CIN CompuBulletin
Circumcision Information Network 
Volume 2, Number 5, 11 February 1995

CIRCUMCISED BOYS REMEMBER PAIN OF SURGERY, STUDY SAYS
By:  Joseph Hall, Science Reporter
Friday, February 3, 1995
(Reprinted without permission)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Circumcision makes baby boys far more sensitive to pain than girls and
their non-circumcised counterparts, a Hospital for Sick Children study
suggests. 

And circumcised males may continue to be less tolerant of injuries and
painful ailments in youth and adulthood, said Dr. Gideon Koren, whose
study was published in this week's issue of the British medical journal
The Lancet. 

Videotaping 100 boys and girls as they got their diphtheria, whooping
cough, tetanus and flu vaccinations at the age of 3 to 4 months,
researchers at the hospital studied the infants for their responses to the
jabbing needles. 

"We discovered that the pain was higher among the boys with circumcisions
whereas (with) the boys that did not have circumcision, the pain was not
different from the girls." 

About 50 per cent of the babies were boys, and half of these were
circumcised -- about the rate in the Canadian population. 

Doctors measured the babies' pain responses by the length and loudness of
their cries and by the amount they writhed and wriggled in their
discomfort. 

The increased response to the vaccination pain among the circumcised boys
was likely due to a remembrance of their earlier penis surgery, Koren
said. 

"It tells us that boys who are circumcised remember that pain and it
probably conditions them to respond more for later pain," said Koren, who
is head of clinical pharmacology at the Toronto pediatric hospital. 

The study helps shatter the belief of some that newborns don't experience
pain, he said, and argues forcefully that baby boys should be given pain
relief during circumcision. 

We do know from adults that we are conditioned for pain, and the infant's
pain conditioning may well linger into later life, he said. 

"We did not check for this but I would not be surprised.  If this is
something that the newborn baby is remembering and it's already causing
him to be conditioned, then it may have long-term effects." 

Koren said there seemed to be no other explanation than circumcision for
the different reactions from the infants.  "We also looked at cultural
background and maternal intervention on pain response.  No significant
associations were found." 

Submitted by Dr. Robert Riley,  Telephone:  416.588.4676, Facsimile:
 416.588.3978
 85 Dunn Avenue, Suite #2          
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6K 2R8
Internet:   riley@planet.earth.org, or ay793@freenet.toronto.on.ca

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Child abuse begins with circumcision  ~~~~~~~~~~~

PENILE CANCER EXPLAINED
In response to the question by one of your readers regarding penile cancer
you should refer to the article by Maden, et al. in the Journal of the
National Cancer Institute, Vol. 85, No. 1, January 6, 1993, pp. 19-24.  In a
study of penile cancer victims conducted in WA and BC, Canada, among 110 men
in the study group, 41 were circumcised, 22 of those were circumcised at
birth.  The greater number of uncircumcised men with penile cancer is
attributable to the fact that the men at risk for this cancer are older, and
older men are more likely not to be circumcised.  As the huge bubble of
circumcised men reaches old age, they will suffer from penile cancer in
proportionate numbers.  This ongoing study is a bomb shell that missed the
lay press (of course) and has been virtually ignored by the medical press.

Even those who are very opposed to circumcision, i.e. Dr. Denniston, Dr.
Spock, and Dr, Ritter, say that circumcision prevents penile cancer. They
hasten to add, as your response did, that the tiny risk of penile cancer does
not warrant circumcising hundreds of thousands of babies to prevent
cancer in one old man.  The fact is, circumcision does not prevent penile
cancer.  Significant numbers of circumcised men in the very small geographic
area of this study had penile cancer.  The frequently quoted caveat that
penile cancer is never found in circumcised men is false.

This results of this important study should become part of the resource file
of everyone who is actively working to stop routine infant circumcision.  I
am genuinely surprised how few people are aware of this study and its
significance.  Even Dr. Denniston's letter published in reply to the article
did not mention the blockbuster nature of the study.

Let's spread the news.  The only thing circumcision prevents is proper penile
function.

From:  dataylor@design.byu.edu (David A. Taylor)
-David Taylor