To my fellow lactnetters,

I would not normally post about a personal matter, but I need help
and sincerely ask for your understanding.  My son Matthew was born with
a balanic hypospadias, which is a mild form of this anomaly whereby the
urinary meatus is located on the ventral side of the penis on the bottom
of the glans.  He has no chordee, or ventral bowing of the penis,
however.  He has no problems with micturition, or erection.  He is 9
months old.

When he was born, a ped urologist was consulted, who assured me that
this was very mild and rest assured that after surgery he will be
completely "sexually and urologically" normal.  I had just had a c/s and
was out of it, I had read about hypospadias, saw my son's penis and was
not overly concerned as I am well read.

Everything I can find on this indicates that this mild form, grade one
as it is called, is not of any reproductive or urologic concern.
"Cosmetic surgery is usually performed to protect the developing male
body image", to quote a text I have.  We did not want our son
circumcized from the beginning.  Is this cosmetic surgery nothing more
than an exacerbation of the circumcision question?  Who's to say my son
will be psycologically traumatized?  Do men of circ'd and un circ'd
penises go around comparing them the rrest of their lives?  As we all
know, circumcision is not medically indicated.  The majority of reason
it is done is so "son can look like Daddy or whatever".

The literature is replete with the fact that surgery/separation from
parents, etc. can be  traumatizing to the child.  I'd rather wait to do
this surgery...IF AND WHEN MY SON COMES TO ME AND SAYS TO ME, "Mommy,
what's wrong with my penis and can I have it fixed?"

I believe in maturation of the child, both to handle the pain of the
surgery (if it's NOT AN EMERGENCY OR MEDICALLY NECESSARY, I.E. ELECTIVE)
and also to handle the separation/environmental stress.  Can't my son
get this fixed later, if he wants?

What do you all think?  I'm looking for answers from HCP's in my area,
and keep coming up with "psycologic trauma from having a different
penis".  Can someone find some references for me of children who have
NOT HAD THIS REPAIRED, AND WERE, SO "TRAUMATIZED".  Is there in fact
literature to support this theory?

Any help, thoughts, comments and/or literature would be so appreciated.
MY son is too young to have this done in my opinion, and better yet,
does it need to be done at all?

Many thanks,

Wendy Lee Reddy
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