[ ARC forum 2 ]

Good as gold!

Written by Paul B. at 30 Aug 2002 13:12:45:

As an answer to: Phimosis written by Finidi at 30 Aug 2002 01:48:46:

> When I pull back my foreskin (not all the way, I can't) the skin at the end seems to be a bit irritated.

As Jim asks, please elaborate on "irritated"?

> It has been this way since I can remember.

Do you mean - it has always been red, always been sore, or neither, or what? You have us puzzled about what "irritated" might be. Sensitive it might be.

> Is this normal,

In the very same way that your lips and the inside of your mouth are deep pink or red (unless you have dark skin and they are deeply pigmented), because they are mucous membrane whose surface is soft, thin and in the case of the lips, very sensitive (possibly more so than the fingertips), so is the opening of the foreskin.

> is it OK to implement your stretching program?

Well, as you describe it, the state of your foreskin has not changed over time, so it is most unlikely that any disease or infection is present. Your problem, and a particularly common one here it seems, is that not knowing anything about penes (penises) because you simply haven't seen any in "real life" - living and moving, and being somewhat anxious (which no doubt is connected in some way to the reason you have so little exposure to other people at this point), instead of making the - actually quite sensible - presumption that you are normal unless proven otherwise, you seem to jump too readily to the presumption you are abnormal.

OK, I can see one reason - if you discover that your non-retractile foreskin is not quite right, you may jump to the conclusion that there is something badly wrong with your penis to be responsible for this. But that is still a major over-reaction. Your foreskin won't retract easily because you didn't know it should come back and haven't been pulling it back - and that is the whole story - no other complications.

Certainly it was a bad omission on your parents' part not to teach you this, but well, evidently they don't know anything about it either and your father either happened not to have the same problem or who knows? Perhaps he has the same problem and never fixed it! Do you know?

> I was thinking it may be because for many years I did not know a retracting foreskin was the norm and therefore penile hygeine for me has been poor.

How so? Exactly how do you think your penile hygiene has been poor? One consequence of having a non-retractile foreskin is that it is as effective at keeping debris out, as keeping it in. There is some "smegma" that may build up from the skin, but this is generally dislodged and flushed out by two the combination of two processes - peeing, and masturbation.

When people show concern about this, I am compelled to point out the comparison with a girl/ woman's anatomy, with many spaces mostly concealed and untouched except for intercourse (and masturbation and the use of tampons) which is actually the natural cleaning process for this region! But most women are, sometimes from grim experience, aware that not only do these parts not require "hygiene" beyond washing the external parts with water, but that washing them out with soap, antiseptics or indeed anything other than water if at all, is a decidedly unwise experiment.

Suggestion is therefore, get a move on with the stretching, be bold in terms of stretching the foreskin but remember that it is not intended for rough usage in the absence of lubricants, and that your nice bright pink glans - as you will find it - is most certainly not intended for dry handling, so don't expect it to be.


Answers: