Over time, the foreskin will separate from the head of the penis. This is a natural process and occurs over 5 to 10 years. It slowly loosens up (retracts) a little at a time. Normal erections during childhood cause most of the change by stretching the foreskin.
You can use your fingers to stretch the foreskin, that is if your fingers can fit inside the foreskin. Place your fingers back to back on either side of the foreskin, gently stretch the skin by pulling in opposite directions, then relax and repeat. Your fingers must be clean while doing these stretching exercises.
A topical steroid ointment can be used to help soften the foreskin and make retraction easier. The ointment is massaged into the area around the glans and foreskin twice a day for several weeks. In more serious cases, circumcision or a similar surgical procedure may be necessary.
In adulthood, the foreskin is normally loose enough to be fully retracted. In this case, the glans (including its root) should be fully exposed. During erection, the foreskin retracts by itself, exposing the entire glans or at least part of it.
You don't need to pull it back for cleaning. If your child does pull back the foreskin in the bath or shower, that's fine – but it's not needed. Once your child goes through puberty and can easily pull back the foreskin, it's good for your child to do this in the bath or shower for cleaning.
Phimosis is a condition of the penis that occurs in some adults and children who aren't circumcised. If you have phimosis, your foreskin can't be pulled back (retracted). It may look like your penis has rings around the tip. Having phimosis isn't necessarily a problem.
Physiologic phimosis: Children are born with tight foreskin at birth and separation occurs naturally over time. Phimosis is normal for the uncircumcised infant/child and usually resolves around 5-7 years of age, however the child may be older.
In children, a tight foreskin is usually congenital but, in adults, it is often due to a scarring disease known as balanitis xerotica obliterans (BXO, sometimes called lichen sclerosus).
Phimosis
Phimosis is where the foreskin is too tight around the penis, which prevents it from pulling back over the head of the penis. The condition usually affects children and will improve as the foreskin loosens with age. In adults, it may result from a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
Treatments for a tight foreskin
If your or your child's foreskin is causing problems, treatments include: steroid creams or gels (topical steroids) to help soften the foreskin. antibiotics if the foreskin or head of the penis is infected.
In this conservative (non-surgical) treatment approach, a steroid cream is applied to the tip of the foreskin twice a day over a period of four to eight weeks. The steroid cream makes it easier to stretch the skin. After two weeks, the child or his parents can start trying to gradually stretch the foreskin once a day.
Phimosis can cause inflammation of both the penis and glans penis (balanoposthitis), which in turn can cause urinary tract infection.
Eventually, the foreskin should be retracted far enough during urination to see the meatus (the hole where the urine comes from). This prevents urine from building up beneath the foreskin and possibly causing an infection. As long as the foreskin doesn't easily retract, only the outside needs to be cleaned.
A redundant prepuce means that there is an excess amount of foreskin – the foreskin completely covers the head of the penis when it is not erect. In some boys and men, this extra foreskin can sometimes lead to health problems if it can't be fully drawn back from the head of the penis.
Forceful retraction can cause the foreskin to get stuck behind the glans. The glans is the head of the penis. This can cause severe pain and swelling and is a medical emergency.
What age does the foreskin retract? A baby's foreskin is initially adherent to the head, or glans, of the penis. It stays this way in more than 50% of children until at least the age of two, but often much later. In fact, a large cohort study in Denmark found that the average age of foreskin retraction was 10.4 years.
Risks. If you have phimosis, you are more likely to get penile cancer. If left untreated, it can lead to increased swelling, and in extreme cases, gangrene, and eventually the loss of your penis.
Expected Duration. Phimosis in a young child is likely to improve on its own. In adults, phimosis will not go away unless surgery is performed or an infection is treated.
Stretching can be unpleasant at times. You could discover that stretching your foreskin is easier if you use warm water. Take a hot shower or bathe in a heated bath. It will not only help you relax, but the warm water may also assist loosen your skin.
It usually isn't something to worry about unless it is causing you pain or difficulty while urinating or having sex. Paraphimosis is when a tight foreskin is pulled behind the head of the penis and can then not be moved forward.
The condition you have is phimosis which is tightness of foreskin prevent easy retraction. It is not usually interfering with penile growth.
However they vary widely in outcome. The present study shows in a large cohort of men, based on self-assessment, that the foreskin has erogenous sensitivity. It is shown that the foreskin is more sensitive than the uncircumcised glans mucosa, which means that after circumcision genital sensitivity is lost.
Pulling your son's foreskin back too early can damage it and cause scar tissue to form. When you're able to pull the foreskin back, do so gently. Only pull it as far as it will go.
The NMC group included 72 patients (29.0%) who were circumcised during the newborn period; the non-NMC group included 176 patients (71.0%) who were circumcised after the newborn period. There was no significant difference in height, weight, and second to fourth digit ratio between both groups (Table 3).
Present. Rates vary widely, from over 90% in Israel and many Muslim-majority countries, 86.3% in South Korea, to 80% in the United States, to 58% in Australia, to 45% in South Africa, to 20.7% in the United Kingdom, to under 1% in Japan and Honduras.