e.g.34 "I am a 26 year old uncircumcised virgin. A few years ago, I was going out with a girl and realized that something was different with my penis. We were fooling around in bed and I was shocked to discover that the head of my penis was completely exposed due to a severe erection. This had never happened before and shocked me so much that it put an end to our intimate moment. I had always thought that the foreskin should always cover the entire penis, even during sex.

"I have experimented with trying to retract the foreskin and it feels very unatural and even a bit painful. I have not gotten past half my glands and feel resistance at that point. Could this be due to fear more than a physical disorder?" - (RS Here we see the sufferer himself questioning if there could be a psychological basis for his fear of retraction - well if so, I feel this would be justifyable and sensible: anatomically his condition produces paraphimosis. he continues-)

"I also grew up thinking that I was normal. ... I would never even wash myself properly thinking that my glands should never be touched (sort of like eyeballs). My first and only experience with a woman was so traumatic that I thought that I was not meant to have intercourse."

e.g.35 "I'm not sure I fully understand my problem and I can't definitively say that all my problems are related to the fact that my foreskin is too tight (even tough I'm pretty sure they are). ... I dont feel any pain at times of erection, but I feel a big discomfort when there is pressure to retract the foreskin. .... During the experiences I had, some were relatively painless, even though I could feel a certain discomfort for hours after. Some other experiences were more painful. ... The problem had big psychological repercussions. I experienced a big lack of self confidence and self esteem."

One case history is briefly reported by Bryk, an anthropologist. He writes "the entire schizoid inferiority complex of a young man, could be traced to his inability to manually uncover his glans." The young man "suffered from a congenital phimosis, which he unfortunately recognised too late," (ref. 15)".

A psychologist at the Institute of Sexual Research in Hamburg (details of this interview) informed me that they have seen many men who believed that their frenulum breve condition was the cause of their sexual disturbances. Why do so many men consult the psychologist instead of the Urologist? The men themselves must believe that they have a psychological problem, indeed after so many years neglected anatomical pain or difficulty, it could be expected that this has an effect on the psychological development of any man.

	The Passages to Manhood - 11 of 12