up and desire to change their religion and may not wish their body to reflect their prior belief system—I believe it is a violation of religious freedom to allow parents to permanently modify the anatomy of a child.
 
I believe the research that suggests there is a decrease in masturbatory pleasure*. I also believe foreskin play, like docking, is valuable to a lot of gay men. I do not believe religious freedom should include allowing parents to make masturbation less pleasurable or certain forms of gay sex physically impossible.

For other believing folks out there, are there ways in which you feel like your religious freedom was violated by your infant circumcision?

*see the attached source document.