uncirced question

[PlayaMama]

my ds is 5 and his foreskin still has a very small opening and it's angled a LOT so that when he pees it will balloon and shoot straight up and he has to bend his penis almost all the way back towards his leg to get his pee in the toilet.

when his foreskin was detaching i ended up taking him to a urologist because i had no idea what was happening and he recommended we circ because there was "scar tissue" and it was obviously causing an infection.

obviously, the guy wasn't very experienced with uncirced boys because he never even mentioned the possibility that the foreskin was detaching and that was why there was redness and pain.

anyway, so, my question, how frequent is it that the foreskin opening is off center? when my ds was detaching there was some manipulation of his foreskin but it was IMPOSSIBLE to retract though that was only attempted once of twice and i didn't know any better, is it possible that this did cause scar tissue that has caused to to not stretch at all?

i know it's common for it not to retract fully until puberty, but isn't there a little bit of give? or is it common for them to be this tightly closed?

thanks!

[tutucrazy]

Spraying and ballooning while urinating is part of the normal developmental process. You don't need to worry about his foreskin still being very tight at the opening, this is normal too. The opening will widen as the puberty hormones increase. These hormones turn the skin from a fiber dense tissue to a more elastic tissue. Once this happens he will discover that he can retract his foreskin during self-exploration. The ballooning will actually aid in the process of expelling dead skin cells and differentiating the foreskin from the glans. Your son is perfectly normal, no need to worry. My son balloons and sprays as well. I'm about to post a thread all about this, stay tuned.

Btw, it is also normal for there to be some pain when the foreskin first separates. That urologist was probably completely unaware of the normal separation process.

[tutucrazy]

Here ya go momma:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...9#post14838319

[eepster]

Most likely it isn't done separating. It may have separated more in the back than the front, and the attachments in th front are pulling the opening forward. It's a temporary thing, and will resolve when he finishes separating.

The opening is a sphincter, that closes tightly when not in use (peeing.) It will loosen up and relax more during puberty.

[Dev]

Please tell the urologist what you know and that his diagnosis and resulting treatment (circ.) is not only incorrect and unnecessary, but harmful on so many levels. How many parents of intact boys has he seen (or will see) with normal prepuce development and recommend and carry out prepuce amputations! Better yet, follow up with a complaint to the administrator or Director of his clinic and the state licensing board. Doctors, their licensing boards, and medical associations must be held accountable for allowing and condoning amputative genital surgeries on our nations little boys to treat phony diagnoses on otherwise normal, healthy functioning body parts. I can't believe this is still happening in the year 2010! Good for you PlayaMama for using good common sense and searching for the correct answers.

[BlessedMommy2006]

Originally Posted by Dev

Please tell the urologist what you know and that his diagnosis and resulting treatment (circ.) is not only incorrect and unnecessary, but harmful on so many levels. How many parents of intact boys has he seen (or will see) with normal prepuce development and recommend and carry out prepuce amputations! Better yet, follow up with a complaint to the administrator or Director of his clinic and the state licensing board. Doctors, their licensing boards, and medical associations must be held accountable for allowing and condoning amputative genital surgeries on our nations little boys to treat phony diagnoses on otherwise normal, healthy functioning body parts. I can't believe this is still happening in the year 2010! Good for you PlayaMama for using good common sense and searching for the correct answers.

That urologist is uninformed. If you inform him, you may save other intact boys from misdiagnosis by him.

[PlayaMama]

Originally Posted by eepster

Most likely it isn't done separating. It may have separated more in the back than the front, and the attachments in th front are pulling the opening forward. It's a temporary thing, and will resolve when he finishes separating.

well, he separated when he was 1-1/2 and he's now 5. i'm sure he's done separating.


tutucrazy- i just read your other thread. THANK YOU!!! that addresses the exact issue i'm seeing.

as to talking to the doctor, i did send him a letter when my ds separated about 4 years ago. i don't know how much good it did as he never contacted me back. but at the very least i put it out there.

[mntnmom]

I'm a little confused. If he's separated and retractable, why is the opening of his foreskin an issue? Doesn't ballooning usually stop after retraction is complete? OP, is it possible that his foreskin reattached after the point you say he separated? The problems described sound very much like what I would expect while a boy is in the process of separation.

[Crunchy Frog]

Originally Posted by mntnmom

I'm a little confused. If he's separated and retractable, why is the opening of his foreskin an issue? Doesn't ballooning usually stop after retraction is complete? OP, is it possible that his foreskin reattached after the point you say he separated? The problems described sound very much like what I would expect while a boy is in the process of separation.

I believe that there are two different components to retractability. One is the tissue separation (discussed in this thread) and the other is the enlargement of the opening, which is a different process.

If partial or complete separation have occurred, but the opening is still very small, then you get ballooning. At least that's my understanding, I haven''t actually gone through any of that yet.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

well after seperation has happened you may still see a tight sphincter at the tip. The hormones of puberty usually take care of that.

[incorrigible]

Mine just enjoys causing it to balloon. He has since it started to retract when he was a toddler. (it didn't finish separating, and become fully retractable till he was about 10, though, btw. It takes even longer than that with some boys, too.) Anyway, he still balloons it. At first it freaked me out. Then, it creeped me out. Now, I roll my eyes and giggle if I'm doing something in the bathroom when he's using it. He still does it about every time and thinks it's just grand....boys and their toys...

he's never had an infection or any kind of complication (aside from a dr forcibly retracting him so hard it tore the frenulum and got a touch of infection before healing up.) so long as the urine is finding it's way into the toilet (well, ok, and mine's been cleaning up what doesn't since he was 7), I wouldn't worry.