This is going to be a little bit different than most other blog posts I write.
Usually, I post to report some finding or to comment on something.
But for this, admittedly, it's uncharted territory, it's more of an inquiry and an invitation for people to share their experiences.
I'm going to come out and say that I have by biases as an intactivist.
As far as I know, male circumcision was taken up by Western Medicine during the Victorian period as a possible solution to masturbation, which was seen as the root of all evil. Circumcision was supposed to desensitize the penis, making it difficult to masturbate, and, if research is correct, that's precisely what it does.
Circumcision necessarily results in the desensitization of the penis, because it removes hundreds if not thousands of specialized nerve endings, and the exposed glans and surrounding mucosa become dry and develop a layer of keratin over time in a process called keratinization. It is a well-known fact that circumcised men often find it difficult to masturbate without artificial lubrication, such as K-Y Jelly or Vaseline.
Sorrells et al found that circumcised penises become desensitized by a factor of 4.
It had long been established and well-documented that circumcision diminished sensation and made it difficult to masturbate. This was the whole reason for its adaptation.
And yet, here and there, I have often heard circumcised men comment to the effect that "I don't need any more sensation. If I had any more sensation I'd have a heart attack!"
For the longest time I wanted to ignore such men, because in my head, I thought they were merely playing Aesop's fox to sour grapes.
"They're bluffing," I thought.
"They must be overcompensating for the fact that they're circumcised and there's nothing they can do about it," or so I thought.
It's impossible.
They can't possibly be feeling the sensations they say they do. How could they?
But then I started talking to my circle of friends. People who had gone around the block. Female friends, male gay friends, and they all talked about a particular phenomenon that they had experienced with circumcised sex partners.
This wasn't the case with every circumcised man, as men are cut differently. Some men are cut loose, others as tight as a drum, and then some men have more, some have less sensitive inner mucosa left, others have retained their frenulum, others not, so every man is different.
Still, I kept hearing about this phenomenon where, a friend would be having sex with a circumcised man, or s/he would be performing fellatio on him, and things would be going well. But all of a sudden, there is this sudden rise of intensity, the circumcised man orgasms, ejaculates, and all of a sudden he does not want to be touched.
My friends would report that after being mounted, often times what will happen is, the guy gets off, rolls over and, instead of cuddling, the guy pushes his partner away. While my friends reported they'd like to stay together, spoon, hug, etc., their partners would often rather not want to be touched.
One of my friends said that one time, she was fellating a partner, there was that sudden jump in intensity, her partner climaxed and ejaculated, but she wanted to continue fellating him. She said he yelled "I said STOP!!!", as he pushed her away.
This is the darndest thing.
Just recently, I was having conversations about sex with two different male friends. One of them is gay, the other one is straight, both cut. It occurred to me to ask them about their experience with their partners. I asked them if they had experienced what I'm talking about, and they both answered with a resounding "YES."
One friend, the straight one, told me that, he feels rather desensitized for the most part. When a woman is going down on him, he says he has to ask her to suck hard like a vacuum cleaner, because otherwise he can't feel anything. He says that the intensity will build up, but it rises suddenly, very suddenly, he'll orgasm, ejaculate, but he has to ask his partner to stop, because oftentimes they like to keep going. It's as if, after orgasm, his penis becomes super extra sensitive and he can't handle anyone touching it.
My gay friend, who is a top, tells me that he'll be penetrating a partner, but then once he orgasms, "It comes to be too much," he says. He says his partners often want him to stay inside, but this is something he's had to "work" on. Otherwise he too wants to pull out as soon as possible and demand to be left alone for a while, while it wears off. I ask him what he thinks it could be, and he said that perhaps its that circumcision may have "re-wired" his penis. This would make sense; circumcision severs the nerves connected to the foreskin, and after this, the nerves would have to reconfigure themselves to fire differently, wouldn't they.
I don't know how this works; it sounds like something researchers should definitely be looking into.
For me this seems something like a paradox. On the one hand, men circumcised men become desensitized. But at the same time, some men seem to become super sensitive after orgasm. This must be what circumcised men mean when they say "I couldn't handle more sensitivity than I have now."
I for one can't identify with this experience; after orgasm, I prefer to stay as deep and as close to my wife as possible and I would never push her away.
But how widespread is this phenomenon?
This can't happen with every circumcised guy.
Can it?
Is this something scientists and researchers need to be looking into?
If it negatively impacts intimate experiences with partners, I should hope so.
It would be interesting to hear what other people's experiences are.
I invite you to please comment below.
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