I am an 18 year old male and have a question regarding my sexual health. Over the past few years I have become more aware of this aspect of my health, and I have quickly realised that I have a problem. The issue in question is regarding the retraction of my foreskin, which I find almost impossible to do. It often becomes too tight to pull back past a certain point, or when I succeed in doing so, it feels very tight and I panic, pulling it back up again. I have noticed that the bottom of my glans is purple in colour (when I got to see it), and there is yellow particles underneath it which I haven't been able to clean away. My foreskin also rolled back during a sexual event, like a sock sometimes rolls down over itself when you put one on, and this caused pain and swelling- I managed to fix this myself, but it caused me to panic and become even more afraid. I'm wondering if you could help me with this and give me advice on how to approach this and solve it, this is something that I'm very aware of and I'm concerned that it may affect my future. Thank you very much.
You have a tight foreskin. It is a very common problem.
During the teenage, many guys suffer from this.
There are basically two reasons behind it:
Either your foreskin is yet to gain the flexibility in the next couple of years, or there’s a condition called phimosis ( characterised by tight foreskin).
It would be great if you consult a urologist, because only a professional can tell you whether you should wait or undergo a surgical procedure to loosen up your foreskin.
Nowadays there are procedures like frenuloplasty, preputioplasty, partial circumcision etc which are a great alternative to full circumcision.
Sometimes you don’t even need any surgery, as the doctor might prescribe only steroid creams for your problem.
As Amarjeet states this is a very common problem for young men - in fact when I was 16 YOA I was completely unable to expose any of the head of my penis. I resolved this myself as there was no internet then for information on what to do.
There are 3 things you need to do: -
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- penile hygiene: wash around the tip area of your penis after urinating, after sexual activity or masturbation. A mild soap or simply water only is best. As you are able to expose more of the head of your penis in future months you need to clean it thoroughly
- again, you can use the mild soap, water only, or if you have baby oil or liquid coconut oil, apply a very light coating to the part of the head that is exposed and rub or massage for 2 to 3 minutes. It is best to do this after you have had a warm shower - then wash and fully dry again.
- for the instances where you have panicked or felt pain, there is a condition known as Paraphimosis and this is when the foreskin becomes stuck when the head of the penis is either partly or fully exposed and the foreskin will not return to the head covered position
- this can be very painful and you need to learn about how to release the foreskin. To do this learn about a squeeze technique where you grasp the head of your penis between thumb and forefinger. Yes, you will momentarily experience more pain but you will loose your erection and the foreskin will free itself
- the vast majority of young men with phimosis can overcome the issue without the need for any surgery and you do this by doing regular foreskin stretches
- build on the stretches as you would any new excercise, from simply doing a few to learn the technique of each exercise, then build on the amount of repetitions and the amount of time you hold the stretch for
- stretches are best done during or immediately after a warm shower
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As we are unable to post external web addresses on here here is the search terms you need to find the details on what stretches to do and the techniques:
. - Wiki - How - 3 Ways to do - Phimosis Stretching
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You can update your Forum Post here as you are progressing, but I would suggest you at least try the stretching exercises for 3 to 5 weeks to learn and practice them before updating