What does this sound like to you?

[2goingon2]

A relative by marriage has a circumcised 7 month old. I was just told the little guy had to have surgery because his urethra was too short. The person telling me the story didn't know all the details but I was wondering...would circumcision have contributed to this? How would they have known something was wrong in a 7 month old? I saw a little blurb on the AAP site about how "some people feel that circumcision can cause problems with the urethra" so I was just curious.

[2boyzmama]

I wonder if it was surgery for a buried penis, and not on his urethra at all.

Or possibly his urethra was on the underside of his penis (or somewhere other than the tip), which is usually benign issue (and also usually a contraindication for cimcumcision I'm pretty sure). Hypospadias is what it's called I believe.

[MommytoB]

I think it sounds like meatal stenosis for some reason some people refer to pee holes(meatus) as a uretha even though the uretha is the tube inside the penis of the male if I'm not mistaken right .

That can be a complication from circumcision.

Also, hypospadias can sometimes be caused from a circumcision due to a surgical mishaps

[glongley]

If there were an abnormality of the penis, e.g. hypospadias (where the urinary opening is on the underside of the glans or shaft rather than at the tip of the glans), or perhaps a webbed penis (where the underside of the penis is attached to the scrotum), this is a contraindication for circumcision until it is determined whether the foreskin tissue is needed to aid in surgical reconstruction - although doctors do sometimes circumcise boys with such conditions. So it may be that whatever they're describing is a result of the circumcision itself, e.g. a urethro-cutaneous fistula (surgical damage resulting in a urinary opening at another location on the penis other than the natural opening at the tip of the glans). Another urethral complication of that I can think of is meatal stenosis, where the exposed urinary opening of the circumcised penis becomes inflamed, ulcerated, and ultimately scarred closed. But this isn't really a "short urethra", more of a "small urethra." Sometimes also, the urethra is split open by cutting from scissors or hemostat blades inadvertenly inserted in the opening during the procedure. These all would likely entail some surgical correction, if only for cosmetic appearances.

Gillian

[Fyrestorm]

A mild hypospadias may have gone completely unnoticed without a circumcision.

This type of hypo is purely cosmetic and needs no surgical correction, doctors still want to correct them though - more money and it makes parents feel more comfortable (same reason they cut in the first place - to conform) if the kids penis is 'perfect' looking.

So, it could be completely circ related since it would have been unknown if the foreskin was left in place to hide it.