My friend owns a multi-use space and rented it out over the weekend to an ayurvedic practitioner who was doing a course on postpartum doula training. Because he had another commitment, he asked me to sit in over the weekend to help move tables and chairs, keep the tea pots full, etc. There turned out to be only women in the class, and myself, but I was mainly sitting at the front desk which is in the same room as the classroom, but behind everyone.
The group was aged from late twenties to mid forties. The teacher was probably early forties, thin waist with long brown hair, some tattoos, about C cup breasts, and a very attractive face and body.
At one point during the class, a student asked “I have a question. If our client’s baby is a boy and they ask, what advice are we supposed to give them about circumcision?” She was probably early to mid thirties, with short brownish blonde hair about down to her chin, and smaller breasts, maybe a B cup.
My ears perked up, being in a space with only women, I was very curious to hear how this discussion would go.
The teacher said “yeah, that’s a really great question. Thanks for asking Anna. Unfortunately the ancient texts don’t address circumcision directly, so we’re a bit limited in what we can say about it. However, some modern practitioners have noted that there is a marma point located midway up the tip of the penis on the backside which is responsible for sexual energy and vitality, and so gently pressing that point after circumcision is believed to bring prana to the area and help with healing. There obviously haven’t been any modern studies on it, so we can’t say for sure if it helps, but I always mention it to mothers who ask me for advice with circumcision recovery. Just from personal experience, when my sons had their circumcisions done I pressed on the point gently during diaper changes and they both healed quickly and without issues and I know some of my girlfriends had trouble with slow healing or adhesions with their sons, so I think it’s worth keeping in mind. Does that help answer your question?”
Anna said “um, yeah, for sure, thanks. So like, is our advice that they should get their baby circumcised if they’re still deciding, or like, would you only say that if the client already decided to do it? Like, is it recommended for boys in ayurveda to be circumcised?”
The teacher said “well, again, the texts don’t specifically mention it, so ayurveda doesn’t explicitly recommend for or against it. But I would say that in the context of us being in New England, the vast majority of new mothers you see are going to have had their sons circumcised in hospital before you even see them. It’s just super common, so you want to be able to support that because you’re going to see it a lot more than the other way around.”
Another woman said “I was a nurse in California earlier in my life, and out there the trend is definitely becoming less common because medi-cal doesn’t cover it anymore. So you’re seeing families with private health insurance usually still opting for it, but for families on medicaid it’s not common anymore.” She looked like she was in her 40s, dark blonde hair, but I didn’t really see much of her looks from where I was sitting.
Another girl asked “Isn’t that kind of messed up though? So only the richer families with private insurance can afford to do it, but the families that can’t pay for it just have to hope that… what like, isn’t it more likely to get an infection if boys don’t get it done?” This girl had dark hair, almost black. She had olive skin and pretty big breasts, like about D cup, and looked like she was in her early 30s.
The original girl who asked the question, Anna, said “I think the benefits are kind of being debated now though. Like, do the benefits outweigh the risks?”
The olive skinned girl said “for a man or a woman?” Lots of women giggled at that comment.
Anna said “lol, no obviously for us it’s fine. But I mean for the boys, some studies are showing now that they may lose a lot of nerve endings when the foreskin is removed. So like, maybe sex doesn’t feel as good for them if they are circumcised?”
The teacher said “for women the benefit is improved hygiene and lower risk of std transmission and cervical cancer, there’s really not much downside. But those are really the same benefits as for the man. It’s just that for the man, does it decrease his sensitivity? Maybe, i don’t think we have very conclusive studies on that.”
Another woman who was french canadian with an accent, long brown hair, slim, and small breasts said “My son was born in canada, and they don’t normally do it unless you ask for it. So my son isn’t circumcised, but now he’s 6 and he’s had a couple of infections, so we don’t know but we might need to do it for him still. So yes, it’s true that it can be a bit more to deal with. I didn’t know it was so common here. Is it like, almost all the boys have it done?”
The woman sitting next to her said “oh, yeah. I actually don’t think i know any uncircumcised men. All the men in my family had it done as babies”
At that point the conversation fractured into a bunch of people talking at the same time to each other. Eventually the teacher brought the focus back to the front, said that they could circle back to the topic later time permitting, and moved on to belly binding.
