Gallery Intro for the Global Survey of Circumcision Harm

To fully appreciate the damage caused by circumcision, one must understand how the natural, intact penis should look and function. The photos on this page show the way that Nature/God intended the human penis to look and function.

Just as the female genitalia exhibit a wide variety of appearances of the labia and female foreskin (see the book "Femalia"), so too does the male foreskin reveal a wide variety of length, thickness and coloration. In the adult male, the foreskin accounts for 1/3 to 1/2 of the skin system of the penis, or about 15 square inches of erogenous inner and outer foreskin tissue.

The ridged band, frenulum, and inner and outer foreskin are all destroyed by infant circumcision. The foreskin has 20,000 nerve endings(1) and countless Meissner's Corpuscles - fine touch receptors - similar to those found in the lips, fingertips, female labia, etc. The male glans penis (head) has 4000 nerve endings, and in comparison, the equivalent smaller female clitoris has 8000 such nerve endings. The male foreskin is unquestionably a more highly receptive sensory organ than either the penile head or the female clitoris (or both combined!). Without the full complement of nerve endings and fine touch receptors of the foreskin, some men(2) have said that sex with a circumcised penis is like listening to a symphony without the string section or experiencing sight without colour.

(2) Men circumcised as adults, or as children and later used foreskin restoration techniques to approximate the look, function and feel of a foreskin.

The foreskin is the ONLY movable part of the penis, as is the intended design of Nature/God. The intact penis with its movable foreskin is a dynamic sexual organ. The circumcised penis has no moving parts and is a static organ.

During sexual activity the nerve-laden inner foreskin, with its erogenous ridged bands, glide up and down the shaft of the penis and over the corona (flared edge) of the glans. The foreskin and glans stimulate each other during this activity. The frenulum is also highly nerve-laden, so every stretch and relaxation of the frenulum produces pleasurable sensations.

When the penis becomes erect, the foreskin on some men does not retract by itself and the male can choose to manually expose the glans (penile head), as in the three photos on the left.

On other intact men, when the penis erects the foreskin retracts to expose the glans and the male can choose to recover the glans with the foreskin.

Circumcised males do not have these options. There is often insufficient penile skin to accommodate a full erection, which causes many circumcised men to experience tightness and pain during erection. This is revealed in the Gallery of photos submitted by respondents.

By now, you've probably noticed the moist appearance of the intact penis. The foreskin preserves the natural male lubricants that keep the internal parts of the penis responsive to sensual pleasures, and aides in its own mobility, as well as reduces chafing and abrasion during sexual intercourse. These lubricative qualities are destroyed by circumcision.

The meatus (urinary opening) in the intact penis is usually a long slit that, when compressed by a finger or under pressure of expelling urine, becomes a wide opening. These two photos reveal the differences between a natural meatus and one that is stenosed after circumcision.

Other Functions of the Foreskin

Other functions of the foreskin, which are destroyed by circumcision and which cannot be easily depicted here include:

specialized epithelial Langerhans cells, a component of the (disease-fighting) immune system

the immunological defense system of the soft mucosa, which may produce antibacterial and antiviral proteins such as lysozyme, also found in mothers milk, and plasma cells, which secrete immunoglobulin antibodies.

lymphatic vessels, the loss of which interrupts the lymph flow within a part of the bodys immune system.

apocrine glands of the inner foreskin, which produce pheromones —nature's powerful, silent, invisible behavioral signals to potential sexual partners. They contribute significantly to sexuality. Their loss is unstudied.

strogen receptors the purpose and value of which are not yet fully understood.

ectopic sebaceous glands, which lubricate and moisturize.

approximately half of the temperature reactive smooth muscle sheath called the dartos fascia.

an estimated 240 feet of microscopic nerves, including branches of the dorsal nerve.

a significant percentage of the distal penis circumference is composed of a double layered fold of inner and outer foreskin, which is missing from the circumcised penis, making the circumcised penis thinner in girth near the head than a full-sized intact penis.

several feet of blood vessels, including the frenular artery and branches of the dorsal artery. The loss of this dense vascularity interrupts normal blood flow to the shaft and glans of the penis, obviously damaging its natural function and possibly stunting its complete and healthy development.

although not yet proved scientifically, there is considerable new evidence that an incomplete penis loses its capacity for the subtle electromagnetic "cross-communication" that occurs only during contact between two mucous membranes, and which contributes to the perception of sexual ecstasy.