Foreskin examination / checking for phimosis

Those of us males who were not circumcised at a very young age often had to endure checks whether our foreskin could be retracted. If it could not, thus a diagnosis of phimosis, the course of action could be forced stretching, or surgery (in most cases, removing the offending foreskin, that is, circumcision).

Can you tell us about your experience with such checks? How old were you, who conducted them? How did you feel? What was said?

My foreskin was forcibly retracted at a children’s hospital a week or two prior to catheterisation for an X-ray and VCUG procedure aged 4.

I entered a room in urology where my mum was already in with a doctor and nurse, the doctor said to take a seat alongside mum.

Her nurse pulled a chair in front of me and asked me to help her by holding open my underwear. I never knew what was going to happen, nor did my mum. It hurt and I cried a little as the nurse retracted and loosened my foreskin. My mum kept talking across me with the doctor as if nothing was happening, I think she was blanking.

My foreskin was retracted many times as a child by my GP looking for infections, it was never tight, I became used to this.

Mum said my brother had his foreskin first retracted by the same GP on a routine house call. He was already crying when the doctor arrived and he took that as an opportunity, retracting it in the bath.

In these days (1960s) it was normal in Scotland for doctors to retract foreskins at a young age.

It first happened to me at the age of 7 during a school medical. I was stripped to my underpants, and the doctor examined me. At the end, my underpants were lowered to my knees; I can't remember whether she did it or I did. She took my penis and pushed back my foreskin. It did hurt a little, and not much really happened in terms of it retracting, although I had no idea what was happening or what was meant to happen. She simply said I needed circumcising. My mother took me to our GP for a second opinion, and he examined me and said I did not need circumcising.

I had a second school medical with the same school doctor the following year, and she retracted my foreskin again in the same way as before, and still thought I needed circumcising. My mother sought the second opinion of our GP again, and this time he suggested that stretching and some cream might help. I had this on and off for a few years.

The school doctor examined me for a 3rd time and still thought circumcision was required. There was no second opinion sought this time, and it was the last time that particular doctor examined me. By my next examination, I was starting puberty and had been undergoing stretching exercises. From then onwards, although my foreskin was retracted at each examination, no problems were found.

In the 60s into the 70s here in USA there was a very intense blitz to circumcise boys. I recall my parents saying in 1960 that the hospital staff strongly encouraged circumcision, but my pediatrician that I was referred to was an older man that did not feel it was medically necessary and my parents listened to him. However once my step mother began taking me to appointments she took me to a younger woman doctor that from the first visit recommended circumcision for "hygiene purposes". So the exam and discussion came up every year, but my parents felt I should make that decision when I was older so at 12 I went to a pediatric surgeon because I didn't fully understand what it was but I knew I looked different, but once she showed where she would cut I became very upset and was no longer wanting to do it. So it wasn't done at that time.

I’ve had countless exams like this where they pulled back the foreskin. Twice, they even retracted it by force because it was stucked, and we did foreskin exercises for a long time because of a light phimosis. The pediatrician and the school doctor always examined me, but I also saw urologists and endocrinologists, and even my parents pulled it back regularly at home.

@Matthew2000 Ermmm... Fucking OW!!!

I remember my doctor always retracting my foreskin when he examined me for phimosis and general clenliness, and I remember Mom retracting it in the bath and teaching me how to clean it.

I've posted my story about phimosis earlier in here, but I don't mind typing it out again...

When I was around 7 years old, I had a consult with the school doctor. Just a regular check-up like you get around that age.

Of course, this also meant a genital examination, during which, my foreskin would not budge at all, despite the doc's firm, but still gentle attempts.

In stead of being scheduled for a circumcision straight away, something that is, or was common in the US, I believe, he instructed my mom, who was also there, to have me practice with retracting in a warm bath for a while, and make a follow-up appointment to check on proceedings.

Thankfully, my attempts to retract while in a warm bath paid off, and I got to keep my precious foreskin 😃

Even now, roughly 40 years later. my foreskin is still tight. It won't slide over the glans by itself when erect. But that's how I love it.

When I just retract it partially, and keep it halfway over my glans, the skin is wonderfully tight and sensitive. Doing circles over it with a finger is a very nice sensation.

I absolutely love my foreskin being played with 😃

It was my first time at the urologist, and thus he did that check, he just asked me if I could retract my foreskin which I couldn't do fully, then he just carried on with the rest of the checkup, and afterwards I was prescribed some ointment i had to smear down there which helped clear it up again, and made it fully retract again. I guess that was light phimosis? I was about 14 then.

I had regular genital examinations by my pediatrician from early childhood. At about four years of age, my foreskin was forcibly retracted during an examination, which was extremely painful and traumatic for me. Afterwards, I had follow-up examinations approximately every three months, with gentle progressive dilatation and topical corticosteroid treatment.

Because of recurrent adhesions and persistent tightness, I was eventually evaluated by a surgeon for possible circumcision. My pediatrician instead decided to attempt a complete synechiotomy. This was performed in the urology surgery clinic of the local hospital, using a small blunt probe and fine surgical instruments to separate the adhesions and free the foreskin from the glans.

Afterwards, I was followed approximately monthly. My retractability improved considerably, changing from approximately Kayaba type V toward type II. At five years of age, a small meatal cyst was also identified and surgically removed.

During puberty, genital examinations continued at intervals of no more than six months, including careful examination of the penis, foreskin, glans, meatus, and testicles.

I've been able to retract for as long as I can remember ... first grade or so? plus or minus one year ... but at this time, I can't recall my pediatricians specifically checking for foreskin retraction over the years. It might have happened (and probably did!) as part of a physical exam, and despite my interest in foreskin/circumcision, this is one thing I've blanked out on, even though I know my mother would have asked if my foreskin was "normal." I definitely had my balls examined, though, to make sure I didn't have an undescended testicle.

Definitely had something like this at primary school, I would guess around age 7 or 8.

My vague memory is the boys had to strip to their underwear and then either line or, or we were individually called in one at a time - I can't quite remember - but I remember a nurse (female I think) feeling my testicles (presumably checking if they were descended?) and retracting my foreskin.

My medfet started with the school doctor when I was 6 years old, in the first grade, in Belgium, who, as I look at it now, abused me. I got very excited during the examination without knowing why (automatic reaction of my body) (behind a screen just in the back of the classroom - we had to undress in our couch (in full view of all classmates) and so we were all sitting there in our underpants in the classroom where we otherwise read and wrote and calculated). I started sweating and got a big erect penis when the school doctor (a man) went to examine my penis and scrotum. I didn't know what that was - of course I had never had a hard-on so consciously when I was six years old. Sexuality didn't exist for us then (1953 !!), for me. Being naked was associated with washing and was seen as quite normal in our family. At that time (fifties with traces of 2nd World War - reconstruction still in progress) we had no bathroom nor shower. Washing was done publicly in the kitchen and it was very normal for me to see my mother naked to wash at the sink.

The doctor felt if my balls had descended and slid the foreskin up and down over my penis a few times. That was a intense, stimulating emotion, difficult because of the intensity and at the same time pleasant. Little did I know. My parents received a letter that they had to take me to the doctor to arrange a circumcision.

Nothing wrong with the GP at all. He was familiar and he had also brought me into the world and then saved my life: I had been completely blue for more than a minute and was not breathing. The doctor had already pronounced me dead when I gave my first scream. I didn't get a hard-on, didn't get aroused and also indicated that my penis never hurt. Conclusion for GP and my parents: no indication for circumcision and everyone happy.

Second class: again the yearly school doctor with his screen at the back of the class. Winter: the coal stove was first heated warmer by the concierge. I was already excited by the thought of the examination alone and seeing my classmates undress (all boys because in those days bucks and goats were strictly separated in Catholic education) and got a big bulge in my underpants again. Embarrassing to have to walk through the classroom to the screen like that. And having to take off my panties almost immediately. School doctor displeased that his advice had not been followed. Again a letter to my parents with urgent advice and again to the doctor. I didn't get it exactly, but the result was that the GP suggested circumcising anyway for the sake of peace. Was more hygienic was explained to me.

On December 28, the feast day of the Innocents, I was circumcised in the hospital by our own dear family doctor (who was also a surgeon at the time) and who spoke to me encouragingly when I was put under anesthesia. Dreamed of sliding further and further into nothingness on an endlessly long slide. While my father had gone to the hospital with me, I woke up on the couch at home, with my mother next to me, nasty, had to vomit for hours and was completely nauseous from the anesthesia. Was not allowed to eat and only drink water. And a whopper of a bandage around my penis. And a scar for life and a reduced experience of lust.

And with that, the foundation was laid for me to give all medical situations an exciting character without wanting it myself. That has had a lot of consequences that I can tell later, too many for one time.

I can remember two school medical examinations, one at about 6 years old and the other at about 15. My foreskin was not checked at either of them.

At age 6 my foreskin retracted fully without any pain or difficulty, as my father had been doing this regularly to me in the bath for as long as I can remember. He told me that it was important to keep clean under the foreskin, although he was circumcised.

When I was a bit older, and taking part in 'doctor & nurses' games, I discovered that some of my schoolfriends were unable to pull their foreskins back. So it seems that in my area (Northern England) in the 1960s/70s there was no practice of checking boys' foreskins, and many cases of phimosis went undetected. Of course some of these would probably resolve themselves without medical intervention as the boy reached puberty.

I developed phimosis around the age of 11 or 12 and by the age of 15 my foreskin was totally unretractable. I also knew by then that the cure for this condition was circumcision. When I became aware of the forthcoming medical examination at age 15 I was very worried that it might be discovered, and in the weeks before the exam I made some desperate but unsuccessful attempts at forcing my foreskin back. I was causing the skin to split around the foreskin opening, and what I didn't realise at the time was that when it healed the scar tissue made the skin even less flexible than before.

When the medical came, I was greatly relieved that there was no check at all of my genitals. I continued to live with severe phimosis until finally gaining the courage to get circumcised at the age of 31.

Although I escaped without any foreskin checks, I do believe that there are benefits in routinely checking boys for phimosis. I often read of cases where boys reach their late teens or even twenties without even realising that their foreskin should pull back. I would be interested in hearing views on what age such a check should be carried out, and what action should be taken when a tight foreskin is diagnosed. Six years old is far too young in my opinion.

In my country we have doctor check ups at school in 5th and 8th grade. The doctor checks puberty development and testicles, and then retracts the foreskin once or twice.

A lot of time i had my foreskin checked yes, at least yearly once by my pediatrician and a lot by mom. Also in school the doctor asked to see it.

Always the dr or mom pulled back the foreskin to check it, and the pediatrician rolled my balls between her fingers after it to exam them as well.

It was until 16. Once at 18 but that i mentioned in another comment.

Starting from age 9 I was checked every 2 years. My foreskin was quit tight so the retraction was painful. At 13 I probably had developed phimosis. At the physical the pediatrician asked me to retract my foreskin but I didn't want to, because I knew it'd be painful, so she forced it back, causing me pain and a bit of bleeding, but most of all she didn't explain me anything of what she was doing. I couldn't figure out what was going wrong until another doctor finally explained me what phimosis is. I started doing some stretching exercises and continued until I was 15. At that point the doc visited me again and he told me that the problem was solved and I didn't need circumcision.

I can vaguely remember school exams, definitely on in sixth grade. To be honest I cannot recall wether my foreskin was retracted or not. We definitely had to pull down our underwear.

But I remember that at that age or even earlier I had discovered my frenulum while taking a bath and that my foreskin was attached to my penis, this made me panic and I called mom. She explained my anatomy to me. So during elementary school I was already able to retract my foreskin completely.

Later I learned that as a baby I had steroid ointment and light stretching done to my penis, not sure if my foreskin was already full retracted then or at some point by a doctor or my parents.

But it meant that I didn’t need circumcision. Something I would however consider for aesthetic and hygienic reasons.

I remember that, since the 2nd or 3rd year of primary school my foreskin was checked every year and pulled back by the doctor.

That means that I could retract my foreskin since I was about 7-8 yo. Which makes me think how that was possible so early taking into account

that it's kind of normal that until the age of 10-ish, the foreskin is naturally still attached to the glans, at least partially. Anyway, I recall that it

was retracted by the doctor during all the school exams we had over the years.

Growing up in Europe, physical examinations were rare, and I do not remember doctors ever examining my genitals, let alone retracting my foreskin. In the US, the general approach to physical examinations is quite different. If a child has not yet been circumcised, practitioners routinely attempt to retract the foreskin during each routine physical. If it is still attached to the glans, as it may be in a young child (physiological phimosis), they leave it alone but check whether it can be retracted at least partially. If the foreskin is not fully retractable by the age of three, or is considered redundant (too long), many pediatricians recommend having it circumcised.

Older boys, adolescents, and adults routinely have their foreskin retracted and are advised about the importance of having it circumcised during annual or semiannual physicals, even when there is no evidence of phimosis. In pubescent patients, retracting the foreskin allows practitioners not only to check for phimosis but also to assess the development of the glans and coronal ridge.

I only remember once that doctor told me to retract my foreskin. It was in 8th grade when I was 14. That was the regular exam wich every student in 8th grade must have. I also remember pre school exam and exam in 5th grade and exam for military when I was 17,on that exams they didnt ask to retract my foreskin.

I can't remember any exam where my foreskin was examined at a younger age.

Last year I went to the doctor because of my phimosid and the doctor did a genital exam and checked my foreskin. Then he decided that I needed surgery

Older boys, adolescents, and adults routinely have their foreskin retracted and are advised about the importance of having it circumcised during annual or semiannual physicals, even when there is no evidence of phimosis.

What nonsense is that! Why on Earth would a GP / doctor advice a medical procedure on something that is completely fine?

@Jap0000

How old were you when you became aware that you had phimosis? Did you try to cure it by stretching exercises?

This is a personal one for me, as in some ways it's what initially gave me a medical fetish.

I grew up in a single parent household , only male. My parents at the time were earthy and didn't left me uncut, even though in the late 60's it was by far the norm in the USA.

We moved around a lot, so really I had different doctors each time. When younger my mom would be in all the exams with me, and I remember the doctors all pulled the foreskin back for examination. I was also told to do this at home during bath, and considered it a hard fast rule to avoid problems.

Most doctors were quick about it, but at one point we had moved to a conservative area in the midwest, and I think I was probably about 9 and the I could tell the doctor really didn't believe in leaving the foreskin on. He told my mother "You know it's never too late for a circumcision" I was too confused to get at what he was suggesting until much later. My mother who was always very deferential to doctors politely told him no thanks, but I remember her being quite mad at him later.

I also remember being very shy about being 'different' than the other people .. especially in locker rooms, etc. It really gave me a complex, as kids love to tease anybody who was different. Honestly I was often the only one.

Of course as an adult it was never an issue.

@ShyNick Given how prevalent circumcision still is today in the Midwest, I’m not shocked you had that experience with a pediatrician there. But good on your mom for sticking to her guns.

But good on your mom for sticking to her guns.

It was good of her ... But when I was in my early teens (in another fairly conservative area of the country) I wished she had done it. I was mercilessly teased in gym locker rooms for looking different. I got very shy and would try to avoid showers. I was the only one most of the time

I did consult my Doctor about difficulty in retracting my foreskin when I was in my 70s.

He manipulated my foreskin and used more pressure than I would.

He told me to frequently bring my foreskin back.

During the examination my penis did become erect, but no orgasm.

Until I was six, my parents would check my foreskin to make sure I wasn't developing phimosis. When I was six, my doctor fully retracted my foreskin and kept it retracted for 15 minutes to release the preputial adhesions, as my parents were worried that I might eventually need to be circumcised. After that, I retracted my foreskin myself every evening while taking a bath. However, some of my schoolmates had undergone forced foreskin retraction to treat phimosis.