the doctor say my son has phimosis!

[slsmith1979]

Currently i have a foreskin friendly doc, or atleast i thought i did. My 4 year son was complaining that his pee pee hurt. He had a reddenned swollen area on the left side of his penis. I watched it for a few days, during which the redness and swelling decreased, however, since i was in the area, i decided to bring him in to see my doctor. Just as i assumed, the said it was nothing to worry about and prescribed antibiotics (a prescription that i will not fill).
During the exam, the md asked me if i was retracting his forskin. I told him that i had been, not forcibly, butpulling it back just a little in the bath to clean. He attempted to retract my sons foreskin, which does not retract to reveal the glans or the head of the penis, and stated that my son has PHIMOSIS. He referred my to a urologist, and said that they may want to circumsize his penis or snip an area to allow for retraction.

Now, I thought i understood that it is normal for my 4 year olds forskin not to retract. It does not cause him any discomfort. He urinates normally. It makes sense to me that evolutionarily it wouldnt need to retract until puberty.

im confused.

I guess what i am asking is for a response regarding the retractibility of your sons foreskins. Has anyone had an MD who suggested phimosis?

Please respond! Im going crazy!

[boingo82]

Your son is still not totally rectractile, and it's completely normal for the membrane to have detached only on one side or the other. When that's the case the side that's still attached gets pulled on more and can get irritated. Totally normal and should take care of itself in a few days.


BTW it's unnecessary for you to retract him in the bath "to clean". You can just leave it be, he does not need to retract to clean until puberty. Just like kids don't get smelly armpits and hair until puberty, the genitals take care of themselves. Just let it alone, he will play with it enough in the bath to do all the cleaning that needs to be done.

[muldey]

Many boys do not retract until puberty.My ds is 3 and he is not even the slightest bit retractable.I've never even tried,but I've seen him move it around.From what I've read,it sounds like your ds may be starting to naturally retract,which can cause irritation.The best thing to do would be to leave it alone.No one should ever retract his foreskin but him.Only he knows what is comfortable.Don't worry about cleaning it.Just soaking in the tub is sufficient.I'm sure others will reply and give you the info you need,I don't know any links offhand.Good luck!

Lisa

[Sarah]

...and he suggested two different types of surgery for a non-existant "problem" before even mentioning other alternatives like manual stretching, ointments or waiting till puberty... typical... stipid stupid TYPICAL!!!

Have you see the CIRP articles on conservative treatments for phimosis?

http://www.cirp.org/library/treatment/phimosis/

I especially like the article by the French Dr. who has discovered that teens with unretractable foreskins (not phimosis) usually masturbate a certain way- and by modifying that- they become retractable quite quickly... "masturbate for a cure!" (pshew!)
http://www.cirp.org/library/treatment/phimosis/beauge2/

Please send this link on to the Dr. so that he can stop sending kids to chop happy urologists... once a kid get's sucked into that vortex- few escape unscathed.

That Dr has got to learn that it's OK for a 4 year old to not be retractable.

On the other hand- you should be sure to inform your son about penis anatomy and that this will be something that eventuially will happen. He should know that his foreskin can eventually go back so that he is not timid to try it on himself. If he just accepts his penis "as is" and never even challenges that tight tip, really the foreskin won't have much motivation to become elastic in that way. Don't think that the foreskin just does this all on it's own... the boy IS a key player in this process. You don't need to coerce and cajole him into working on it- especially not at four.... but he should not be ignorant of the internal anatomy or the movability. Imagine what it would be like if he didn't know this was normal- he might thing he was skinning himself-or that his penis meat was falling out the hole in his skin! That might frighten him enough to never pull his foreskin back.

I described penis hygene to my son when he was about that age and showed him pictures from the noharmm website (which I can't get to load right now- but it was a series showing retraction). He looked at the pictures for about 10 seconds and said, "Ok- I get it. I can do that." Of course he was retractable at that time. It might not seem so obvious to your son- but he still needs to understand the concept of what will happen. It can be framed as "a part of growing up- this will happen" He does not need to be pressure to do it- but he does, at some point- need to understand this.

Love Sarah

[mattemma04]

Originally Posted by slsmith1979

I guess what i am asking is for a response regarding the retractibility of your sons foreskins. Has anyone had an MD who suggested phimosis?

Please respond! Im going crazy!

>>>

I think most doctors with think that a child not retracting FULLY by age 3-4 is in *need* of circumcision for phimosis.They are TOTALLY uneducated on the normal penis/foreskin,your doctor included.
Skip the urologist visit unless you want another uneducated doctor to forcibly retract your son and recommend mutilation for a problem THEY created.As you said he is peeing fine and at this time that is all that matters.
Sounds like he is having normal seperation processes in that area.
It really amazes me that doctors know so little about normal anatomy.
Best wishes!

[TigerTail]

my 3 yr old is not retractable at all, but is experiencing a bit of irritation that i believe is from the separation process- man, am i glad i have y'all's brains to pick so i don't take him to the dr over *that*. i swear, they have no clue what a 'normal' penis is supposed to do. (and thanks sarah, for the idea- i was searching for words trying to explain to ds what was happening to his penis, & a picture is worth 1000 words!)

suse

[Frankly Speaking]

Slsmith:

You’ve got three things going on here that need to be addressed.

First, read my sticky about premature and forcible retraction:

http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...d.php?t=129378

Then, read my sticky about red, swollen or inflamed foreskins:

http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...d.php?t=161537

Finally, let’s tear the phimosis diagnosis apart. Look at the photos in this link:

http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/...w10610_fm.html

I strongly suspect that your son’s penis looks like the photos in the top row which means he is absolutely normal. The only way he would look like the photos in the bottom row is if he has had numerous infections that had not been successfully treated. I think that if that were the case, you would have mentioned it.

Let’s look at where the confusion comes. First, some idiot who thought he knew about the foreskin wrote something that said that all boys should be retractile by the age of 3 years. It seems that is the only thing any American doctor has ever read and if the foreskin won’t come back by that age, voila! Phimosis! Cut that boy and let his real penis out! :LOL

The truth of the matter is that only 1/3 of 3 year olds are retractile and only 2/3 of 6 year olds. Even at age 10, ten percent are still not retractile and this is absolutely normal. Even the state of Mississippi addressed this when they defunded Medicaid circumcisions. They will not pay for a circumcision for phimosis unless there is a pathology report accompanying the request for payment showing infection.

In reality, there are two forms of phimosis, normal and natural developmental phimosis that all boys have beginning at birth and continuing usually for at least several years and pathological phimosis that is the result of injury. Usually this injury is the result of repeated infections such as BXO that has been ignored or not successfully treated. The true incidence of this is somewhere between 4 and 6 boys per 100,000 intact boys so it is extremely rare.

I suspect that the irritation your son experienced has already subsided with no treatment. Don’t worry about cleaning inside your son’s foreskin any more than you would worry about cleaning inside a daughter’s vagina and don’t worry about phimosis until your son is at least in his teens.

Thanks for asking for information!



Frank

[slsmith1979]

Thanks for your support and knowledge

Phew!!! I feel like doing cartwheels. Up until this recent visit to my sons pediatrician, i had no doubts that anything was wrong. Thanks to all of you that took the time to reply to my thread with your personal knowledge and links.
In the following link, my son's penis looks exactly like the normal non retractable penis shown:
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/...w10610_fm.html

Why are doctors obsessed with the intact penis?

When my son was 18 months old he had inguinal hernia. It required surgical repair. When he was anesthesized, the surgeon took it upon himself to forcibly retract his foreskin. Right after surgery, i met with the surgeon to see how everything went. (everything went beautifully, no complications) That is when he told me that he was unable to retract his foreskin. I was so dizzy with mixed emotions from my son undergoing surgery that i could think straight enough to ask him why he felt it was necessary to manipulate my sons genitals while he was anesthesized. CRAZY!!!!

I thought this manipulation might have had something to do with calebs nonretractability.

Why even see doctors!!?? I should have follewed my instict and heart, instead i spend 2 days worrying. It makes complete sense that foreskin may not retract until pubery. why would it need to? The mans penis is a sexual organ, the glans is sensitive to promote sexual activity. Why would it need to be exposed before the male starts to produce semen?! Do these educated physicians forget to question, forget to admire the body's design?

Thanks again to all. Ill be bringing some of this information to my sons doctor in my follow up visit with him this week!

[slsmith1979]

oh and by the way,

my sons "infection" cleared up. I gave him a bath with tea tree oil and lavender added to the water, when he got out applied tea tree therapy antiseptic cream to his penis, and applied a few drops of tea tree oil and lavender directly to his underwear. I also gave him some extra vit. c and zinc. no antibiotics for my boy!!!