Does Phimostop work to cure phimosis?

I saw in the forum somebody mention Phimostop (https://www.phimostop.com), an Italian device meant to cure phimosis, apparently for teenagers and adults only. If I understand things correctly, they advocate using it when the phimosis is severe enough that it is impossible to retract the foreskin using a steroid cream, but one does not want to undergo circumcision.

Does this actually work? I had never heard about this.

Are there any other treatments for phimosis that I may not have heard about?

If preputial tissue is not fibrotic it works well expecially in conjuction with steroids ointments.

Medical devices for non surgical therapy are divided in four main types:

-Manual or screw dilators such as the Glansie, Glanpro, Glanmax;

-Dillatation rings such as PhimoRing, Vajraang ring, Phimocure and Phimostop;

-Dilatation springs such as the Orcl retractor;

-Inflation dilators such as the Novoglan.

First type were in use since 1880 and are shown in several medical catalogues with different mechanisms to expand tissues. Unfortunately my pediatrician did not have any of those above and did the operation on me with hemostats, blunt probe and a scalpel.

@Obertaller I don't even understand how such a ring should work!

Also, why aren't these proposed to parents of boys with phimosis?

Also, why aren't these proposed to parents of boys with phimosis?

@Jacana

A cynical answer: circumcision is more profitable.

One possible answer: doctors follow guidelines, and the use of such devices is not planned in these guidelines. On an university hospital website I found randomly, the standard treatment is topical application of corticosteroids for 3 to 6 weeks, followed by surgery if that doesn't work.

In the UK the health system takes an evidence based approach to medical treatment. To have these devices adopted as the method of choice would therefore require clinical trials and approval from a central body such as NICE or MHRA or whoever. If adopted, there would be a cost as they’d be expected to be provided free on prescription to patients.

However, any such clinical trail iwould be an overhead and of questionable value or benefit. The efficacy and outcome of these devices may prove to be no better than manual stretching with or without topical steroid cream.

As far as I’m aware, the current recommendation is that the patient attempts a stretching regime for (say) three months and if no progress is achieved then a referral to Urologist is proposed (note: In UK NHS treatment is free, there’s no cash incentive). At that point, according to anecdotes I’ve read, some patients/parents decline and either live with it, continue stretching or seek alternatives such as these phimo cure devices.

@Woyzeck Another interesting aspect: they seem to be marketed only towards adults. Maybe that's because men may be reluctant to undergo surgery and have the last word about it, contrary to boys?

@Jacana Or current guidelines may suggest waiting until adulthood to consider treatment in the absence of an emergency.

@Woyzeck I don't think this is the case, at least in France. A few years ago a friend of mine was told her son (6 years old, I think) would have to retract his foreskin (using cream), else if it did not work it would get removed. There was no discussion of waiting.

I think a lot of doctors these days take a ‘wait and see if it improves’ approach to phimosis in young boys unless it’s the severe kind that’ll never be cured by stretching.

Also, intriducing these expansion rings or devices to a young boy’s penis may do more damage or harm than good and could be traumatising to the patient who will be sensitive to such things.

I tried phimocure rings for quite a while, at first with no steroid cream then adding that. I was slowly able to go up a few ring sizes but it didn’t fully solve things and one doctor said that the stretching had caused the phimotic ring to be torn a tiny bit and form scar tissue.

Got cut in the end.

Seeing pix of these rings, they struck me as being interesting for use in play-exam scenarios ...