Hello my dear friends and loved ones! Dr Shah here! In this short blog post we are going to quickly go over the topic – how painful is circumcision in adults?

Firstly, the most important thing to bear in mind is that, close to 60% of individuals avoid circumcision because they think that the procedure is painful. However, the contrary is true. Circumcision is NOT a painful procedure as most adults would think it to be. To further emphasize, circumcision is very simple day care procedure with mean surgical time of 13 to 15 minutes.

Furthermore, since the procedure is done under anaesthesia (both spinal and/or local is used) the sensation of pain will not manifest during the procedure. More specifically, the choice of procedure usually defines the extent of discomfort felt post surgery. To further elaborate, there are 2 types of circumcision procedures. Firstly, it’s the conventional circumcision procedure with stitches and secondly it’s the stapler circumcision procedure. With normal conventional circumcision, patients usually have a longer healing time of 8 to 12 weeks. Mild to moderate pain will be felt during the first 7 to 10 days post procedure. However, when your doctor or surgeon employs the stapler circumcision technique, pain is usually NIL.

In my own experience of running a circumcision clinic in Chennai, over 98% of patients never reported pain as a problem especially after stapler circumcision. A cardinal advantage of stapler circumcision over conventional circumcision is that, there is NO PAIN (both during procedure & post procedure). The difference primarily boils down to the method of procedure and technique.

To further elaborate, in conventional circumcision, stitches are placed with regular bites at 1 cm intervals approximating the inner and outer layers of the foreskin. Consequently when these stitches heal, there will be pain and discomfort. But, in the case of stapler circumcision, no such stitches are placed as such. The 2 layers of the foreskin are approximated with the help of micro staples. This eventually leads to excellent apposition of the wound edges, without bites or cuts from the stitches. Thereby, the overall inflammation on the wound site is less and furthermore, the healing is way faster. Thus, the stapler circumcision technique results in NO PAIN for the patients greatly helping patients in terms of recovery.

Some quick tips for patients undergoing conventional circumcision to reduce the pain include.

1. Avoid lying on your stomach post procedure or on your sides
2. Next, do not ever lift heavy weights or objects
3. Strictly avoid 2 wheeler travel since you will compress the surgical site or organ on the fuel tank while riding, thereby increasing the overall pain
4. Definitely stick to the anti-inflammatory medications prescribed by your circumcision surgeon. This will help reduce wound oedema, pain & inflammation and accelerate healing times
5. Take fibre rich and an anti-oxidant rich diet. This will tremendously help the overall healing process.
6. Adequate bed rest is a must post conventional circumcision surgery. Stick to the medical advice.

Lastly, remember to visit your circumcision surgeon for a regular follow up on your wound healing. Most patients will sincere follow up for further care. With conventional circumcision you may notice bumps in the later stages of healing, this is normal and this occurs because of scar formation. The bumps usually reduce in size with time.

Another important point to bear in mind is that, with conventional circumcision, you must allow the wound to stabilize for at-least 12 weeks post surgery. However, if you underwent a stapler circumcision the time to overall healing is just 4 weeks.

To conclude, the pain that adults experience post circumcision largely depends on the technique of circumcision used.

We strongly advocate the stapler circumcision treatment in chennai since it is largely a PAIN-FREE procedure I hope you enjoyed reading this article on ‘how painful is circumcision in adults’. Keep watching this space Cheers!

References

1. Mohan, Chandrakala G., et al. “Comparison of analgesics in ameliorating the pain of circumcision.” Journal of perinatology: official journal of the California Perinatal Association1 (1998): 13-19. 
2. Boyle, Gregory J., et al. “Male circumcision: pain, trauma and psychosexual sequelae.” Journal of Health Psychology 7.3 (2002): 329-343.