Sexual Activity

What is the foreskin? is a question that many Americans would have trouble answering. Information about the foreskin is virtually absent during discussions of anatomy in biology classrooms, and yet, the foreskin provides a well-documented set of crucial sensory, protective, immunological, hygienic, and sexual functions. The foreskin is a double fold of skin that is twice as big as its appearance. It can make up to 80% or more of the penile skin covering, and includes around 12-20 square inches of skin (the size of a 3x4 or a 4x5 index card!)(51,52), and in turn includes a specialized sheet of dartos muscle(53)

One of the functions of this mobile skin system is to glide up and down the shaft of the penis in order to facilitate non-abrasive stimulation during sexual activity without any need for artificial factory made lubricant. This frictionless gliding mechanism is the principal source of stimulation for the intact penis and facilitates non-abrasive intercourse.(54)

The neuro-anatomy of the penis has been rigorously studied by respected anatomists of all kinds. The component tissues that comprise the foreskin are richly innervated with the greatest quantity and variety of sensory nerve endings than any other part of the penis; the foreskin can discern the slightest pressure, the lightest tough, the smallest motion, the subtlest changes in temperature, and the finest gradations in texture.(52,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62) Many people are surprised to discover that the glans or “head” of the penis is actually the least sensitive part and is insensitive to light tough, heat, cold and even pin-pricks.(52,61,62) Permanent unnatural exposure of the penis further desensitizes the glans, the foreskin keeps the glands healthy, clean, shiny, warm, soft, moist, and sensitive; with out the foreskin the glans are scared, dry, cracked, and pitted. Most notably, circumcision drastically reduces the glans sensitivity to vibration.(63)

To no surprise, this information was corroborated in a 2006 study which measured the sensitivity of all the parts of the penis. Researchers used an extremely sensitive pressure sensing probe while each test subject, whose view was blocked with a screen, reported a sensation of touch. To demonstrate precision they took each measurement multiple times. The results were statistically consistent. They concluded:

"Five locations on the uncircumcised penis that are routinely removed at circumcision were more sensitive than the most sensitive location on the circumcised penis[...] The glans in the circumcised male is less sensitive to fine-touch pressure than the glans of the uncircumcised male[...]The most sensitive location on the circumcised penis is the circumcision scar on the ventral surface [...] When compared to the most sensitive area of the circumcised penis, several locations on the uncircumcised penis that are missing from the circumcised penis were significantly more sensitive."(62)

(52) Taylor JR, Lockwood AP, Taylor AJ. The prepuce: specialized musocsa of the penis and its loss to circumcision. Br J Urol 1996 Feb;77(2): 291-5
(53)Jefferson G. The peripenic muscle; some observations on the anatomy of phimosis. Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics 1916 Aug;23(2):177-81.
(54)K. O'Hara and J. O'Hara. The effect of male circumcision on the sexual enjoyment of the female partner. BJU International, Volume 83, Supplement 1, Pages 79-84, January 1, 1999.
(55) Moldwin RM, Valderrama E. Immunohistochemical analysis of nerve distribution patterns within preputial tissues. J Urol 1989 Apr;141(4):499A. (abstract)
(57)Bazett HC, McGlone B, Williams RG, Lufkin HM. Depth, distribution and probable identification in the prepuce of sensory end-organs concerned in sensations of temperature and touch; thermometric conductivity. Archives of Neurology and psychiatry 1932 Mar; 27(3):489-517
(58) Ohmori D. Uber die Entwicklung der Innervation der Genitalapparate als peripheren Aufnahmeapperat der Genitalen Reflexe. Zeitschrift fur Anatomie und Entwicklungsgeschichte 1924;70(1):347-410.
(59)Winkelmann RK. The Cutaneous Innervation of the human newborn prepuce. Invest Dermatol 1956 Jan;26(1):53-67
(60)Winkelmann RK. The erogenous zones: their nerve supply and significance. Mayo Clin Proc 1959;34(2):39-47.
(61)Halata Z, Munger BL. The neuroanatomical basis for the protopathic sensibility of the human glans penis. Brain Res 1986 Apr23;371(2):205-30.
(62)Morris L. Sorrells, James L. Snyder. Fine-touch pressure thresholds in the adult penis . BJU 2006 Oct:22, pp. 864-869
(63)Yang, DM; Lin H, Zhang B, Guo W (April 2008). "Circumcision affects glans penis vibration perception threshold". Zhonghua Nan Ke Xue 14 (4): 328–330

Any study that relies on self reporting is ultimately useless. Psychology literature repeatedly and routinely shows that humans are weak animals that are programed to evaluate their end choices as positive via the free thought paradigm, especially when they have irreversible consequences.

Free thought paradigm (cognitive dissonance):

The person holding the belief must have committed himself to it; that is, for the sake of his belief, he must have taken some important action that is difficult to undo. In general, the more important such actions are, and the more difficult they are to undo, the greater is the individual's commitment to the belief. [1]

This Phenomena has been widely documented. When an important decision is made people evaluate there end result higher then they would have if they did not make the decision.

Using the free choice paradigm and an MRI, Sharot and colleagues have shown that after making a choice, activity in the striatum changes to reflect the new evaluation of the choice object, increasing if the object was chosen and decreasing if it was rejected. [2] Follow-up studies have largely confirmed these results. [3] [4] In other words people are actually programed to think this way.

In a different type of experiment conducted by Jack Brehm [5] , 225 female students rated a series of common appliances and were then allowed to choose one of two appliances to take home as a gift. A second round of ratings showed that the participants increased their ratings of the item they chose, and lowered their ratings of the rejected item. This can be explained in terms of cognitive dissonance. When making a difficult decision, there are always aspects of the rejected choice that one finds appealing and these features are dissonant with choosing something else.

Dissonance is aroused whenever individuals voluntarily engage in an unpleasant activity to achieve some desired goal. Dissonance can be reduced by exaggerating the desirability of the goal. Aronson & Mills [6] had individuals undergo a severe or mild "initiation" in order to become a member of a group. In the severe-initiation condition, the individuals engaged in an embarrassing activity. The group turned out to be very dull and boring. The individuals in the severe-initiation condition evaluated the group as more interesting than the individuals in the mild-initiation condition.

Similarly the authors of the “ikea effect” state:

Our research shows that labor enhances affection for its results. When people construct products themselves, from bookshelves to Build-a-Bears, they come to overvalue their (often poorly made) creations.We call this phenomenon the IKEA effect, in honor of the wildly successful Swedish manufacturer whose products typically arrive with some assembly required.
“
”
http://danariely.com/tag/experiments-2/page/3 / retrieved. 3/5/11

People who get cut as adults by definition desire circumcision.
References

1. ↑ Festinger, L. (1957) Cognitive dissonance. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
2. ↑ Van Veen, V., Krug, M.K., Schooler, J.W., & Carter, C.S. (2009). Neural activity predicts attitude change in cognitive dissonance. Nature Neuroscience, 12(11), 1469–1474.
3. ↑ Izuma, K., Matsumoto, M., Murayama, K., Samejima, K., Sadato, N., & Matsumoto, K. (2010). Neural correlates of cognitive dissonance and choice-induced preference change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A., 107(51), 22014-22019.
4. ↑ Qin, J., Kimel, S., Kitayama, S., Wang, X., Yang, X., & Han, S. (2011). How choice modifies preference: Neural correlates of choice justification Neuroimage, 55(1), 240–246.
5. ↑ Brehm, J. (1956). Post-decision changes in desirability of alternatives. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 52(3), 384–389.

If the penis doesn't require the foreskin for pleasure, why does this whole nation of males rely on hand lotion to masturbate with day in and day out? They need lotion to replace the moisture that causes sensitivity in the glans. Nations that don't circumcise don't need the hand lotion. Because they have a foreskin that provides the needed lubrication and sensitivity Geddit? If you have a foreskin you don't need to drown yourself in lotion or KY Jelly, however much fun it might be. Case closed!

The Fine touch study is available here: http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/sorrells_2007 /

To paraphrase, the most sensitive part of the circumcised penis is the scar where the foreskin was removed.

Schoen has claimed that circumcised men "last longer" during sex. Evidence? The males I know with premature ejaculation all had the traditional 1960s circumcision. My husband ... intact ... can last significantly longer. AND he enjoys sex more. Even if the duration of sex is identical for circ vs/ intact (as several studies show), wouldn't it be nicer to have MORE nerve endings and MORE enjoyment?

Schoen has stated that women prefer circed 3 to 1. Which women? Do you have a citation? If they are American women who say they prefer circed, it may be because they have never "test driven" an intact male. With the circ rate in USA at 55% and falling, the consumers of the future will have seen both, tested both and be able to make a fully educated choice. I am pretty confident my (intact) son will have no trouble getting girls in college.

If an intact male does end up in a long term relationship with a woman who "prefers circed", he can always have the surgery as a consenting adult. A circed male, in a relationship with a woman who "prefers intact" does not have a way to return his penis to the intact state. (Though the lengthy process of restoration can regrow a foreskin, it is still not quite as good as the original.)

1. The penis is easy to clean whether circumcised or not. A lot easier to clean then the many folds of the female anatomy. Personal cleanliness is important for both sexes. Circumcision does not necessarily make for a cleaner penis.
2. The gliding mechanism of the uncircumcised penis is pleasurable for the male and promotes a higher degree of orgasm in the female. Now, this assumes the male has the right techniques.
3. The preferance of skin or no skin is a no-brainer. As the circumcision rate in the western past of the country has dropped dramically among all races, the acceptance of the foreskin is rising. You like what you are familiar with. Period.

Which women are these exactly that prefer the look of a cut penis? Jewish and American no doubt, where circumcision is the norm. Trust me, world wide, this is emphatically NOT the case - and circumcision is NOT the norm. Americans like it because it's what they're used to and what they know. And the rest of the world disagrees, as they do on so many other things. Also, the fact that circumcised men take longer to orgasm is proof that much of the sensation and pleasure is taken away. This piece of skin is chock full of nerve endings that have a very real purpose. How dare anyone remove it without consent. So it stops cancer? Please. In that case, I recommend women have their breasts removed - because that will prevent breast cancer!

"Women, by a margin of about 3 to 1, prefer the circumcised penis, mainly because of cleanliness ..."

This is irrelevant. It is unethical to surgically alter a person's body to satisfy an assumption about his future partner's sexual desire. Breast implants forced on teen girls? But if your statistic mattered, that still leaves 25% of partners who will not prefer the surgical alteration forced upon him. Do only the preferences of those who agree with you matter?

If he is left intact (i.e. his healthy foreskin isn't surgically removed without medical need), he can still choose circumcision later if pleasing his actual partner's stated preference matters to him more than his foreskin.

As for cleanliness, soap and water are effective. In addition to being effective, soap and water are also still necessary. The knife doesn't mean he stays any cleaner. You're pushing a subjective surgical solution for a non-existent problem on objectively healthy individuals. Polls mean nothing here.

Most studies simply do a type of "touch test" which really doesn't show how the movement of the foreskin during sex affect pleasure... and not just for the man, what about the woman? The penile skin is essentially changed from being mobile to immobile, which has to some effect. One thing that would be obvious is the need for more lubrication, but I doubt that is the only effect... The foreskin retracts/covers the glans during sex, that movement is also lost, Without it is just extra lubrication enough? Is sensation reduced for the woman as well? I see people saying, "less pleasure is better for the guy so he lasts longer", but would he need to last longer if his wife recieved MORE pleasure from sex?

"Women prefer circed 3 to 1"... yea, cultures where stuff like this is more common you will find a preference for it, hairstyles, shaving, beards, clothes, female circumcision, but that doesn't make forcing the preference upon a child ok.

Sadly, trying to compare sensation between circed/intact is not simply as easy as a comparing it before and after the procedure. For starters all you can test on someone circumcised is the remaining skin and glans... you cant test the removed skin. What sensation is lost from the foreskin? Also, the results of this test cant really be applied to infant circumcision. An infant wont "use" his penis for 15,20 years, perhaps even longer for sex. During this time, the head (being something that is suppose to remain "internal") remains exposed and has to build up a resistence to contact with clothing, air, etc. How strong a difference does this resistance make it can be hard to know... but certainly a larger difference then an adult freshly circumcised.

Also, trying to test how the foreskin works together with the rest of the penis and the vagina is something difficult to test.