Circumcision / phimosis in pre-schooler

[CheekyWeeGandT]

DS has a hospital apt tomorrow about this and wondering if anyone else has experience of phimosis? DS is 4 and very often has painful /red tip of penis.

When we went to the the GP, she said that a solution would be circumcision - there were no other options explored. That's fine since I'm hoping the hospital will have some other options, but I've just noticed that we're seeing a paediatric surgeon and wondering if we are already going down the surgery route.

While I know that no surgeon wants to operate on a child unnecessarily, I really don't want DS to be circumcised if it can be helped. That said, if that is the only thing that will solve the problem then I would rather it was done sooner than later - I can't help feeling that an op of that nature would be worse for an older child.

Has anyone got any experience or advice that might help me get my head round it before we go to the hospital?

Do they not normally prescribe cream first and try gentle stretching techniques before thinking of circumcision? I am sure there are other operations as well rather than full removal - you should investigate that first

Thanks for the reply, demented. Yes, we have cream for a few months and it has helped a bit, but not a huge amount. Haven't tried any stretching - I think read somewhere that it was no longer recommended, though I could be wrong on that.

Hi cheekyweeGant - Did you have the op in the end, how was it? My 3 year old has been diagnosed with phimosis and is due for circumcision soon. Many thanks

This is a very interesting paper about phimosis in young children.

DS' foreskin does not retract fully yet (age 10) but it has not caused him any problems so we haven't gone down the surgery route. Apparently age of full retractability can range right up to age 18.

Ds was referred to a surgeon with willy issues, they looked and said it was ok ATM and that we could be referred back if he had problems in the future, I assume they refer straight to surgeons as they would do any intervention and otherwise you'd have to be referred to a peads Dr who would then have to refer you to the surgeons, good luck (my dh had a circumcision as a pre schooler and can't remember anything about it!)