This site discusses phimosis in its specific forms of phimotic ring, frenulum breve, adhesions or skinbridges. During erection these conditions inhibit the relationship between foreskin and glans. This functionally restricts the erection, and thus has an effect on the sexuality. With our culture's attitudes on health care, it would be appropriate to encourage early prevention. Jan 2021 : Please read the new summary.

BOYFRIEND WITH PHIMOSIS Hi Robin, I just wanted to thank you for your site. I am a 22 year old female student and have been with my boyfriend for the last 9 months. He has phimosis - a condition which i knew nothing about before and still am not totally sure i know everything about! For the first six months of our relationship my boyfriend was too embarressed to tell me about his condition and did everything possible to avoid being intimate with me. Obviously this distressed me as i didn't know what i was doing wrong and wondered why he wouldn't even let me see him naked. Since finding out about it, we have been a bit more intimate but he is reluctant to be physical having had a bad experience when he lost his virginity - it was incredibly painful for him and he doesn't want me to see his penis whilst it's not 'right' as he says. He is 25 and had sex about four years ago but since then he hasn't been with anyone. He refuses to talk much about his condition, finding it all very embarrassing. I am the only person he has told, but he is planning to have a circumcision operation as soon as possible. However, i am worried because i don't think he's fully thought things through. He hasn't explored other options, he won't talk to me about his condition and he's planning on going and having this operation without even telling me about it. I don't think he realises that this is something which affects me too. I don't even know if he is in pain when he is erect and therefore, when i push him to be physical with me i don't know if i am causing him pain? I recommended your website to him because i believe that it will help him to understand his condition more, and realise that he is not the only one with this problem. I don't understand how he could have managed sex with his previous girlfriend when it causes him so much pain if i so much as touch the end of his penis. All in all, it's a frustrating and confusing situation but i don't believe the answer is to rush into a circumcision. I hope that reading your website will help him to feel more at ease with his condition, so thanks again. -------------------------------- Hello Phimosis is just such a generalised term that it does not mean anything - it covers up an accurate diagnosis, as clearly as the foreskin covers the exact condition, and as clearly as our culture covers up information (- phimotic mindedness) That your boyfriend is in pain when you as much as touch the end of his penis, is most probably a psychological reaction - (based on valid actual previous physical experiences, but doubled up with anxiety etc.) Ive been in this business so long that I allow myself to make guesses when I see something for the hundredth time >had a bad experience when he lost his virginity - it was >incredibly painful for him ... etc. etc. Im 99% sure this must be a frenulum breve ripping - can be very painful, and bleeding -very traumatic (up till this point men think only women can bleed during sex). Often afterwards the frenulum breve will congeal and rejoin even shorter (potentially even more painful) than it was previously. (the only other occurrance which could be incredibly painful on first intercourse is paraphimosis, but then the main memory and description I hear of this is that it is frightening rather than painful) No, you are right, it doesnt involve circumcision, frenulum breve should be treated with a frenuloplasty, some Urologists and Surgeons will know this and act accordingly, (UNLESS a patient comes in saying he requires circumcision). Then, a circumcision will also cure the frenulum, but its like cutting off a finger when the finger nail is wrong. Added to this (in my diagnosis) is the physical effects of the phimotic ring are far easier to see, and confront, the effects are more practical, men are inhibited, worried and embarrassed, but the frenulum breve leads by its curious unexpected effects often to extreme irrational responses. - (not always so, but here ... maybe its just intuition ...) This whole experience is sure to leave knock on effects in any future relationship - unless he can confront it. - (An operation cannot be expected to change behaviour patterns and attitudes learnt since childhood). - I dont know how to persuade some men to confront their conditions or the psychological effects, I would hope just out of love for a woman might motivate some of them. Its just so strongly against male stigma to relate sexual problems to their anatomical abilities, and some men prefer to accept a psychological problem as ultimate diagnosis. Crazy, we can consider (if it is frenulum breve) that he has had this condition since his birth, he has accepted himself as normal through all his development years, adapting masturbation to his anatomical possibilities, - with a background unconfronted fear - and then in first penetration, (without even completing the first sex act), his penis "explodes" .... bleeding, shame embarrassemnt and the end of first love relationship. I hope Im not too late with my reply, - not because of an unnecessary circumcision thats pretty irrelevant, I hope your relationship is still intact. All my good wishes, please contact anytime you want Robin