I appreciate your balanced view, and I agree that the circumcision debate, due to being so emotionally-charged, has created two crazy extremist camps.
But I wish you had left Will's letter up. I wish I could have heard all sides of this story.
>I found it interesting that it took you one month to start stretching your pinhole phimosis. … normally it is reported to start working within a week, and even without steroids should start working within ten days … I suspect this is because of your balanitis (LSA) … I suspect that you could have a secondary phimotic ring which will require double patience to stretch … and it sounds like you are already running out of patience.
I have an alternative hypothesis: it took a month because I simply did not stretch with any kind of regularity (and probably a lot less often than one is supposed to). I was pretty good about applying the cream twice a day, and thought that that should be enough. I did not have any guidance in this, except from what I'd read in anti-circ sites.
This brought me from a pinhole phimosis to one where a soft retraction is barely possible.
I didn't know how to stretch then... and even now I'm still not very sure now.
Also, the episode of "balanitis" lasted exactly one day, when I was ~8. Even before that, doctors had been telling my parents that I needed a circumcision due to the shape of my foreskin (I believe this is how they identify a pinhole phimosis).
Also, the "balanitis" was diagnosed ~12 years after it happened, by an American doctor who also told me that my only option was to get a circumcision. So I suspect he was biased, but I could be biased :-) . All I really know was that my foreskin looked like a red balloon for a day, and I think there wasn't any pain: couldn't it also be due to other kinds of infection?
Is fibrotic phimosis a question of either/or? Or do some people have fibrous tissue in differing degrees (possibly due to having more or less frequent episodes of BXO)? Does balanitis *always* leave fibrous tissue behind?
I am not "running out of patience" because there is nothing bothering me at the moment. I would first have to see if I would have any problems with condomless sex, and I don't have any perspective of that.
Re: stretching devices: I think I might try inserting earplugs in my foreskin, if I'm not allergic to them.
>Ok so now Ive got to this point, my regular advice - without studying a persons personality or being in touch with them (as Nick is with you) – is that your ring will be hard to stretch it will take twice as long and will close again twice as quick – and sometime soon you will get fed up of the whole procedure – I would be considering a partial circumcision or other minimal ways of surgically removing the ring.
Preputioplasty is something I would consider. Unfortunately I can't find before/after pictures on the net. For now, I am ruling out circumcision: the idea of not being able to cover my glans even when it's soft is quite disturbing to me. Ideally, I would always be able to choose when it's covered or retracted, whether soft or erect.
>There is however one important consideration. Have you also got frenulum breve? My only indication is that you say “I noticed that pulling underneath was more productive for retraction” and maybe, just maybe this could also be hindering retraction.
Yes, thanks to Nick I have come to believe that this is the case. I have pictures, btw, and would be interested in your(plural) opinion.
>If its influencing your sex life? This is a question of what you get used to, and/or not knowing what you are missing. … Some men go through life with pinhole phimosis – one is able to penetrate and masturbate without pain or much apparent difficulty except with washing … and now lubricated condoms, … well one of the reasons mankind has survived is our adaptability, -- this adaptability is worth you thinking about.
I can't tell whether this is affecting my sex life, since I have never been non-phimotic. I am indeed one of those men who could go through life without worrying about this. This has not been a problem for my partners either. My only problem so far is that doctors tell me I have a problem... I am also concerned about washing, but again, to the best of my knowledge, I have only ever had one infection.
>Lastly, Ive told ya once, not to pull yer foreskin back or perform a “more than full retraction and directly pulling stretched the phimotic ring skin … “ I did this with a full erection for 5 minutes approx. and haven’t forgotten it since, it has permanently damaged nerves at the base of penis, causing symptoms which are similar to penis fracture which is typically caused by such head on pressure. DO NOT DO THIS. ---
I think I will refrain from doing full retractions from now on, at least until they can be done comfortably. I've recently noticed some bluishness at the edge of my glans, and I'm afraid it could have been caused by my playing around with retraction.
>To stretch the ring it needs a bigger circumference to expand it, and this is most pleasurable and natural to do – repeatedly - over the coronal ridge of the glans.
Is this part of the advice I should ignore? I've done a bit of this, but now I believe it to be unsafe.
Gustavo
P.S.: can you notify me by email when I get a reply?
