My Circumcision Story

erm, i'm kind of in the same position myself, my foreskin is too tight to retract, anytime it does it's in the *heat* of the moment when the juices are flowing so to speak..

Apart from hygene reasons, is this not normal? Surely a lot of men are like this? Is it unsafe or anything, it's just been the norm for me so i don't really know any different.

hi in the same boat as these lads and was wondering about the cost of these operations

TightSkin wrote:

I had the same problem as you before, the opening was very small and it was extremely painful to pull back. But stretching does work. Go for a millimeter further back everyday. It'll take several weeks before you can do it fully but it's worth it.

Same here, mine would not fully retract until I was 18 or so. So people should consider that there may be other options (I see OP's doctor determined that circumcision was necessary in his case however.)

Hi,i am a 16 year old male and i have found it difficult over the past year to shake from the back of my mind that i cannot retract my foreskin very far at all.i have once got the foreskin JUST behind the head but found it very painful and felt sick.i am considering getting a circumcision but am worried whether i will experince much pain after the operation,and for how long? someone please post back i am quite distressed

i'm in the same boat as all you guys, i found out a few months ago actually! GP was a family friend but instead I just went to a random GP and he wrote a letter to the hospital and i got a letter for an examination and 5weeks later now and i'm going in next week. i'm actually just looking forward to getting it done, my friend told me basically if you get an erection that it's very sore cos of stitches etc but that i'll be bandaged up etc and shouldn't be in pain otherwise, his dad is a urologist and he is a med student himself so he's kinda put me at ease!

anyway i'll let you know next week how it goes. to the 16year old, if you want to go into hospital for the op you need to be accompanied by a parent. Otherwise hold out until you are 17. I was worried about my family finding out etc so I was really careful about it! Also keep in mind you need to get discharged so you're going to have to tell somebody because they won't let you leave the hospital otherwise. If you're covered by BUPA/VHI it's free but whoever is in charge of that will get a letter etc saying that it has been accounted for so I went public and it's only €60 for the government levy but I had to pay €50 to the GP too.

actually when you say out of action do you mean work etc? I thought you'd be able to go about your daily life just fine except for the sexual part! and how long do you have to wait before you can start having sex after it?

I had this done when I was 19 or 20. From my early teens I was unable to retract my my foreskin very far at all, like only a mm or two and it was very, very painful to this.

Was given steroid cream from GP. Had no success with it. Was referred to a urologist and had the surgery a little later on.

As regards to the surgery. It wasn't too bad. As mentioned before, the couple of days following the surgery are pretty uncomfortable. Waking up the morning after with a solid erection was less than plesant On the plus side however, the swelling made it look huge for a few days.

It healed up pretty quickly though. I had it done on the friday and was back at college on the following monday, although I may have had a slight limp for a day or two after that

Personally, I'm very glad I had it done. It was always something I was very embarressed about at the time. I would not shower in public, avoided relationships so I would not have to explain why I could not retract it etc, etc. My only regret is that I did not have it done sooner.

Good luck.

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

What's the name of the gel? What does it do, just help you with sensitivity?
I know ine is WAY too sensitive. I have to be very careful or I hit the roof when 'intimate'. Need to get that sorted at some stage.


Congrats.

I don't have the name of it right now, it's Installagel or something like that. I'll get the name for you asap (will probably post tomorrow for you) I'm not sure if you have to get a prescription or not. But seriously even if it's sensitive see the GP! I'm in pain now but I'm really hoping it pays off. Just hope it swells soon cos I want a speedy recovery. 100s of men have it done they just don't mention it!

checked the name for you, it's Instillagel. Feels so good when you put it on! You'll need a dressing for it too and just be careful when putting it on. If you're fairly hairy it's going to be a bit more awkward for you!

Well done andanotherone, and thanks very much for your blog of sorts - it is proving most helpful and is much appreciated. Can I ask what age you are?

Also, why go for a circumcision. What was the problem, a frenulum brieve (short 'banjo string'), a too-small foreskin, or the foreskin excessively attached to the head? Was circimcision the only option in your case?

I'm in pretty much the same boat, though it's a frenulum breve here - the string is simply waaay too short for any level of contraction other than the top of the head being barely visible through the top circle of the foreskin. I'm 22, and have simply never really thought about it up till recently. It's always been not so much painful, as the head simply being uber-sensitive, to the extent I hit the roof if it comes in contact with anything. Presumably this has come about by the head being 'shielded' permanently all its life - the notion of having an exposed head is completely alien, not to mention horrifying to me, at the notion of how sensitive it would be!

I don't plan getting anything done until I leave home in the next couple of years when I can get it dealt with discreetly, even if it means losing out on my parent's VHI family plan!

But really I have to say this issue makes me apoplectic with rage at how it is brushed under the carpet. It’s estimated that 10% of men suffer from some degree of phimosis (foreskin difficulty), with many of these having severe levels of it. If this was a female issue it would be completely out in the open and discussed, including between parent and child. Of course men by their stoical nature are partially to blame, but if the child/person, i.e. someone like me isn't even aware of the problem till later in life (I've never had anything to compare it to!), then you suffer needlessly for years. I've read some excellent material on this matter and this is a major problem, and can even affect people psychologically - a child/teenager can go about for years unchecked and in pain, simply believing the physical sexual experience to be as limiting, unpleasant or as painful as it is for them, also leading to the avoidance of relationships etc. It’s one thing to keep putting a procedure off, but not to even know you have a fixable problem in the first instance is grossly unfair to the individual.

If nothing else, fathers should check with their teenage sons as to any difficulties they may have, regardless of how embarrassing it may be; two minutes of mental torture is a heck of a lot better than ten years of physical pain, with other possible side-effects too. Indeed the longer you leave it, the more likely you are to leave it be for the rest of your life, or single life at least – just like getting injections as an infant, you thank your parents for being cruel to be kind later in life.

Thanks for that andanotherone - I hope you're not in too much pain! It must feel very stange having the head exposed after so long covered up, what's it like? Is it a bit draughty at all?
How do you urinate, is it painful and do you have to replace bandaging every time? If you were in college or working, could you go about your business the next day or day after that?

Also out of curiosity, in eh, what 'state' did the GP examine you, i.e. flacid or otherwise? Do you have to be standing to attention for it to be examined? And you say the problem was the foreskin was too tight - did you consider having a slight cut made in the foreskin, known as a dorsal slit, or other form of partial circumcision? Not that I'm trying to medically research via somebody else - just curious as to whether you had any choice!

For me, paying for it isn't a problem; indeed I'm very surprised it only cost you €60 to go public, plus the doctor - is that all?!
It's just getting to a hospital etc for me, and not in a million years would I touch my local with a bargepole - one of the worst hospitals in the country. So it would have to be the major Drogheda or a Dublin hospital, which proves difficult for the time being! Ah I'll get it sorted soon - just a matter of timing. It seems to be a combination of frenulum breve and a good old fashioned fecker of a tight foreskin - not sure. Perhaps stretching might help in the meantime, though I doubt it at this late stage. An excellent link here of a person's stretching experience for anyone interested:

http://www.foreskin.org/phi-once.htm

Overall though, you do feel such an idiot for not knowing there was a problem for all those years once you find out, especially after 20! In my case I was certainly aware that something was up, and thought that a doctor had cut away too much when I was a baby as the most likely reason, thinking that the foreskin was designed to cover the glans when erect! Of course I was never touched - but until you research these things, you just accept matters as they are, never having known any different. It's quite a shock when you find out!

Thanks again andanotherone!

I have recently gotten circumcised too.i went to the docotrs back in march after having a read through this thread. it hink i have always known that i needed to get it done. Went to the doc's he had a look and said yep definite circumcission.This was done while flacid no Attention standing needed.(i think it would of been difficult anyways given the circumstanes..lol)

Went in 3 weeks ago to get it done under a local.thats was grand was in at 8am went for the circumcission at 11am that took about 30-45 mins. and was on my way home at 2pm.they bandanged me up and i hobbled out.Spent most of that day in bed.

Woke up the next morning with a bit of a shock the mornign glory had appeared and it flet like the stiches where bursting open took a few mins to get rid of it.this happened a lot over the next few days theres nothing you can do about it.

while it was fairly uncomfortable it didnt really bother me the sensitivity and swelling where just a bit of a annoyance.but i had noticed that one side seemed a bit more swollen that the other.which i wasnt that concerned about.That was until i was in unbeliveable pain one night while trying to sleep when i finally got up the next day i had a blood blister on my shaft which was fairly large.panic set in so i rang my gp's they said we can fit you in in 3 days..i thought sure i 'll see how it goes. went to havea shower and cool down.


the blister burst panic set in again starigh back on to the gp who fitted me in.
A bandange and a few anti botics and pain killers later all was fine.

its my 3rd week now after getting it done and even after the pain and the unexpected blister i have no regrets..

Well i was diagnosed with paraphimosis i could retract my foreskin when flacid never mind when erect.