QUESTION: Fused Foreskin on my 2 1/2 year old

[Jaydens_mom]

Hey there,
I have a 2 1/2 year old boy whom was circumsised at birth. I cared for it and cleaned it properly, as directed by my doctor.
However, it appears that the foreskin is not pulled all the way off the head of the penis. Its attached itself to the "fold", the part just before it rolls under.. it doesn't seem to want to budge; although i haven't YANKED on it in fear of hurting him.
It looks as if it will never pull apart; and frankly im scared.
It bothers me and my partner (not his father) insists that it is only 1/2 circumsised or "deformed"..
I went back to his doctor ( who preformed the circumsision) and he insisted that who ever is telling me it was done wrong is lying to me, and that it is done properly and looks perfect.
I am still not satisfied though.
I don't want him growing up hating part of his body and being afraid to get intimate with his partners.

Is this normal for little boys to have? If so when will it unfuse itself and fully show the head of the penis?

[coloradoalice]

Originally Posted by Jaydens_mom

Hey there,
I have a 2 1/2 year old boy whom was circumsised at birth. I cared for it and cleaned it properly, as directed by my doctor.
However, it appears that the foreskin is not pulled all the way off the head of the penis. Its attached itself to the "fold", the part just before it rolls under.. it doesn't seem to want to budge; although i haven't YANKED on it in fear of hurting him.
It looks as if it will never pull apart; and frankly im scared.
It bothers me and my partner (not his father) insists that it is only 1/2 circumsised or "deformed"..
I went back to his doctor ( who preformed the circumsision) and he insisted that who ever is telling me it was done wrong is lying to me, and that it is done properly and looks perfect.
I am still not satisfied though.
I don't want him growing up hating part of his body and being afraid to get intimate with his partners.

Is this normal for little boys to have? If so when will it unfuse itself and fully show the head of the penis?

You should really take this question to the Case Against Circumcision forum. With the understanding that Mothering does not advise or promote infant circumcision.

Welcome to MDC!!

[LandonsMom]

I'm not sure if this is the same, but I believe my son has the same issue. He was circumcised (regretably) and through out this last year (hes 14 months), whats left of the foreskin has slowly readheared itself back onto the head of his penis. I dont do well baby visits, so i dont have an official medical opinion on this, but I believe his body was trying to 'heal' itself by readhearing the foreskin, taking it back to a more natural state.. So currently, i am leaving it alone to become retractable on its own, as I believe it will, similar to an uncircumcised penis.

Hope that helps, keep in touch if you want, you're the only other person i know who's son has this kind of circumstance. I'm curious to know if it would become fully retractable on its own like a normal penis.

[rozzie'sma]

It sounds like your son has a loose circ, in an intact boy the foreskin is attached to the glans, therefor any left over skin would also re-attach. As he gets older it should seperate on his own. Please do not retract him, you could cause adhesions and scarring of his penis. It is fine, as far as when he will retract any time between now and puberty is normal.

[Still_Learning]

Why not take him to a urologist just to have it looked at?

[laohaire]

Definitely leave it alone, the fact that this has happened is GOOD news and is a sign of partial healing. It will loosen up later - when it SHOULD. Don't pull at it, it's not meant to be loose at his age any more than our fingernails are meant to be able to lift off our fingers.

[Pandora114]

Originally Posted by Still_Learning

Why not take him to a urologist just to have it looked at?

Because she's Canadian and needs a refferal from her family physician before going to see one.

[Joannarachel]

Sounds like your little guy got lucky and didn't lose all of his foreskin. Leave well enough alone and count your blessings.

[JBaxter]

This happened to my DS 2 also. Dont pull it back. When he is in the bath clean it really well with a wash cloth but dont tug on it. It will unadhere at some point. If he is anything like my 2 1/2 yr old his penis is a favorite play item yanking twisting and pulling all the time. Just keep it clean and DONT let a doc yank it loose. A ped did that to my DS2 once and NEVER again. I wish I knew then what I know now about circs. FYI DS2 is now 11 and has no problems.

[Lula's Mom]

You may or may not know this, but if your son was intact, his foreskin would still be naturally fused to the head of his penis (the glans). It would not be retractable at his age. This readherance to the glans is his body's way of trying to heal the wound created by the circumcision. Actually this is quite common nowadays. Doctors tend to do looser circumcisions than they used to do, because tight circumcisions take all of the foreskin and cause painful erections, curvature of the penis, hair on the shaft, and even tears and bleeding if extremely tight. However, this change to looser circumcisions has led to new problems, like these adhesions you see on your boy. If ripped back repeatedly (as some doctors will advise) this leads to more scarring and pain, on top of the original circumcision.

I agree with PPs; unless it is the scar line which has readhered, leave it alone. Read this link: http://www.cirp.org/news/ponsky2/ Most adhesions of this type will resolve in their own time.

Please visit the Case Against Circumcision forum to learn more.

[Lula's Mom]

Oh, the other site mentions skin bridges. In case you don't know what those are, they are another complication of circumcision. *Warning, medical photos of adult penises.*Here's what they look like.

I'll bet "they" never told you about this stuff, did they?

[Jaydens_mom]

Yes my son does infact have a LOOSE circumcision..it almost looks like it wasn't circumcised at all because the skin still covers most of the head.

It's just that when we pull the skin back as far as it will go naturally it looks as if it was actually sewn to the base of the head.. im not sure exactly what fusing is supposed to look like... but this looks like it will never pull away

Maybe it's how it is supposed to look, but any other circumcised penis' i have seen have Never looked like this. Even my step-son when he was 2 had a clearly circumcised penis, although he was circumcised by a different doctor. There was no fusion... the skin was not covering the head whatsoever.

It just really worries me, even my mother insists it was done wrong because my brothers never looked like this...

I am taking him to a pediatrician on Monday and she is going to give me a second opinion and perhaps even reffer me to a urologist..

I am really hoping that it does pull apart and reveal the entire head eventually. I really don't want to have to get him re-circumcised.. it'd break my heart.

[Jaydens_mom]

This is the only pic in the link that Lula's Mom posted that resembles what my sons penis looks like...

http://www.circumstitions.com/Restri...ed/brij15f.jpg

however his is obviously much smaller lol, And the fusing is much more cleaner all the way around the base of the head JUST before it curves under ( the curving under is not visable due to the fusing). My sons is so perfectly attached to the head it almost looks like it was stiched and healed there.

[Jaydens_mom]

Originally Posted by Lula's Mom

Oh, the other site mentions skin bridges. In case you don't know what those are, they are another complication of circumcision. *Warning, medical photos of adult penises.*Here's what they look like.

ll bet "they" never told you about this stuff, did they?

It is true. I thought my doctor was so great until i had my son. There is so much he has neglected to tell me about circumcisions.. such as this fusing. I expected it to look circumcised.. much like any other circumcised male, i expected the head to be fully visable... i did not expect this "deformed" look.

[Lula's Mom]

I want to preface this by saying I really feel for you. I want to offer you a because I know you are worried about your son, you care about him and you want to do what's best for him. That said... it's hard to figure out how to answer you without upsetting you. The thing is, I can see that you were not informed about circumcision before it was performed on your son. And it's a crime that doctors perform it without telling parents the truth about it, really. There is no medical benefit to circumcision. It's cosmetic surgery. If I'm not mistaken only about 12% of Canadian boys are circumcised at birth.

Maybe it's how it is supposed to look, but any other circumcised penis' i have seen have Never looked like this. Even my step-son when he was 2 had a clearly circumcised penis, although he was circumcised by a different doctor. There was no fusion... the skin was not covering the head whatsoever.

It just really worries me, even my mother insists it was done wrong because my brothers never looked like this...

How to say this delicately... how it's supposed to look is the way he was born. A circumcised penis doesn't look the way it's supposed to. It's been altered, it's had its covering taken off. Baby penises are very very small, and circumcisers are doing guesswork when they perform this surgery. There is no way to tell how much skin to take off in order to produce the desired cosmetic effect. Therefore, a boy (man) may end up with very little moveable skin, or a bit more, depending on the circumcision method and/or the doctor's preference.

It wasn't done "wrong" (although no routine infant circumcision is right!) The surgery was performed, and your son is experiencing one of the common complications. His body is trying to fix what was done to him.

It's just that when we pull the skin back as far as it will go naturally it looks as if it was actually sewn to the base of the head.. im not sure exactly what fusing is supposed to look like... but this looks like it will never pull away....


I am really hoping that it does pull apart and reveal the entire head eventually. I really don't want to have to get him re-circumcised.. it'd break my heart.

Yes, that's what fusing, or adhesions, look like. Your son has it all the way around his glans. I sincerely hope it will detach on its own, as it would in an intact boy. Did you take a look at the first link I posted, where it talked about the fusing breaking up on its own in a majority of these cases? You need to wait and see on this, and it may be years. If he enters puberty and there has been no change, there are still other options besides surgery.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not get him recircumcised! Enough damage has been done. He does not need to lose what little foreskin he has left. There is a MDC member who posts in the Case Against Circumcision forum. He was recircumcised as a child and will tell you how it has left him with a basically nonfunctioning penis.

I am taking him to a pediatrician on Monday and she is going to give me a second opinion and perhaps even reffer me to a urologist..

I urge you to visit the Case Against Circumcision forum and read, read read. You need to do the research that wasn't done before. You need to understand all about circumcision and adhesions and the function of the foreskin, so that you can understand why you need to not do anything drastic right now. Ask any question that comes into your head- we will be there and glad to answer.

[Lula's Mom]

More links on adhesions

http://www.kidsgrowth.com/resources/...il.cfm?id=3420

Q:My son was circumcised and is now 10 months old. He has some skin stuck to his penis which the doctor says is an adhesion. My doctor said to leave it alone and it will go away as he gets older. A friend of mine had the same problem with her little baby boy and the doctor cut the adhesion. What should I do?


A: We would recommend following your doctor's opinion. Penile adhesions occur frequently after circumcision. Some physicians advocate manual lysis of the adhesions. This procedure can be painful and traumatic. Penile adhesions are normal in uncircumcised boys and normally resolve without treatment.
A recent study in the Journal of Urology followed 254 circumcised boys to see what happened to their penile adhesions. Only seven patients had been treated for adhesions. Despite this, the prevalence of adhesions decreased dramatically with age to:

71% of boys age ‹12 months
28% of boys ages 1-5 years old
8% of boys ages 5-9
2% ages 9-18


We agree with the conclusions of this study. Penile adhesions after circumcision normally resolve without treatment.

http://www.medem.com/medlb/article_d...NC&sub_cat=474

Q. My circumcised 2-year-old son has been having a problem with penile adhesion for over a year. Some doctors tell me to pull the excess skin back on a regular basis, and others tell me not to do it at all. Is this a common problem in little boys? Does he need another circumcision?

A. Sometimes after a routine newborn circumcision, excess foreskin remains. Since newborn circumcision is not medically necessary, it's certainly better to leave a little extra than to take off too much and damage the child's penis.

Adhesions between the glans and foreskin are normal in infants and, by age 1 only half of the boys have retractable foreskin. Never try to forcibly strip the foreskin back because that's unnecessarily painful and may cause a raw surface and subsequent scarring. Any small, whitish lumps beneath the foreskin only represent normal skin shedding and need not be removed.

By the time he's 4 the adhesions should release on their own, and he can be taught to retract any remaining foreskin while bathing.

So, it's a common occurrence in little boys for adhesions to develop under any remaining foreskin, although it's rarely a problem and practically never requires a repeat circumcision.

http://pediatrics.about.com/od/weekl...l_adhesion.htm

[Q. My infant son is now 17 days old. He was circumcised before leaving the hospital. By now, it has totally healed. While bathing him we noticed about 75% of the skin immediately next to the glans has healed to the edge of the glans. My sister-in-law (an RN) said we were supposed to "pull" the skin of the shaft down away from the glans during the healing process. However, our pediatrician said the circumcision was fine - just leave it alone. Is this normal? Should we attempt to pull the skin away from the glans or will it separate on it's own? Marshall, Harrisburg, NC

A. It isn't really normal, but is a common complication after a circumcision.

In a situation like this, penile adhesions form when the skin on the shaft of the penis attaches itself to the glans or head of the penis.
In extreme cases, it can look like the child was never even circumcised, leading parents to believe that the child had a 'bad circumcision.'
Adhesions are especially common in children who have a 'hidden penis,' in which the whole penis seems to disappear inside a large fat pad around their penis.

If the skin is attached only on the very base of the glans, then your child has a very mild case of penile adhesions and you can likely just leave it alone. It should eventually separate, especially once your child becomes older, and anyway, forcing it apart would be painful. Eventually, you may notice a white substance (smegma) coming out and forcing these adhesions apart on their own. If this happens, you can usually try to gently separate the adhesions and apply vaseline to the irritated area that has separated so that it doesn't become reattached.

Treatment for Penile Adhesions
If a child's penile adhesions don't go away on their own or if a parent wants to treat a child with extensive adhesions, one study recently has shown that applying a prescription steroid cream to the area three times a day for three weeks resulted in clearing the adhesions in almost 80 percent of infants. This makes sense when you consider that uncircumcised children that have a phimosis, in which their foreskin doesn't retract, are often successfully treated with topical steroid creams.
Some children with extensive adhesions do require surgery as treatment.

http://www.henryfordhealth.org/19160.cfm

Q. I have a son who just turned 7. When he was born he was supposed to have been circumcised. They used a plasi-bell method. After it was done, he still had excess skin and they reassured us he would grow into it.

At 18 months they held him down, and pulled the skin back because it was still attached to the rim around the head of his penis. It was a horrible thing to do to a child.

Within a few weeks it was already reattached to the head again. This time they left it and told me that I might consider taking him to a urologist to have him re-circumcised although they felt sure that as he grew the skin would detach itself.

His penis, honestly, is still about the same size as it was when he was born. One doctor told me that it wasnt growing because the skin attached to the head was holding it back. Then another told me that its nothing to be concerned about and that he would go through a growth spurt and the skin would detach itself. That sounds very painful. I would like to know:

Will the skin detach itself with time or should I have him re-circumcised?
Is this the reason his penis doesnt seem to grow or will it hit a normal growth spurt and catch up to the rest of his body? He is very tall (45) but very thin (60 pounds).
I am confused and want to make the right decision for him. He has a younger brother and is aware of the differences of size and shape and is bothered by it. Thank you. Vanessa

Dear Vanessa,
Thanks for your questions and concerns. My comments are based on your child having a normal penis except for the foreskin. The foreskin will almost always detach itself in time as a boy develops. It should not be forcibly retracted.

This may lead to scarred adhesions that will not detach without surgery. Penile growth is not usually influenced by adhesion of the foreskin to the glans penis. A fat pad over the pubis is usually seen in heavy children, which give the appearance of a shorter penis. A very rare condition called micropenis is usually evident at birth and is treated with testosterone supplementation.

[Jaydens_mom]

I read a fair amount of posts in the Case against circumcision thread, and I am not really that keen about ever going back in there.
My son was circumcised and I prefer not to read a million and one posts on why I made "the wrong" choice.
I refuse to re-post this thread in there, because i know i will be told that circumcision is wrong and that i ruined my son.
He is perfect. I have no regrets.

[Jaydens_mom]

Thank you for your responses they were very helpfull. At first I thought maybe it was just a faulty circumcision and that his original doctor was just trying to cover his butt by saying that it was done right and that everyone is lying to me.
I will still be taking him into the pediatricians monday, but if she suggests pulling the skin away from the head, i will stop her in her tracks.
All i can do is wait i guess, and hopefully it will detach itself fully and be how i EXPECTED it to be.

[Lula's Mom]

Sweetie, circumcision is wrong. It's the painful removal of a healthy body part from a tiny, brand-new person who did not consent to the procedure. Why didn't you think he was perfect when he was born? He was.

I am not going to tell you that you ruined him. While you, as his parent, bear the ultimate responsibility for the choice, it is largely the fault of medical professionals if parents are not informed and do not fully understand what circumcision is and does. You live in Canada! Circumcision is not widely performed there anymore. That means most doctors there, unlike in the States, are informed about circumcision and the way it harms people. Your doctor willfully hid the truth from you. You should be angry!!

I hope you will reconsider your statement that you have "no regrets". What that doctor did to your baby, without fully informing you, will impact him the rest of his life. He has lost the most sensitive and sexually fulfilling part of his penis. It is OK to admit that you did not know everything about circumcision before you consented to it for your son.

We have many, many mamas here who are just like you- they did not know. But once they did know, they turned their regret and sadness into action. They now spend their energy teaching friends and family why circumcision is wrong and harmful, so they will not make the same mistake. Please go back to the Case Against Circumcision forum and read the thread at the top: 'Mamas who regret circumcising their sons.' The overwhelming sentiment there is "When you know better, you do better".

I want to help you understand all of this so that if you ever have another little boy, you will leave him intact. And you can tell others of your experiencce, so that they may leave their sons intact too.

[Jaydens_mom]

I am not altering my opinion of circumcision. I was NOT informed of the fusing process... however i had full knowledge about loss of sensitivity and etc.. as my cousin and i both had our children in the same month and discussed this (his son is uncut). Sure maybe when he is having sex it will not feel as great as it might for an uncircumcised male, but having always being circumcised how is he to know the difference..