My most recent practicum student from the College of Nursing was recently doing a presentation on birth control options to the residents of our group home. She had gone through the female hormonal methods and was instructing us on the female barrier methods when the subject of female sterilization came up. One of the girls angrily commented, "Why don't they have a surgery for guys?".

Just as the nursing student was about to explain that there is such a surgery, and she was going to discuss male contraceptive methods after she had covered all of the female ones, another resident piped up, "They do! It's called, 'snipping the penis'".

I had to smile a bit at this, thinking she had probably heard about someone 'getting snipped', but I couldn't help thinking of a doctor explaining the procedure to a man by using this term and getting a pretty lukewarm reception.

She followed her intial comment by adding, "They just cut a piece off of the end of it". We realized that she was referring to circumcision, not a vasectomy. The student and I corrected her, and I sternly added to the whole group that any boy who tells you that a circumcision will prevent you from getting pregnant is a damn liar.

Still, I got a huge laugh out of this, as visions of Lorena Bobbitt danced in my head. I imagined someone laying their penis on a paper cutter, and the doctor saying, "How many children do you and your wife want to have? Three? Okay ... well, this should be more than enough ...".

As my one friend commented, "If that was the way it was done, there'd sure be a lot fewer Jewish people running around!"



PS: I don't know what this picture actually refers to, but I couldn't resist using it.