The taboos about male circumcision are more successful than a censorship law. There is hardly any public information over phimosis, frenulum breve and adhesions.

Questioning the first four men I met who had personal experience of a foreskin problem, was (in 1996) more informative than over a hundred publicly available books in Birmingham and Hamburg, (on male sexuality, child care, psychology, medicine, urology and surgery, even anatomy books).

Very often literature on male sexuality and parent care either ignore the subject or simply condemn circumcision - The big question about routine circumcision or not, dominates all thinking about foreskin conditions.

The explanations of the conditions are fully inadequate for parents or any individual who has them. I have never come across a method for parents to check for these conditions. Any man or child today with a similar condition to mine, may end up in the same ridiculous position that I was in. - This is all very appropriate for taboos.

The Difficulty and Pain Check
Occasionally the medical definition is given, that circumcision is indicated when the foreskin cannot be retracted, or when it can only be retracted with pain or difficulty; Whether this examination is performed when erect or non-erect (flaccid) is unspecified. Very rarely mentioned are pain or difficulty by intercourse or masturbation, but there is never an indication about what these difficulties may be.

The only extremely rare descriptions of the frenulum breve are that it pulls the glans downward, or that it causes a feeling of tension. These only occur when the foreskin is retracted, an action which is unatural to a man with this condition, thus they avoid doing it, thus from this information they will simply not recognise any problem.

The following examples speak for themselves.

The Kinsey report, "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male", makes no mention of circumcision. The Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex, says that phimosis and paraphimosis are infections (17). They fail to recognise "the generous foreskin covers the vagina like a turtle neck" as a common symptom of some degrees of phimosis and even give incorrect advice.

Desmond Morris tells us in the best seller Bodywatching: "In fact circumcision has no medical advantages" (18). His best sellers Bodywatching and Babywatching offer a personal opnion on routine infant circumcision devoid of anthropological research and with no mention of phimosis or foreskin conditions.

Dr. Miriam Stoppard's best selling (in 1995)"The Baby Care Book" describes the dangers of a young boy's penis getting stuck in the zipper, but otherwise follows many of her colleagues and makes no mention of circumcision. (19). Dr. Spock's long term best seller updated "For The Nineties" says without references "It may take... some boys... until adolescence, to have a fully retractable foreskin, but this is no cause for concern." (20).

Alex Comfort in The New Joy of Sex, is vague, but at least he appears to have heard something : "if you aren't circumcised, you need to retract the foreskin fully for cleaning purposes, and if it wont retract beyond the corona all round the glans except at the front, get it seen to... If it... is over-tight and gets stuck, get that seen to also. These are about the only things that are commonly wrong with a penis" (21).

In the books which were reviewed none (excepting Dr. Porst and the Kinsey New Report), mentioned the frenulum ripping.