Well, last week or so I started noticing smegma on my penis. I didn't know what it was till I found this forum- previously it would accumulate only if I stopped masturbating for a week or so.

I've always been able to pull my foreskin down completely. When I was about five or six, I think, I had the exact opposite- I pulled my foreskin down, and it stuck for a certain amount of time. I had to go to the emergency room. Please forgive the lack of details- I was very young, and I don't remember much of it. I just remember the realization that my foreskin was stuck down (as in, fully retracted and stuck that way), being in the emergency room, and having to do stretches for a few years until I forgot to do it.

Well, now, after a slight incidence of smegma, I have a very slight frenulum breve, I think. It's fine when flaccid, but as I masturbate, my frenulum becomes sensitive and tight.

Should I see a doctor? Don't worry, I won't consider circumcision. Also, the stretching diagram that I've seen here is for phimosis, not my problem. Can I stretch my foreskin by just pulling it back when flaccid, and if so, will that fix the problem?

Thanks so much- as a teenager, talking to parents or doctors is very awkward, especially about something like this.

Some day you'll look back and wish you could return to your present age!

I don't see any need to bother the doctor with this. He's plenty busy enough already. You can easily and quickly solve this problem yourself. Here's what to do:



Do it at least twice a day, and if you have some privacy while peeing, do it then as well. It should sort out in a few weeks.

I also realized after reading through the forums that I've been taking antibiotics, which someone mentioned might kill the friendly bacteria. I don't know if that's relevant. I'm off the antibiotics today, so perhaps that will help too, in a couple of days.

Be sure also to stay away from soap for cleaning the internal parts. If you have some medicine for treating athlete's foot, apply a little to the area where the tenderness is.

How long do you think I should wait until I masturbate again? It's still tender when I put my foreskin back, and the smegma is still there. I'm off the antibiotics and I've been doing the stretching excercises.

No recommendation on the masturbation issue. Proceed with caution. For the smegma, try using baby oil or even cooking oil on a cotton ball to remove it. It will not irritate as would soap. Actually, smegma isn't a hygiene issue as many contend, but it can get pretty stinky if left for a few days.

I recommend that you consume some yogurt for a few days to counteract the damage that antibiotics can do on your system. Get some with live cultures. It would also be good to daub a small amount onto your glans and foreskin. This will help to rebuild the natural population of good bacteria in that area.

You raise some interesting points here, one of which is the matter of masturbation (or any other sexual activity that might be appropriate to one's life situation) serving to clean away any smegma that is produced. That's exactly what it does.

In regard to smegma, it's not exactly harmful, and there is no imperative to remove it meticulously. It seems to be largely an aspect of puberty akin to the excess oil production that causes acne, and is merely the skin "preparing" itself in the expectation of sexual activity as it were. As you may later discover, girls experience it to much the same degree.

Now given that it is a protective response of the skin, it should not be surprising to find that irritation of the skin causes it to be produced more profusely, and one of the worst irritants to the skin, is soap. If you have been noticing it more recently, then I have to question - have you in fact been using soap on the area in the mistaken belief that this was somehow desirable? For this delicate area, water is quite sufficient.

And incidentally, it may surprise some that using soap on the face if you have acne, is probably not a good idea either!