Tight Foreskin, anyone?

[simbo]

My dc (11) has a very tight foreskin and cannot retract it. I had hoped that things would improve but alas... Has anyone had to deal with this at this age, and is circumcision likely to be the only answer? I mentioned it to a doctor about 3 years ago, and she recommended putting hydrocortisone cream on it for a bit. We did so but it sort of just got forgotten about. It was only when he had a bath last night that the subject cropped up again (he usually showers these days).

He has no idea why this will cause him problems in the future, but it needs tackling sooner rather than later.

My DS had a circumcision for that reason - aged 8/9? I had tried getting him to retract the foreskin for a while before that- in the bath etc. He used to spray everywhere when having a wee too.

Took him to GP - referral straightaway to hospital - and the consultant just said - yes - let's do it.

He went in for the day surgery - had his op mid morning - and he was home again by teatime. He didn't complain of much pain while it was healing. But they did give us some painkillers for the first few days.

Thanks for that. With exams coming up I am putting it off, but he is a sporty boy and no time would be a good time, iyswim. We don't have spraying or ballooning but I am hoping for some non-surgical tips.

Anyone else got any experience with this?

Not at that age I'm afraid. But DS2 is 5 and had such a tight fore skin it was holding his penis back into the fat pad so it looked tiny. We just got him to have a gentle play with it in the bath a eventually, many months later it is not an issue at all. Good luck.

Apparently it's really normal simbo. Quite a high percentage of boys still have a non-retracting foreskin at that age. It usually sorts itself out around puberty and the current thinking is that if it isn't causing any problems then just let it be. ds1's foreskin doesn't retract at age 6 and we looked into it a lot.

DH, his bro and his dad all had circumcision around 11/12 for this. So I'm very conscious that we may have this issue with DS. DH says that he thinks his sensation isn't as good there as if he still had a foreskin, understandable really. So with DS we would definitely explore non surgical options properly first. But DH said the op was fine, not really painful. He got a couple of days off school and his mum spoiled him for a few days so that was all good!

My exP had this and didn't get it done at an early age - he had family issues and they were apparently EA so any of his issues were ignored.

He then had it done when he was 19 and it was apparently very painful and he lost sensation.

On that alone I'd get your DS back to the GP - they can at least monitor the situation and see if things improve.

Google frenulum breve, anything from creams to full circumsiscion can be the answer.