Mothering Forum banner

Circ penis re-adhering?

9302 Views 5 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  jessjgh1
I notice a lot of parents on more main stream boards talking about their circ boys foreskin, or some part of it, readhering and being told to pull it back at each diaper change. Many are told to do this as prevention of readhering. There was one woman who mentioned her ds's was hanging over the head of his penis even though she pulls it back at each changing. She is going to have her ds re-circumsized. How common is it for it to readhere? If the woman who is going to recircumsize her baby didn't would there be problems later on for her babe? could she just leave it alone at this point? It breaks my heart to read these threads, don't know why I do it. TIA, Micky
1 - 6 of 6 Posts
Quote:
Penile adhesions develop frequently after circumcision. Up to 71% of circumcised boys develop adhesions, although they are usually mild and very rarely require treatment. Most adhesions will release in their own in time, and the current recommendation is to leave them alone. If your son develops adhesions, it does not mean that the circumcision was botched, nor are they an indication for recircumcision. The following resources should provide reassurance and empower you to ensure your son's adhesions are not unnecessarily released manually (lysed, or 'torn back') by a well meaning-but inadequately informed-care provider.

J Urol. 2001 Mar;165(3):915.

Penile adhesions after neonatal circumcision.

Ponsky LE, Ross JH, Knipper N, Kay R.

Department of Urology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

"In these groups we noted an adhesion rate of 71%, 28%, 8% and 2%, respectively. The rate of adhesions more severe than grade 1 was 30%, 10% and 0% in boys 12 months old or younger, 13 to 60 and 61 months old or older, respectively. The oldest patient with grade 3 adhesions was 31 months old. Skin bridges in 6 cases involved the circumcision line in 4."

"CONCLUSIONS: Penile adhesions develop after circumcision and the incidence decreases with patient age. Although there is debate on whether to lyse these adhesions manually, our findings suggest that adhesions resolve without treatment. Based on our results we do not recommend lysing penile adhesions, except perhaps those involving the circumcision line."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract

"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."

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

Gil Fuld, M.D., F.A.A.P.

"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."

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

Vincent Iannelli, M.D.

"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.'"

"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."

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

"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."

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

Jen
See less See more
Wording of recircing always breaks my heart it's like so confusing of what parents doctors think when deciding for a 'recirc' the poor kid will proably end up with a denuded or buried penis.
Quote:

Originally Posted by MommytoB
Wording of recircing always breaks my heart it's like so confusing of what parents doctors think when deciding for a 'recirc' the poor kid will proably end up with a denuded or buried penis.
Yep! And what's also sad is that many of these parents will deny what CAUSED the problem....and go on to circ their future sons.
See less See more
2
When my first ds was 14 months-he was circ.ed at birth, he had adhesions, I took him to the Dr. (when you wake and change the baby's diaper and see blood on the penis you can tend to freak
), our FANTASTIC (and thank God for him) pediatrician told me point blank, "this is what happens when you circ. he will be ok, but leave any future boys alone". I did leave ds #2 intact and perfect
.
See less See more
Now, would you think that parents who have this problem would be PISSED that they were not told how common this IS. Some are, like Peppermint, pp'er- thank goodness for your pedi, and for having the courage to make a change.

Of course in many cases, the doctor probably circed them or is pro-circ, and isn't going to confess this now, so pretty soon this parent is telling other parents-to-be, "oh, yeah ,adhesions, they weren't that bad".

Often the experience convinces them: "thank goodness I didn't leave him intact because of all those adhesions he would have had if he had the foreskin"-- because the doctor tells them to rip them back, instead of leave alone.

Then many pro-circers try to promote loose circs as the worst of both worlds and rush to convince the mothers to re-circ, because "why have a circ without the benefits (cleanliness/looks) of a circ?" and on and on. And there are enough mothers who have had this problem (which is heartbreaking) to post that their son was re-circed and 'everything turned out fine'. (Let's not forget the dc is not yet grown up, so how would they really know).

The worst is that on some pro-circ boards certain people use all this to explain how being intact is so horrible.... because the extra skin adhering is the foreskin and they attribute the pain of adhesions to having a foreskin, etc- needing to clean the loose areas extra, for example.

You would think this issue would help convince people to NOT circ, but sometimes it seems to backfire when misguided people apply the situation to intactness.

Jessica
See less See more
1 - 6 of 6 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top