"Tight" foreskin at age 7

[clovergirl33]

My son just went to his 7 yr appt and the ped mentioned that his foreskin was "tight." He said it should be easily retractable by age 5. i'm not sure if he was able to retract it during the exam, but when I got home, my son showed me that he can retract it without difficulty. My husband says he still thinks it is very tight though. The ped gave us a referral to a urologist and said we would have to consider circumcision to prevent complications from this (he wouldn't elaborate much, but said that if it was forcibly retracted it could strangle the tip of the penis and warrant an "emergency" circumcision).

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge about this?

Cindi

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

At 7 your ds is still well within the age range of not being retractable. Avg. age of retraction is 10.5y but up to adulthood is normal. The Dr. is 100% wrong and your ds is 100% normal. He will retract when his time comes just like girls get their period when the time comes.

As long as no one but your ds messes with his foreskin odds of paraphimosis (foreskin stuck behind the glans) just isnt a consideration.

The Dr. should have never been touching your ds's penis in the first place. Not only can it cause damage but it can also cause this type of situation. Worry for no reason at all to the parents. If the Dr. said this in front of you ds you need to make sure to tell your ds the Dr. was wrong and he is perfectly normal and has no reason to worry.

Your ds dosnt need a urologist but you do need to make a hands off policy for your ds's penis at Dr. visits.

I look forward to the day when the Dr's here in the USA finally catch up with current intact care and leave boys alone.

[Fellow Traveler]

Originally Posted by clovergirl33

My son just went to his 7 yr appt and the ped mentioned that his foreskin was "tight." He said it should be easily retractable by age 5. i'm not sure if he was able to retract it during the exam, but when I got home, my son showed me that he can retract it without difficulty. My husband says he still thinks it is very tight though. The ped gave us a referral to a urologist and said we would have to consider circumcision to prevent complications from this (he wouldn't elaborate much, but said that if it was forcibly retracted it could strangle the tip of the penis and warrant an "emergency" circumcision).

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge about this?

Cindi

Your doctor is seriously mistaken. I think the first thing you should note is what I bolded. Clearly, there is no problem if he can retract it without difficulty. In the first case most boys can't even do what your son did until 10 or 11. Only 50% are retractable by then. I know this because I wasn't myself until about 10.

If you need documentation we can provide that too.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Links on age of retraction

Natural progression of retractability: http://doctorsopposingcircumcision.o...etraction.html


PDF leaflet retraction age: http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcisi...0-2005-dan.pdf


The tip of the foreskin is a sphincter and it like the anus clamps down under stress and my guess is having a strange Dr. messing with his penis it clamped down since he was able to retract at home just fine.

[A&A]

Originally Posted by MCatLvrMom2A&X

At 7 your ds is still well within the age range of not being retractable. Avg. age of retraction is 10.5y but up to adulthood is normal. The Dr. is 100% wrong and your ds is 100% normal. He will retract when his time comes just like girls get their period when the time comes.

As long as no one but your ds messes with his foreskin odds of paraphimosis (foreskin stuck behind the glans) just isnt a consideration.

The Dr. should have never been touching your ds's penis in the first place. Not only can it cause damage but it can also cause this type of situation. Worry for no reason at all to the parents. If the Dr. said this in front of you ds you need to make sure to tell your ds the Dr. was wrong and he is perfectly normal and has no reason to worry.

Your ds dosnt need a urologist but you do need to make a hands off policy for your ds's penis at Dr. visits.

I look forward to the day when the Dr's here in the USA finally catch up with current intact care and leave boys alone.

Docs are so penis-obsessed. Shudder.


Odds are, the only problem an intact boy will have is that someone will THINK he has a problem.

[BlessedMommy2006]

Ditto to all of the above.

Your son is just fine. No need to worry about urologists.

[clovergirl33]

Thank you guys so much. After posting last night, I did some research on Pubmed and found similar results. Now I don't trust my pediatrician. Not surprising...

My poor son. When he was born, they tried to take him out of our room to circumcise him 3 times even though we were very clear that we were not going to do it. Now, 7 years later, they're still after his foreskin...

Thanks again...

[calngavinsmom]

Originally Posted by clovergirl33

My poor son. When he was born, they tried to take him out of our room to circumcise him 3 times even though we were very clear that we were not going to do it. Now, 7 years later, they're still after his foreskin...

Thanks again...

How sad eh? What a backwords time we live in to have to be so vigilant to keep our sons from harm.

You are doing a great job Momma....keep it up

[Yulia_R]

you're son is fine and your ped is wrong!

Only 50% of the boys retract by the age of 10. The ped had no business to even try to retract his foreskin.

[Crunchy Frog]

You need to contact these guys and have them send a formal letter to your doctor. http://doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/

Heaven knows how many boys he's causing to be circed unnecessarily.

[hillymum]

Unless your son has voiced that he has a problem with his penis his ped should never touch his penis! just as a not, antibiotics are the standard cure for UTIs in males, not a circumcision. Stick with this doc and you might hear him try that one on you.

Find a new ped!!!!

[ursaminor]

Wow, I cant believe how many similar posts show up here on TCAC! It kind of freaks me out. Some serious education needs to happen with Docs and Intact development/function.

Can anybody tell me how common is it for Peds to look at little boys penises during yearly checkups? Are girls labia examined as well?! Yikes!

[tutucrazy]

What ignorance from that doctor! There is no reason they should look at his penis in the first place. If your son can urinate then his penis is doing exactly what is should be doing at this point. Retraction is a sexual function. Hormones released during puberty will replace the fiber dense tissue with a more elastic tissue. This is why after puberty the foreskin easily retracts. Even if your son were to have a tight foreskin after puberty (which is unlikely), circumcision is not the correct treatment for a tight foreskin in an adult male. Hope you can educate that pedi. Sorry you were given such terrible advice.

Here are some articles:

http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcisi...kinleaflet.pdf

http://www.nocirc.org/publish/pamphlet7.html

[eepster]

Originally Posted by clovergirl33

(he wouldn't elaborate much, but said that if it was forcibly retracted it could strangle the tip of the penis and warrant an "emergency" circumcision).

This condition is called paraphimosis. Prevention is amazingly simple, just don't try to forcibly retract the foreskin. The only reason you DS was in any danger of it, is b/c the Dr was messing with his penis and trying to retract it when he shouldn't have been.

Even if paraphimosis were to happen (which if you give the Dr a good talking to about not messing with your DS's penis, if very very rare) the worst case scenario treatment is a dorsal slit. This does cause some damage to the foreskin, but is much less drastic than removing the entire foreskin.

[BaMo]

Originally Posted by Crunchy Frog

You need to contact these guys and have them send a formal letter to your doctor. http://doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/

Heaven knows how many boys he's causing to be circed unnecessarily.

Ditto! Please take the time to inform the doctor (whether he "hears" you or not is a whole other story) that what he did was wrong.

[BlessedMommy2006]

Originally Posted by clovergirl33

Thank you guys so much. After posting last night, I did some research on Pubmed and found similar results. Now I don't trust my pediatrician. Not surprising...

My poor son. When he was born, they tried to take him out of our room to circumcise him 3 times even though we were very clear that we were not going to do it. Now, 7 years later, they're still after his foreskin...

Thanks again...

Did you ever write a complaint to the hospital? The solicitation that you got when he was born was totally unacceptable.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Originally Posted by ursaminor

Wow, I cant believe how many similar posts show up here on TCAC! It kind of freaks me out. Some serious education needs to happen with Docs and Intact development/function.

Can anybody tell me how common is it for Peds to look at little boys penises during yearly checkups? Are girls labia examined as well?! Yikes!

In my experience it is very common. The only way I have kept ds from having his retracted is by physically stopping the Dr from doing so or more recently by telling them not to even touch his foreskin at all. My dd had hers checked at every single visit until she was around 5yo.