Why Some Men Get Circumcised As Adults

Adult circumcisions are common in the Mid-Atlantic for men who never received a circumcision as a baby boy. The reasoning? Some men feel self-conscious about the way they look, while others develop skin conditions. Dr. Krishnan Venkatesan discusses the procedure and what men can expect during recovery.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: MedStar Washington Hospital Center presents Medical Intel where our healthcare team shares health and wellness insights and gives you the inside story on advances in medicine.

Host: Thanks for joining us today. We’re speaking with Dr. Krishnan Venkatesan, Director of Urologic Reconstruction at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Welcome, Dr. Venkatesan.

Dr. Krishnan Venkatesan: Hi. Thank you for having me.

Host: Today we’re discussing adult circumcision, a reconstructive procedure that, while not widely discussed, is growing in popularity among men in the Mid-Atlantic region. Dr. Venkatesan, could you start by explaining what circumcision is for listeners who might not know?

Dr. Venkatesan: Of course. Circumcision is basically removal of excess foreskin from the shaft of the penis. It can be done for many different reasons, which I think we’ll delve into later in this conversation.

Host: So, in the U.S., circumcision is typically performed on baby boys, so why are more men requesting the procedure, as adults, when they’ve been uncircumcised all their lives?

Dr. Venkatesan: There could be many reasons to undergo circumcision as an adult. Sometimes there are specific medical conditions. One is called phimosis, where the foreskin is actually tight and can trap urine underneath the skin and cause inflammation or infection of the head of the penis or the skin or even in the urinary tract. Sometimes, if they have warts or genital warts, men may want circumcision to have those removed. There are also other skin conditions. Lichen sclerosus is an immune mediated skin condition. We actually don’t know exactly what causes it, but basically, it can cause some scarring of the foreskin so the skin gets very tight around the shaft of the penis and onto the head of the penis and some patients may even feel that the head of the penis itself, the skin has lost its elasticity and instead of having a lot of small folds, it’s very flat and shiny, and some patients even will experience itching of the head of the penis, especially after sex, or even some fissures, like cracks in the skin, that can get very irritated after sex or even if the area is manipulated too much. In about twenty percent of those patients, they can also involve the opening of the penis where men urinate from and this can have other implications along the urinary tract, as well. All in all, circumcision is popular here in the U.S. and it’s not practiced that widely in the rest of the world. So, there are otherwise some social reasons that men tend to request circumcision, mainly because they’re self-conscious about being in a locker room or in a team shower or something, if they play sports, where some men may be circumcised, and some are not and they don’t really want to stick out.

Host: Do you ever have men come in who are concerned what their partners might think or their sexual partners might think? Could you address that?

Dr. Venkatesan: Yeah, absolutely. And that kind of goes along that social line that because, overwhelmingly, large number of men are circumcised in the U.S., men may worry that female partners may find it unusual or abnormal and because of that, they may feel more self-conscious about it. And they may also find that it’s less pleasing in intercourse or, in some cases, they may find that it’s uncomfortable for