"Wearing a condom or wearing a glove ... sight without color would be a good analogy ... only being able to see in black and white ... rather than seeing in full color would be like experiencing an orgasm with a foreskin and without. There are feelings you'll just never have without the foreskin." (Paul Tardiff, circumcised at 30, NOCIRC Circumcision Video, by Marilyn Milos, RN, and Sheila Curran, RN)

"Eight weeks ago I was circumcised ... In order to adjust to the exposure of a previously protected glans I used ... Nupercainal for about a week ... [then] the glans was permitted to dry and peel (in much the same way that skin peels after a sunburn); by the end of the second week the process was completed and about 75% of my sensitivity was gone ... whereas brushing my hand against the glans before circumcision would drive me up a wall, now I could comfortably rub it ... My first ejaculation was a totally new sensation; the glans actually felt naked afterwards, throbbing with blood and sensitive to the cool air ... it almost ached for the protection of a warm sheath, which would never be possible again ... I will eventually have about 90% less sensitivity than before. Startling as this might seem to most circumcised guys, it is quite true--and should give them some idea of the intensity of sensations they have never known. I used to experience great pleasure in touching myself, or in masturbating even during sex. That pleasure no longer exists ... Because I have lost so much physical feeling I must now rely heavily on mental stimulation to achieve orgasm ... I am constantly on the lookout for new ways or mechanical gadgets that provide greater mental and physical stimulation--simply to experience the sensations previously achieved with hand strokes alone ... Now an orgasm is an achievement, and if I am not turned on experiencing it is sheer work. Because so much feeling has left I seek intensified stimulation ... though my glans is less sensitive, overall, it is more sensitive to scraping, etc. because it has no protective covering, and because it is less sensitive it requires greater pressure to achieve orgasm ... Concerning anal sex, I was never big on it ... Now I seek it constantly; it is, in a way, a longing for the protective sheath I have lost-- along with its moisture and warmth ... Those who were circumcised as infants cannot imagine what pleasurable sensations were destroyed at the outset." ("Circumcision: Prime Cut," by George Desantis, QQ Magazine, March/April 1976)

"I experimented with Scotch Tape and kept the foreskin taped back ... but the chafing on the knob was painful at the end of the day and I could not imagine how anyone could be circumcised and endure that pain ... after my circumcision, I experienced that same irritation; it lasted two weeks and then one day I woke up and the knob felt nothing -- all the nerve ends had died over night." (From a letter to Rosemary Romberg, author of Circumcision: The Painful Dilemma, from a man in Canada, circumcised at 28)

"My newly naked glans [after the operation] was protected from irritation with bandages ... Slowly the area lost its sensitivity and as it did I realized I had lost something rather vital. Stimuli that had previously aroused ecstasy had relatively little effect ... The acute sensitivity never returned. Something rather precious to a sensual hedonist had been lost forever ... My experience ... is ... that circumcision destroys a very joyful aspect of the human experience for both males and females." (NOCIRC Newsletter) [Date?]

"The greatest disadvantage of circumcision, in my view, is the awful loss of sensitivity and function when the foreskin is removed ... I was deprived of my foreskin when I was 26; I had ample experience in the sexual area, and I was quite happy (delirious, in fact) with what pleasure I could experience--beginning with foreplay and continuing--as an intact male. After my circumcision, that pleasure was utterly gone. Let me put it this way: On a scale of 10, the uncircumcised penis experiences pleasure that is at least 11 or 12; the circumcised penis is lucky to get to 3 ... If American men who were circumcised at birth could know the deprivation of pleasure they would experience, they would storm the hospitals and not permit their sons to undergo this unnecessary loss. But how can they know? You have to be circumcised as an adult, as I was, to realize what a terrible loss of pleasure results from this cruel operation." (From a letter to Marilyn Milos, RN, Founder/Director of NOCIRC)

"After thirty years in the natural state, I allowed myself to be persuaded by a physician to have the foreskin removed -- not because of any problems at the time, but because, in the physician s view, there might be some problems in the future. That was five years ago, and I am sorry I had it done now from my standpoint and from what my female sex partners have told me ... the sensitivity in the glans had been reduced by at least 50%. There it is unprotected, constantly rubbing against the fabric of whatever I am wearing. In a sense, it had become calloused. Intercourse is now (as we used to say about the older, heavier condoms) like washing your hands with gloves on ... I seem to have a relatively unresponsive stick where once I had a sexual organ." (S.J., Denver [quoted], Say No to Circumcision! 40 Compelling Reasons, by Thomas J. Ritter, MD, and George C. Denniston, MD, Hourglass Book Publishing, 1996)

"I did decide to get circumcised at age 28, mainly because I had heard that it was much easier to keep clean ... I found that the negatives of circumcision far outweighed the minor benefit of a slight improvement in hygiene. I wound up being very sorry that I had become circumcised because of a major loss of sexual enjoyment after the circumcision. I found that the loss of my foreskin led to a drying out of the head of my penis and a resulting loss of sensitivity ... But the biggest factor in the loss of sexual enjoyment was that I no longer had a foreskin to massage the head of my penis during intercourse and masturbation. I no longer had skin moving tightly back and forth across the head of my penis, which had provided a great deal of pleasure previously. I still consider the decision to get circumcised the biggest mistake in my life." (R.P. [quoted], Tulsa, The Joy of Uncircumcising!, by Jim Bigelow, PhD, Hourglass Book Publishing, 1995)

"There are no words to describe how powerful, how compelling a penis with a foreskin is and how one's life revolves around it ... Circumcision did not eliminate masturbation, but it took away its intense pleasure, its extreme sweetness ... it was wet like the inside of my mouth for 25 years ... I wanted everyone who had not been through it to experience it ... Circumcision is ... getting it [one's penis] back broken, bleeding, in great pain, with its most delicate, sensitive parts ... cut off, permanently weakened ... the glans eventually dried out (a process that took over a year) ... Before circumcision my erections would be extremely strong ... Now the erection is weaker and the penis does not get so terribly stiff." (From a letter to Rosemary Romberg, author of Circumcision: The Painful Dilemma, from a man in Florida, circumcised at 25)

"My wife would chew on my foreskin. That would drive me out of my mind. Now I think someone could chew the head off and I might not feel it." (Private communication from a man circumcised in his early 30's)

"I had myself circumcised when I was 21, the worst mistake I ever made in my life." (Letter, NOCIRC Newsletter, Spring 1992)

"[O]ne of the biggest mistakes of my life. I feel damaged on every level. Sexual pleasure has been reduced by at least 70% both in intensity and range of sensations ... The testimony of men who have experienced life with a foreskin and then lost it is perhaps the most damning of all arguments against circumcision ... For an adult male to be misled into circumcision is regrettable, but to inflict irreparable damage on a non-consenting infant who will carry the physical and psychological scars all his life is tragic -- and a crime." (William E. Krueger [2024 Craig St., Winston-Salem, NC 27103], circumcised at 30. Welcomes correspondence.) [Quoted with permission]

[Yes, these statements are "just anecdotal." But why are they just anecdotal?]