What do they mean by retraction?

[HeliMom]

Took my 9 month old to the Dr. today and as I was watching my three year old she was busy checking him out, she has never retracted before so I wasn't hovering, I looked over and it looked like she was pulling his foreskin back. I yelped  "no" and put my hand on my son.   I was really flustered and shocked  when I got up the courage I said " Everything I've read says not to retract." My Dr. said "that's right, you don't want to force it" But then what was she doing? My son was happy and smiling the whole time. His penis doesn't look irritated.   I have never messed with his foreskin since there has never been a need.  The skin she exposed looked pink and wet, like it belonged inside the body, did she retract? Is it possible to move the foreskin around  without forcible retraction at nine months? Should I email her information and express my concerns? (She's been my doc since I was born and I feel like she's family so I'm not going to just ditch her, I'd rather educate) I'm just so confused as to what happened.

Edited by HeliMom - 5/4/12 at 6:35am

[mama24-7]

Yes, that is retraction, although from reading here, it sounds like many doctors think it's only retraction if the child isn't yet retractable.  Problem w/ that is when the person doing the retracting isn't the owner of the penis, you can go too far before you realize there's a problem.

Sounds like your son is okay, which is good.  Take a deep breath, try to calm down & be glad that he's retractable in some way so that he wasn't hurt. 

Since it sounds like you are comfortable educating her, then that may help you to feel better & to prevent her from doing it to the next child, who may not be so lucky.  Retractablity is variable & even at age 9, she may hurt someone.

I don't have any resources handy but there's lots here from old threads on doctors retracting.  

Best wishes,

Sus

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Any time you fell uncomfortable with any part of an exam you can always ask them not to do that any more. For me with my ds I ended up just asking the Dr. to not touch his penis in any way. That way he couldnt be hurt and I removed that bit of worry from exams.

If you would like to educate her then you can look in the resources sticky on the front CAC page and there are many things to print off there.

[HeliMom]

Thank you, I just read your definition of retraction and I'll be checking out the other resources.

[Greg B]

Yes she retracted your son's foreskin.  But she probably didn't do any harm.  The problem is it is hard to predict how much retration can be done without harm, and since there is no medical reason to look under it at that age, then doctors shouldn't meddle with it.  Here is a link form Doctors Opposed to Circumcision about retraction:

http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/info/info-forcedretraction.html

Regards

[Frank Speaks]

Originally Posted by HeliMom 

 I said " Everything I've read says not to retract." My Dr. said "that's right, you don't want to force it" But then what was she doing? My son was happy and smiling the whole time. His penis doesn't look irritated.   The skin she exposed looked pink and wet, like it belonged inside the body, did she retract? Is it possible to move the foreskin around  without forcible retraction at nine months? Should I email her information and express my concerns? (She's been my doc since I was born and I feel like she's family so I'm not going to just ditch her, I'd rather educate) I'm just so confused as to what happened.

It depends.  Meatal stenosis is a condition that affects circumcised boys.  It is a narrowing of the urinary opening that can cause urinary retention and if severe enough, kidney damage.  It is exceedingly rare for intact boys to have this.  But, so many boys in America are circumcised that doctors see frequent cases of it and assume intact boys are susceptible.  They aren't.

Then, the question becomes "How much of the pink inner foreskin was exposed?"  If it was only a little bit, probably no harm was done and all is well.  However, none of what she did was necessary for her to do her job and she should have not done it especially since you told her not to do it.  At least she should have given you an explanation of what she was going to do and why she was going to do it.

Frank