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Discussion » Questions » Health and Wellness » Was circumcision a common practice in your area when you were born?
Benedict Arnold

Was circumcision a common practice in your area when you were born?

I was born in 1950, in San Francisco, California. My parents did not have any religious or cultural customs that necessitate circumcision.  My parents followed the doctor's recommendation that I be circumcised.

Posted - September 28, 2021
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Responses


  • 13395
    Yes it was especially if the doctors had cats that had to be fed.
      September 28, 2021 6:24 PM MDT
    7

  • Certainly less common than in past decades and in other parts of the country. Circumcision is less common in California than in many other states.

    I was not circumcised. My dad is not either; he always thought it was a strange practice and I'm inclined to agree. I would not have my own son circumcised either.
      September 28, 2021 8:14 PM MDT
    4

  • 13277
    I doubt that. California has several large cities with sizeable Jewish communities. Circumcision is more common in large states like California than elsewhere.
      September 29, 2021 2:10 PM MDT
    4

  • It's actually less common on the West Coast than in many other regions of the U.S. Perhaps in part due to the high Hispanic Catholic population, a community in which it has always been less common. The rate is as low as 30% in the West compared to almost 75% in the Midwest:

    https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/circumcision_2013/circumcision_2013.htm
      September 29, 2021 3:56 PM MDT
    3

  • 16827
    It was, and I am. My son and grandson are not.
      September 28, 2021 10:49 PM MDT
    4

  • 44649
    yes, it was...plus i am jewish. the doctors didn't get paid...they only took tips.

      September 29, 2021 5:53 AM MDT
    4

  • 34433
    Yes. 
      September 29, 2021 8:29 AM MDT
    4

  • 1305
    No, I don't think roll neck jumpers are frowned upon as much in the UK.
      September 29, 2021 1:18 PM MDT
    4

  • 13277
    Very much so. I had mine done when I was 8 days old per Judaic tradition.
      September 29, 2021 2:12 PM MDT
    5

  • 44649
    With a mohel?
      September 30, 2021 8:54 AM MDT
    2

  • 13277
    Who else?
      September 30, 2021 10:28 AM MDT
    2

  • 44649
    My mother wasn't into the traditions. Probably a doctor. This post was edited by Element 99 at October 4, 2021 12:51 PM MDT
      September 30, 2021 10:30 AM MDT
    0

  • 17614
    I think so.
      September 29, 2021 4:57 PM MDT
    5

  • 551
    No, it was not considered normal. I don't think that white, non-Jewish people of my generation ever had it done to them except for reasons of medical necessity.
      September 29, 2021 5:37 PM MDT
    6

  • 1817
    probably, because I was born in the US, but I'm a female so it wasn't something i experienced personally. 

    i did not have my own son circumcised though, after doing research i  realized it is an unnecessary and even barbaric practice. 
      September 30, 2021 11:39 AM MDT
    4

  • 5451
    I didn’t have to worry about it when I was born since I’m a girl, but the statistic for my state is 77% of males were circumcised.  I’m not quite sure why it’s that high.  My husband and I refused to have our own sons circumcised because we don’t believe in it, which made my F-I-L scream bloody murder, but that’s better than the sons screaming bloody murder over a having a medically unnecessary procedure without anesthesia.  Anyway, that’s not our first parenting decision that made my F-I-L blow his stack.
      September 30, 2021 12:02 PM MDT
    7

  • 2706
    Yes, it was.
      October 1, 2021 7:10 AM MDT
    3

  • 53524

     

      I don’t know. There was enough diversity that it may have been common among certain groups or sectors or factions than it was among others.  As has been pointed out here by other members, religious, cultural, ethnic or nationality-based reasons determine whether or not it was done, and I do not know those breakdowns for the time and place where I was born. 
      ~

      October 1, 2021 7:55 AM MDT
    3

  • It's not a common practice in my country.  The figure from worldpopulationreview.com is 2,9%.
      October 3, 2021 10:39 PM MDT
    3