Circumcision should be done to a sexually mature male on a voluntary basis, experts say. Photo: Li Hao/GT

Fan Hong (pseudonym), a 28-year-old mother based in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province has been worrying about her six-month-old son Longlong, who recently had a little discomfort in the lower part of his body. About two weeks ago, she found something unusual with him.

Longlong needed to hold his breath and try very hard in order to urinate. He cried more at night and often scratched his genital parts. Also, he wet his pants more frequently than before.

"I found that his foreskin was too long, completely covering the head of his penis, which kind of impeded normal urinating," she said, adding that part of the urine would be held by the foreskin. It has triggered minor inflammation, according to the doctor who checked up her son. 

"I was wondering whether to get circumcision done for him," she said. "Many little boys in my workmates' and friends' families have been taken to the hospital to cut the foreskin, and they say that the earlier a boy does it, the less pain he would feel."

Fan is one of a great many of Chinese parents who are nervous about their sons' circumcision. According to a July 30 report by news portal sohu.com, Shi Bentao, a urological surgeon at Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, said the summer holiday is the busiest time for little boys' circumcision, and each day about 10 boys, ranging from infants to teenagers, were taken to the hospital by their parents for circumcision. Although more and more parents are choosing circumcision for their little sons, the voices against its application on boys who are too young are also growing louder.

Feng Guoping, a cosmetic surgeon at Peking University People's Hospital, said he does not suggest young boys remove their foreskin. He said some parents think infants can not feel as much pain as the grown up children, so circumcision should be done as early as possible. "But it is wrong. The pain for a little boy can be enormous," he said. "The pain and the fear could weaken young boys' immunity system."

Fan said one of her workmates had her son's foreskin cut when the boy was about one. When Fan consulted her, the mother said she regretted that because she had found too many side effects. "She said she regretted her decision because the boy was in pain for many days, and every time he urinated, he would cry and scream, and she found he would hold back the urine to lessen the pain," Fan said. "Also the boy was rather depressed and sad for a long time after recovery."

Feng said healthy male newborns' foreskin covers the whole balanus, because long foreskin is a self-protection function of human body to protect vulnerable body parts. However, with children's growth, the foreskin and the balanus will gradually separate. When children are five or six, they complete the separation. In some children, it may take a longer course of eight or nine years, he said.

"During the whole childhood and even puberty, boys' foreskin all seem too long," he said. "But the genital development is not finished yet and the surgery can not get the accurate length of skin it would remove, and if too much is removed, it might affect his sexual function in the future."

As a result, Feng suggests the best age for a circumcision is after 18, when a male reaches sexual maturity. That is because only less than 1 percent of males turn out to really have phimosis problem, and they can receive the surgery under local anesthesia. "Little children must have general anesthesia, which carries the risk of brain damage," Feng said.

Besides physical pain, the memory of circumcision during childhood may also cast a shadow on little boys' heart and even subconsciousness and make him afraid of genital parts and sex, said Chen Jinghui, a Beijing-based psychologist specializing on family and children.

"If a little boy receives the surgery, he is in no position to have a say in it, and the pain and embarrassment may lead him to distrust his parents and even become the root of certain mental problems," said Chen, who thinks a person should make his own decision whether or not to remove his foreskin.

Fan decided against the surgery for her son. Instead, she took a bottle of anti-inflammation potion from the hospital and used it to help thoroughly clean her son's private parts. The minor inflammation was relieved.

"He will grow fast, so maybe the problem can be fixed by his growth," she said. "I think parents should not overreact to this."