[ ARC forum 2 ]

Full Circ versus Partial Circ, re UK Consultants.

Written by Stef at 24 May 2005 00:32:06:

I had a pinhole phimosis caused by BXO, stretching had not worked for me, & so I had been referred by my GP to see a Urologist at my local hospital.I had done a lot of research into my condition & had decided try to get a partial circ. I had read that a phimosis caused by BXO is the only real instance where a circ is always the recommendation, but had also understood that a partial just may be possible. I had opted to try for a partial as I had concerns, whether rational or not, about glans hyper-sensitivity, a more difficult recovery from a full circ, & how I would masturbate without the foreskin to rub against the glans, & I was keen to keep as much of my foreskin as possible if I could.
So I saw the Urologist, & he very quickly said I needed a circ. I asked about a partial, & he said no, I needed a full one & I didn't have any choice. Quite frankly, this young Consultant's attitude was appalling, & I had no intention of letting him anywhere near my penis with a scalpel, but anyway I was put on that hospital's waiting list for a circ.
Shortly after, I revisited my GP, & asked if I could get a second opinion, which he said I was certainly entitled to, & he referred me to a Urologist at a different local hospital. This 2nd consultant was much more pleasant, & spoke to me at length about it, but agreed with the first one that I needed a full circ, & discharged me from his care. He did admit though, that he had never performed a partial circ, and would not attempt one.
Whilst I was on the waiting list with the original hospital, I received a letter. The NHS were running a scheme called Patients Choice. This is apparently being phased out now, but the idea of it is that if someone was on a waiting list for a long time, they were offered the opportunity to have the op done quicker at another hospital within their group. I jumped at the chance to see yet another urologist, & was given an appointment for a pre-op consultancy. When I met this 3rd urologist, one of the first things I said was that I was hoping I might be able to get a partial circ, & he instantly said that was a specialist job, & that he couldn't do them, but he new a man who could, in Andrology, within the same hospital, & he referred me to him.
I was very pleased to hear this, but was also surprised & annoyed. Surprised because in all the research I had done into my condition, I had never seen the words Andrology or Andrologist before. And annoyed because I had already seen 2 consultants, & neither of them had mentioned any possibility of me being referred to anyone else who may be able to give me a partial, just that they could only give me a full circ. Andrology is a branch of Urology, dealing with "Genital oncology, genital reconstruction, sexual disfunction & infertility" in males.
So I was now to see my 4th Urologist! He pointed out that a circ or partial circ wasn't really within the range of action of Andrology, but as a colleague had referred me to him, he was keen to help me if he could. He asked me why I wanted to retain foreskin, & he genuinely seemed to understand my concerns. He examined me, & said the BXO seemed localised, & that a partial looked possible. However, he impressed upon me that he may find it necessary to proceed to a full circ if he finds, once he had cut & could see inside the foreskin, that the BXO is more widespread. With the pinhole phimosis, it was not possible to see very far inside the foreskin, but I could see that the white skin patches of the BXO went far down enough to at least touch the top of the frenulum. This made me think that I might have to have a full circ after all, but at least I was now, by pure luck & a bit of persistence, with a surgeon who was capable of doing a partial, & would restrict it to a partial if at all possible.
It seems then, that not all urologists are capable of doing partial circs, which may be a more complex op. It appears to me that this may go some way to explaining why so many patients are only given the option 'full circ or nothing'!
So, finally, & despite being given 5 different dates for my op by administrators at the hospital, including one date cancelled 24 hrs before it was due, I was now set to go in for my circ or partial circ, about a year & 10 months after my GP's first referral...............more later.


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