Well it's been a year in total so far, and my glans is still as sensitive as ever...
Has anyone made any progress? or am I the only one who is still like this after so long?
>Hi CJ,
>You get my full sympathy for the whole story. I discovered my phimosis when I was 43 yrs. old - and I also had an operation which was stupid, because the urologist had only learnt the one method.
>Yours is a very common story - the urologists dont actually learn anything about phimosis or circumcision - generally they assist in a circ. during their final practical year and thats it.
>It seems that phimosis is irrelevant to sex and medicine - there is practically no info. previous to www there was none -(recently on German TV its been a joke theme - someone with a tight foreskin seems good for a laugh) so one can see the steam from cynicism smoking out of my head ... :)
>If you read my welcome page you will realise that farm animals are checked for phimosis before they are put to breeding - the quote says quite clearly this is because of financial loss to the farmer ... - It is ridiculous in this modern world of gene manipulation etc., that human doctors do not realise how much phimosis influences male sexuality - the taboos on this subject are crazy -
>I could continue but will turn my thoughts to your letter.
>I dont know how quickly or slowly your sensitivity will diminish, your thoughts are much as mine - yes, this is because the glans has never been previously exposed.
>The salt water treatment is what you need at present, but I dont know and doubt if salt water will toughen up the glans.
>The theme has been addressed in various mails Ive had, and on newsgroups etc. since internet started - there are hundreds if not thousands of men with your problem - the question is why are the medical profession so blase about the whole thing - maybe they suffer from the normal mans ridiculous cliches about the size or shape of a mans erection not being important to his sexuality.
>Humm - I notice how you have encouraged my anger about the whole theme - and its hard to come down
>Firstly and mainly it was 43 years screwed up sexuality with all sorts of funny inhibitions and loss of erection - all because it was painful to retract my foreskin - but I believed the cliches - I thought male sexuality is all in the mind - ... I cried my eyes out (frequently) once I discover what the cause of the problems was ... and then I started writing to health organisations and then started this site ... I suppose as a form of personal therapy.
>I dont know how you feel about your 35 years - for me it fucked up my behaviour and sexual identity and eventually my emotional responses.
>My therapy is to educate the world ... however this is tough going alone ... please take a look at the arc pages (male-initiation.net/arc.html) - I need ideas, energy and support ... if it moves you a tenth as much as me then maybe you could be interested in joining my "therapy group" :):)
>please just keep in touch - tell us your sexual experiences pre-operation if you want Id be interested ... lets get frustrated together!! - otherwise I wish you good luck and take care
>Robin
>
>>Hi DS and Robin,
>>I, too, have recently become interested in this topic. I'm a 35 y.o. Aucklander and have suffered from phimosis (without even knowing that it had a name, I just thought 'that's the way it is') all my life, until a urologist recommended circumcision, which I had 5 weeks ago. I've since discovered that this can be treated by steroid cream (sounds like DS can confirm this), so I'm fairly gutted that I've gone through this surgery and all the attendant complications and significant pain and lifestyle changes (can't go to gym, walking and even sleeping are still painful, and I've already resigned myself to forgetting about sex) due to the hypersensitivity of the glans (or seemingly, compared to the previous with-foreskin lifestyle) without even being told about a non-surgical option.
>>My hope is that the sensitivity declines as the area heals from the surgery but after reading comments by DS and others, maybe I'm being too hopeful about this.
>>Has this resulted from the phimosis, that the glans has never been exposed to 'the world', so now we're expecting it to harden up very rapidly? (I mean 'very rapidly' as compared to other guys who have grown up with an exposed glans/circumcision throughout childhood, puberty, etc, which could have meant a slow loss of sensitivity due to friction on clothing, small amounts of urine on underwear from post-urination, etc.) This is why I'm thinking Robin's idea of urine-soaking may have some merit, but I haven't got to a stage where I'm desperate enough to try that yet!
>>I'm currently doing salt-water soaks to help with suture healing, and I'm hoping this may also help 'toughen' the glans up. Well, maybe 'praying' would be a better word, because I'm completely frustrated with this new lifestyle; putting on and removing underwear is still a major drama in the morning and evening due to the glans sensitivity and it sticking to the underwear fabric. Grrrr.
>>So why has this not been addressed anywhere before? I find it hard to believe that this is an unusual problem and certainly the urologist who performed my surgery is so unconcerned about my increasing frustration as to be almost blase about it (needless to say this actually increases my stress, not reduces it).
>>Anyway, DS, you're not alone in your symptoms and if either you or Robin find any 'magic bullets' then please share 'em around!
>>Regards,
>>CJ
