hi hi, DS is 9 and I'm concerned he may have phimosis. I know no one can diagnose online, but like how do you tell?
He can just about retract to see where the pee comes out, and sometimes when he pees his foreskin will inflate before everything comes out.
I just don't know what normal is, and I don't have any family with intact boys to ask.
There is very poor 'intact' care where we live, as most boys are still routinely circumcised at birth.
His 'GP' hasn't even looked at his penis since he was 3 when I asked a variety of questions, and was duly heavily dismissed for even wanting to know anything.
What then prompted me even asking was the number of nurses we caught trying to forcibly retract him when he was born(he was in NICU for 3 days, so we were only allowed in there half the time) luckily it was a 'baby friendly hosptial' so we werent pushed into anything, but they just didn't know about intact care.
He's never had any infections that we know of, and no known pain(he doesn't always report pain).
I'm also deeply concerned about the actual ability of a urologist here to do a good job with an intact 9/10year old, as they're accustomed to newborns and adults.
And I don't even know if puberty and growth will be problematic if my concerns are founded.
Any input much appreciated. We're lucky as we can afford healthcare, but even with insruance it may be less expensive to fly to the UK and go private and stay in a hotel for 2 weeks...hence thinking to ask other Mums.