Circumcision for phimosis

[Scuba_steve]

Zad said:

Random additional things: Condoms suddenly make a lot more sense, they stay in place better than before, and you can feel more. Hands free peeing hasn't yet ceased to be a novelty. Obviously not in urinals with the other chaps around, that's just showing off.

And this, definitely this!

[littlebasher]

I was done last year, the worst part was getting a nurse at my doctors surgery to remove a couple of tight stitches from my lid...Ouch!

Oh, and getting abrasive scabs on my bellend until the skin hardened wasn't much fun either!

[Rutter]

Once you've had it done (which you will wish you did years ago) don't listen to advice from the doctors about keeping a full bladder when you go to bed in order to keep your pee clear. Waking up needing a wee with your happy chap doing its best to test the strength of the stitches is up there with one of the most uncomfortable things I've experienced!

[andy-xr]

Z064life said:

I'm not too worried about the op itself and side effects. Feel the same way, no way I want to be awake during the operation, the sight of the tools itself would make me reconsider! Would you state that after op is no worse than an ingrowing toenail? If so, I have nothing to worry about.

The problem with circumcision is leaving the glans exposed to the elements, which dries out over time. This is pretty much a fact. How was this for you guys? Sounds like you let it be?

It's not the same as an ingrown toenail during or after the op, but it's fine to do under local anesthetic, they'll probably just put a screen up and give you a few boring things to read. I had it done in my 20's due to 'over use'. I'd say it was probably about the same pain level as a tattoo.

I also moved house the week after the op, which wasnt comfortable being bandaged up. It will hurt after the op when the anesthetic has worn off, there's no 2 ways about it but the pain goes away (shame that the swelling also goes away as well, but I guess one follows the other).

In terms of sensation, for a few weeks/months after you will feel everything on your bell end so choose your underwear wisely. Any and all movement will hurt but things do settle down and you become a bit less sensitive day by day. It doesnt affect sex, or at least it didnt at all with me.

Upsides included being able to take a piss in a straight line each and every time, and better all round hygeine

[Z064life]

I guess a significant skin missing will hurt more than an ingrowing toenail after anesthethic has worn off. Given a tattoo is usually painful (never had one), I'd imagine you'd need prescription painkillers? Is the pain bad enough to keep me awake?

Thanks for the advice guys, keep it coming.

My main concerns and questions are around:

1) Change in sexual pleasure? Surely if you loose foreskin then sex is just like massaging your glans? And scientifically sex must be worse due to all the nerves lost?

2) If anyone here has suffered irritation and dryness of the glans, further killing sensation?

3) Anyone here tried foreskin restoration? I immediately don't believe things like this and that takes ages but at least protects the glans from exposure.

I've stretched my foreskin sideways (just can't retract very far at all), and the air itself gets into the foreskin and I can feel it on the penis. Doesn't hurt, but does feel uncomfortable!

I appreciate no two circumcisions are the same, so this is highly subjective.

I think a circ is likely as I can't retract in either state and plenty of people get a circ when they only can't retract when erect, but let's see...

Sorry to sound so pedantic and hung up! The disadvantage of research (in the lead time to my appt) is the research I do, can form sometimes incorrect opinions, but it's best to know all the facts for something that is irreversible! Or worse still, my only option...

Again, not so worried about the op itself (hopefully get a general anesthetic!).

Please keep your opinions and advice coming, it's very helpful.

[Mastodon2]

Why are you so concerned about loss of sexual pleasure? You're 30 and a virgin, don't you think this condition has held you back enough? Even if there is a loss of some sensation, some sex is better than no sex.

[Zad]

I think they gave me co-codamol painkillers, over the counter strength. I took 3 in total: 1 when I got home, 1 that night, 1 the following morning because I thought I probably should. At which point I decided I'd just wait and see how painful it was. It wasn't. I used the rest when I had tooth ache a couple of years later, which was WAY more painful. I guess your mileage may vary, but I'm no pain hero.

1) I guess in theory you must lose something, but I really never noticed it. The enjoyment of sex is in your brain not your cock. I think I had more fun and enjoyment with my new toy in the year after being circumcised than I did in the 5 years before it. It felt liberating, not mutilating. In car terms, its like having a car that does only 130 rather than 135, but which is parked in your garage because it won't go.

2) Personally no, but Vaseline intensive care is good (its nothing like old style vaseline). In fact, try it anyway, its fun.

3) I wouldn't want it back if you paid me. YMMV

If you are really worried about loss of sensation, ask about them performing a conservative circumcision, removing only the inelastic skin. They will probably say it will eventually return, but it is your body. If the surgeon says that they won't then it is your right to get another opinion.

[R_von_S]

Z064life said:

I'd imagine you'd need prescription painkillers? Is the pain bad enough to keep me awake?

Not for me. Though when the old chap wakes up while the stitches are still in you'll get a rude awakening. Really not a major deal in my experience.

Z064life said:

1) Change in sexual pleasure? Surely if you loose foreskin then sex is just like massaging your glans? And scientifically sex must be worse due to all the nerves lost?

Stop reading American anti-circumcision propaganda. It's different, it's not worse.

Z064life said:

2) If anyone here has suffered irritation and dryness of the glans, further killing sensation?

Nope. Nothing in the slightest.

I'd recommend Declan Cahill at HCA (clinic is in the Shard, operates over the road) but he's not the type for a long and fluffy chat about the process. I suspect you'd get on better with someone less direct than him.

[andy-xr]

Z064life said:

I guess a significant skin missing will hurt more than an ingrowing toenail after anesthethic has worn off. Given a tattoo is usually painful (never had one), I'd imagine you'd need prescription painkillers? Is the pain bad enough to keep me awake?

You're analyzing this in so much detail for something that I'll be honest is also a mental issue as well as a physical one. And I think if you try and get one fixed you should also consider the other. I'm not calling you a mental by any means, but I can understand that something like this has likely held you back (sorry, no pun intended) for so long that it's going to have had an effect on you at an emotional level as well.

wking isnt like having sex. It's not something you're going to compare, if indeed you find a willing partner. If you're bothered about knocking one out sans foreskin you wont be that changed that you'll never feel anything ever again, you'll have less sensitivity but your body and mind will adjust just fine.

[Z064life]

If the pain after surgery is just a dull or even throbbing type pain, it should be fine. I've had haemmerhoids and I know what it's like to be sore after bleeding and before treatment! Probably the same sort of pain.


RE pleasure all good points and good ways of looking at it, probably true. Somebody did say other intact parts compensate (brain being one), no scientific truth but that's what happens when you loose a sense - the other senses get stronger.

Besides there's plenty of intact guys with circulatory, nervous or other conditions that would reduce sensitivity so we won't all have it perfect I guess...

Moving on, one thing I'm wondering but can't find any details on is what happens in the consultation? As I can't retract, how can the specialist make a diagnosis if this is a short frenulum or something like adhesions? In my case, I do feel a tight band at the front of my penis so it may be a tight frenulum (GPs would probably say plain old phimosis, like mine did). However, a test to try and retract my foreskin with the specialist won't give much info? I mean like I had haemmerhoids and got a colonoscopy, which could diagnose what the cause is (polyps, anal fissure, haemmerhoids, etc etc). How can the specialist come to the same conclusion with phimosis when the skin is too tight to even examine?

Edited by Z064life on Thursday 9th March 21:32

[Zad]

So, basically, how does the consultant urologist know what the problem is? Experience, training, skill, and yet more experience, and colleagues to consult who have also done the job for quite a time. Problems like this are REALLY common. They know exactly what symptoms each problem will display. That, combined with the answers to questions they ask, and they can have a high confidence that they know what the problem is. Dense scar tissue causing phimosis is a pretty damn strong diagnostic!

This sort of thing is probably even more common than a sticking EGR valve on a diesel, and your local mechanic doesn't need 9 years university to even start to look at that, let alone change it.

[e600]

What causes this condition?

[gregs656]

You need to stop googling about this and wait until your consultation and see what they say. You are working your self up over a bunch of things which will either be brief (the soreness after surgery), you won't be able to identify (change in the sensation of sex) and even things for which you already know there is a solution (moisturiser!!).

I'd really focus on what you want to get out of it, and how the surgery will have a positive impact on your life.

[R_von_S]

e600 said:

What causes this condition?

If it's Balans Xerotica Obliterans (BXO, or Lichens Sclerosis as it used to be known) they don't know. My consultant commented you can always tell that's the case when they give something a complicated latin name...

[King Herald]

The worst part will be getting a boner when the nurse starts the pre-op cleaning...... or so a buddy of mine told me, back in our teens.

[Zad]

Yes and no. Mostly no. You are in the room just outside the operating theatre for that, or the theatre itself. Surrounded by operating theatre stuff, people in scrubs and about to have your best mate attacked with a scalpel. I guess if you are into hospital porn a stiffy might be on the cards, but it isn't on my list of things to try. Having said that, they didn't do most of the cleaning stuff until I had had the local anaesthetic (just the injection site). Now, the first thing that happens with a local anaesthetic is that it relaxes all the muscles etc around the injected area and along the nerve bundle. I guess its a "lazy lob", but I can see how someone would mistake it for an erection. You wouldn't really want a surgeon operating on a penis that was trying its best to crawl inside your body cavity and make itself as small as possible, nor on one pumping extra large amounts of blood around your hydraulics system.

And yeah, stop over-thinking this, otherwise you are going to end up in a right old state, totally disproportionate to the risks (and rewards) involved.

[Z064life]

Thanks guys. I'm a bit more at ease, if this is what I end up having (depending on cause/severity, etc). I'll discuss the whole pleasure/function thing with my specialist but for now I will park that.

Interested to hear any other experiences.

So when the glans is exposed, it obviously feels very sensitive, but then this sensitive (not sensitive as in pleasurable) feeling goes away as it gets used to exposure? Later on the dry skin sets in?

Is there anything to reduce the sensitivity that there initially is? Sounds like something you can't drive with!

Just trying to get an understanding of things for now and compile a list of what I need to be sure of when I see the specialist. I am tempted to get a circumcision on one hand because it will just simplify things. I feel now that I have tight foreskin, if I got another treatment, I'd probably get phimosis again, anyway.

Also, and this sounds naive, but is a circumcision the removal of the outer skin or the outer skin and inner foreskin?

[RacingPete]

Nothing to add to the experiences, but my son (7 years old) has phimosis - so interesting to read.

We have been advised to not do anything at the moment by the doctors and see if it sorts itself out in later years - those who had this done at later life, do you wish your parents had had you circumcised earlier?

Good luck OP

[TheJimi]

OP, not being funny but spend a decent amount of time doing stretching "exercises" first.

I had exactly the same experiences as you described, and doing lots of stretching work really helped and eventually it sorted itself out.

Ironically, when I started having full sex that's when it started to really loosen up.

[Steve Campbell]

Z064life said:

1) Change in sexual pleasure? Surely if you loose foreskin then sex is just like massaging your glans? And scientifically sex must be worse due to all the nerves lost?

Forgive me for being blunt but.....for those who have "normal" foreskin, it's normally retracted during sex anyway (well....it is for me...maybe I'm the abnormal one !). It's the glans that gives the MOST pleasure....you just haven't experienced it yet !