OK, so I know that this can be a somewhat private issue (not just for me, but for many people), but I want some discussion and insight into it anyway.
I'll start off by giving some background information that may or may not be particularly relevant to the rest of my story. My parents are Muslim, and I only became a fully-fledged Atheist about four or, at the latest, five years ago (I don't think I was ever really a true Muslim in the first place; I just did what my parents told me, as with most children in religious upbringings). But when I was about four, I was circumcised. I think I recall my mum telling me that it wasn't necessarily to do with "our" religion, but that I'd had some kind of infection and the best thing to do was to circumcise me so it wouldn't be an obstruction anymore. I do remember something like that which had made it uncomfortable, to say the least. However, I'm not entirely sure how true that is, and she could've just been shovelling me lies to keep me quiet, on the basis that I wouldn't wholly remember it when I grew up.
Now, some of my friends and websites that I've visited, detailing various medical studies, have said that circumcision can reduce the sensitivity of a man's penis and, therefore, reduce sexual pleasure, with some (potentially biased) opinions dubbing it "genital mutilation" (I think it's just people, many of whom ignorant of circumcision in general and/or the strict definition of "mutilation", using inflammatory language to wind people up, rather than just using the proper and generally accepted term). Obviously, this is a concern for someone like me, a 16-year-old heterosexual boy who's looking to have sex with a potential girlfriend some time in the future, and I'd hate for one or both of us to be short-changed unfairly like that.
But other websites and studies I've looked at have said that there's no change, and/or that it can actually expose/enhance certain sensitive areas of the penis, giving the same or more sexual pleasure, and some women like it. So basically, what I'm asking here is to have some kind of definitive, unbiased verdict on the whole thing, because I don't need yet another thing to stress about (as sad as that may sound) and I'd rather it not be a problem in the future.
I'll start off by giving some background information that may or may not be particularly relevant to the rest of my story. My parents are Muslim, and I only became a fully-fledged Atheist about four or, at the latest, five years ago (I don't think I was ever really a true Muslim in the first place; I just did what my parents told me, as with most children in religious upbringings). But when I was about four, I was circumcised. I think I recall my mum telling me that it wasn't necessarily to do with "our" religion, but that I'd had some kind of infection and the best thing to do was to circumcise me so it wouldn't be an obstruction anymore. I do remember something like that which had made it uncomfortable, to say the least. However, I'm not entirely sure how true that is, and she could've just been shovelling me lies to keep me quiet, on the basis that I wouldn't wholly remember it when I grew up.
Now, some of my friends and websites that I've visited, detailing various medical studies, have said that circumcision can reduce the sensitivity of a man's penis and, therefore, reduce sexual pleasure, with some (potentially biased) opinions dubbing it "genital mutilation" (I think it's just people, many of whom ignorant of circumcision in general and/or the strict definition of "mutilation", using inflammatory language to wind people up, rather than just using the proper and generally accepted term). Obviously, this is a concern for someone like me, a 16-year-old heterosexual boy who's looking to have sex with a potential girlfriend some time in the future, and I'd hate for one or both of us to be short-changed unfairly like that.
But other websites and studies I've looked at have said that there's no change, and/or that it can actually expose/enhance certain sensitive areas of the penis, giving the same or more sexual pleasure, and some women like it. So basically, what I'm asking here is to have some kind of definitive, unbiased verdict on the whole thing, because I don't need yet another thing to stress about (as sad as that may sound) and I'd rather it not be a problem in the future.
