Phimosis Case 1

     A 30-year-old John Doe suffered from prostatitis and after going to the physician discovered that he also had phimosis.

     Prostatitis means swelling of the prostate. Phimosis means tightness or inelasticity of the foreskin of the penis.

     His foreskin was thickened and hard, and would not retract back over his penis. This altered his urinary flow and the consulting physician felt that it might be causing or exacerbating his prostatitis.

     He asked the patient to seek the advice of a surgeon about having a circumcision. The patient went for the consultation and eventually underwent a circumcision with what he would later describe as “devastating results.”

     The patient felt that his sexual function had been severely compromised. He felt that his penis was not longer sensitive to touch, and that masturbation, once easy without lubrication just by using the sliding skin of the penis, was no longer satisfactory.

     Today, we know that there are many treatments for phimosis, not just surgery.

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Written for the Phimosis Foundation (Phimosis.org) on October 11, 2004.