QUEENSLAND’S
Trusted Circumcision & Vasectomy Clinic
Gentle Procedures Clinic
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INTRODUCTION TO INFANT CIRCUMCISION
Baby circumcision is commonly done relatively early in life. Procedures completed in the first four months are considered newborn circumcisions. If you have decided to have your son circumcised, it is recommended to book it when he is 2 weeks of age or 3kg in weight; you can perform this procedure at any age. We focus on high-quality, safe, and reliable care to ensure parents and their son have a good experience. Over 80,000 circumcisions have been performed using our techniques over the last three decades, around the world.
Gentle Procedures Queensland was founded by Dr David Hunt. He underwent training with Dr Neil Pollock in Canada. The training included the Pollock Technique™ in providing safe and simple access to infant circumcision in Queensland. Our staff will support you after the circumcision surgery and you will be provided direct access to Dr Hunt for any post-operative questions or concerns. You will be provided with in-depth aftercare instructions and our team will follow up with you to ensure your son is his happy little self after his procedure.
Our goal is to make it simple for you to get the information and services you require. This page focuses on infant circumcision, so please visit the adult circumcision or adolescent circumcision pages if you need info on those procedures. When looking for the best facility for your son’s circumcision, please consider that the techniques for providing this surgery can vary from doctor to doctor.
Baby circumcision is commonly done relatively early in the life of your son.
Procedures completed in the first four months are considered newborn circumcisions.
If you have made the decision to have your son circumcised, it is recommended to proceed as soon as it is convenient for your family.
It is sometimes possible to get the operation in a hospital on an outpatient basis, but these institutions cannot offer the service level and experience of a specialised private circumcision clinic. Large institutions manage hundreds of different services and must prioritize urgent situations over hospital circumcisions for newborns.
Queensland hospitals do not generally offer baby circumcision for newborns in a convenient and timely way. Some hospitals may have offered circumcisions for infants before mother and baby leave the maternity ward, but this is no longer the case in many hospitals in Brisbane and Gold Coast areas, or across Queensland and Australia in general.
VITAMIN K POLICY FOR INFANT CIRCUMCISION < 12 MONTHS OF AGE
What are the Risks of Circumcision?
While the circumcision procedure performed on babies at our clinic can be considered routine and low risk, there is always some degree of risk with any surgery and we ask you to review them so as to understand.
- Bleeding after circumcision – In 1 in 500 circumcisions there may be some bleeding that is usually stopped with pressure or less commonly with stitches. If a bleeding disorder such as Haemophilia is present, then our doctors will need advice from a paediatric haematologist prior to proceeding.
- Infection – There is always a possibility that there could be a generalised infection requiring antibiotics after the surgery (1/4000).
- Serious infections are rare (1/5000).
- Concealed penis – When there is a good amount of fat around the penis (pubic fat), the penis may retract inward and increase the chances the penis gets partially buried and requiring medical intervention (1/800).
- Meatal stenosis – This is a narrowing of the urethra that may occur after the procedure requiring medical intervention (1/1000).
- Phimosis from circumcision – This is a narrowing of the shaft skin opening over the head of the penis requiring medical intervention (1/500)
- Trauma resulting in permanent damage to the head of the penis (never in our practice)
- Suboptimal cosmetic result (1/500)
- More serious complications including death (has never happened in any of our clinics).
The optimal age is at 2 weeks, but at our clinic we provide circumcision for males of all ages including older children, adolescents, and adults. Since newborn babies are less aware, recover faster, and the risk of complications is lower, families should try their best to have circumcision done as close to this time period as possible. However, it is common for a variety of reasons that circumcision will be done at a later time.
The Pollock circumcision method creator, Dr Neil Pollock has published a study that shows our pain control process is highly effective. Many babies can sleep right through the entire procedure. Most babies experience little or no pain at all.
It is not unusual for a baby to sleep 6-8 hours after the procedure and to miss a feed. Some babies will be irritable for a number of minutes to hours afterwards. Behaviourally, most babies are back to themselves by the next day or two.
Our procedure takes only a few minutes (10 times quicker than most hospital circumcisions). We use extensive pain control methods like Panadol, sugar pacifiers (which has been shown to reduce pain perceptions), soothing music, numbing cream, and local anaesthetic injection.
We have extremely low complication rates and no hospital administration fees are charged. Our clinics are designed to meet the needs of families for infant circumcision. Because of our focus on this procedure we are able to organise our staff and clinic operations optimally for baby circumcision. This makes us different from circumcision providers in greater Brisbane who do not specialise in this service.
No. If you are booking for your son, it is a parental decision and we only require consent from both parents to proceed. You may book online directly or give us a call anytime at 07 2103 2322.
Complications are rare. Occasionally, there can be bleeding from the circumcision many hours after the procedure. This is treated by putting some pressure with gauze on the penis for 2-3 minutes to close the oozing blood vessel. (This will be demonstrated to you by our Brisbane circumcision clinic staff).
Very rarely, more serious bleeding can occur which may require a visit to the hospital. Infection is also a possible complication. It is extremely rare and can be associated with redness, pus, and a foul smell from the circumcision. It is treated by putting antibiotic cream five times a day on the penis which usually resolves any infection within one or two days.
Suboptimal cosmetic result is another possible but very infrequent complication.
Yes, they are possible; however, to date, there have never been any serious complications among our patients or in the over 50,000 circumcisions done with the Pollock Technique™.
Healing occurs in several stages, and most newborns show signs of healing by one week.