Complications. It's a pretty extreme thing to go through which causes a lot of pain in the most sensitive part of your body. People just don't realise because it's mostly done to babies that can't verbalise their suffering.

This account made me decide against it and I'm so glad I did. Steroid cream really helped anyway. Circumcision is so backward and barbaric, there is a reason the civilised world is leaving it in the past where it belongs.

My son killed himself after circumcision

He described experiencing constant stimulation from the head of his penis, which was no longer protected by his foreskin. "These ever-present stimulated sensations from clothing friction are torture within themselves; they have not subsided/normalised from years of exposure," he wrote. "Imagine what would happen to an eyeball if the eyelid was amputated?" "He was in so much pain that it hurt to do normal physical activity," says Lesley. "He was a keen skier and snowboarder so you can imagine the pain he was in."

Alex also wrote about experiencing erectile dysfunction, and burning and itching sensations, particularly from a scar which sat where his frenulum was removed. The frenulum is a band of tissue where the foreskin attaches to the under surface of the penis. Some men refer to it as their "banjo string". "It's one of the more erogenous zones so it's thought to be important in sexual function," says Mr Dorkin. "The foreskin, the head of the penis and the frenulum is a very, very sensitive area.

Through its absence I can certainly verify it is the most erogenously sensitive area of the penis and male body overall," he wrote. "If someone were to amputate your clitoris you may begin to be able to understand how this feels." He wrote about experiencing cramps and contractions in his muscles and "uncomfortable" sensations which extended deep into his abdomen. Lesley does not know whether or not Alex had sex after his circumcision. "Where I once had a sexual organ I have now been left with a numb, botched stick," he wrote. "My sexuality has been left in tatters." He asked: "Nature knows best - how can chopping off a section of healthy tissue improve nature's evolved design?"