[ ARC forum 2 ]
Written by Ivan at 01 Jan 2004 02:58:07: Re: phimosis
As an answer to: phimosis written by IA at 01 Jan 2004 00:59:56:
>Hello,
>My 5-year old son has been diagnosed with phimosis. I believe that he does not have the phimotic ring that I've learned about. He has a tight foreskin opening (not pinhole, but small). The opening covers the glans completely he can retract the foreskin a little but the glans is never exposed. His foreskin has always ballooned while urinating. Recently someone noticed the ballooning and brought it to my attention. I had his GP examine him and another doctor and they said it was normal; his urine stream is strong enough. Since the ballooning has persisted I was referred to a urologist. She gave me some hormone cream to apply. While applying it to his foreskin I was retracting the skin and it became stuck behind the glans (paraphimos, caused by me). I had to rush him to the emergency room and it was 10 minutes of torture for my son. The urologist contacted me the next day and scheduled a circumcision. My son had a minor cough and the surgery was cancelled by the anasthesiologist. Since then, I've been doing a lot of research and am frankly reallllly confused. Some of the research I've done indicates that the tight foreskin opening could possibly stretch and open by puberty. My son has never had a urinary infection and does not complain of any sort of pain. I don't know whether to have him circumsized now, to prevent future painful sexual problems or whether to wait until he's older in hopes that the foreskin opening stretches on it's own. Any ideas, recommendations or thoughts would really help. I just want to do what's best for him. I really want him to be happy.
>ThanksWhen I was about his age, a man closed a car door on my finger. It wasn't damaged but while it throbbed in pain, it was sheer torture. By your urologist's logic, my fingers should have been cut off. But any other surgeon recommending that approach would be recognized as a quack. That's what your
urologist is.Any skin is made to grow by being stressed the way it needs to grow. When my weight goes up, the skin grows to accommodate my extra pounds by responding to the stress. Your son's foreskin should grow over the years, first by the pulling and playing with it he almost certainly is doing (and if you have scolded him away from it, the shame is on you - it's natural maintenance, although it should be done privately), and second as he enters puberty it will be caused to grow by his ever-larger erections.
The hormone cream - it should have been betamethasone, not a cortisone - has been found to be effective in adults in about 85% of cases without an active stretching program. But adults have the advantage of regular reasonably large erections to cause natural stress on the foreskin.
For now, your son's foreskin isn't broken - don't try to fix it. As your GPs said, it's fine. It only had a problem when you did something with it it wasn't ready to do. For now, just leave it alone. He should rinse under the skin with clean water - a bulb syringe can be used to assist and he'll have a wonderful time playing in the tub with it (have towels handy). When he is 13-14, if he needs extra growth, he can undertake an active stretching program.