Robin!
.... my foreskin has become much much looser than it ever has been before. The other week I noticed that I had a developed some tearing of my foreskin on one side and so I have taken it a little easier over the last few days.

If I don't stretch it for a few days I have noticed that it has a tendency to tighten up again. Interestingly enough though, to get it to where it was (post stretching era) is not as difficult the second time around as it was when I started out (pre stretching era).
Paul
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Hi Paul,
I've a couple of thoughts,

If your phimosis was since birth, it was not
caused by LSA, and therefore it will stretch.

LSA: lichen sclerosus atrophicus... Lichen means some sort of mixture
between fungi and algae, sclerosus means scarring, atrophic means
degenerative, --- it seems simple phimotic rings stretch, but when they
are connected with "degenerative fungal scarrings" (LSA) they don't

At times a simple phimotic ring can degenerate to a "lichenoid phimosis"
--- By stretching what we're doing is reversing or preventing this
atrophic (degenerative) process.

From what I've heard a simple phimotic ring doesn't give up, once
stretched it needs stretching every couple of days ... but you'll find it
gets easier to stretch, ... its on the way to regenerating

Are you still with me? -

The question is now, how does one prevent LSA from developing?

I've been wondering about the rips, ... I've heard people saying that when
a phimosis rips it gets worse ... lets think sensibly, ... when once my
phimotic ring ripped it bled, - lets imagine its a rip like anywhere else
on the skin, .. when I bleed there is a scar afterwards, when I was 10 the
scar was gone in a day, when I was 40 it took a week ... so I don't think
ripping in itself is going to permanently tighten the phimosis (except in
older age) ... but rips, and open wounds can pick up other infections ...

So, here I return to your first question (in private mail), the use of
creams,

If the phimosis will stretch then creams would help this ... I don't know
which creams, .... but surely most important would be a bit of Dean's
lubrication jelly to help prevent the skin from ripping in the first place.

An interesting question would be what sort of antiseptic, or
anti-lichenoid cream could actually prevent or reverse any lichenoid
process.

Wearing the foreskin retracted to keep the area dry may be the simplest method,.

Just a few thoughts, hope you can follow me, ..
Good Luck Robin


Subject: Re: ARC: stretching and LSA

Hi to all-
I find this quite interesting as stretching is something I started years ago
and have found it to work quite well. The lubricant Robin mentioned is
"Astroglide" and it is as close to the natural lubricant as can be formulated-
and works quite well. I have also found that Vaseline Intensive Care lotion
provides healing for minor irritations on the foreskin.

As to stretching- I even do it at night when waking up with an erection- so
my recommendation is to stretch daily-- it becomes rather pleasurable so is not
a 'burden' to do it and the benefits are great!! After once having such a
tight foreskin- now to be able to fully retract when erect without even a
"ring" is quite nice.

good luck
dean