At last i`ve found a site to share my prob with.
As far as my memory serves me i`ve had splitting and fusing for about 6yrs now. I tried all sorts of creams and "hydrating" solutions especially during thesr stages to try and cure/ease the pain, as u can imagine its like havin paper cuts on yr foreskin and no matter how much u dry yr penis after a wee there`s always that little drop to follow after u`ve put him away, well thats just like dippin yr cock into vinegar (probably) u just wail along like John Wayne and in tears till it subsides. I`ve even tried petrolium jelly over the cuts b4 avin a wee but u just end up stainin yr underwear from the grease.
Iwent to the gu clinic several times at the start but all i got from them was steroid cream that i was advised only to use wen the skin was not broken which at that time wasn`t very often. Then came the fusing which happened so slowly that it took a while for me to realize it was happenin as i`d never heard of such a thing i wasn`t keepin an eye ouy for it.
My doc told me 2yrs ago that i had "LS" and that there wasn`t a lot that could be done as nobody really knew why or what causes it to happen, he referred me to the urology dept but when their appointment slot turned up (3months later) the symptoms had died down so i thought whats the point goin ahead with the appointment when i had nothing to show the doc when i got there so i let the appointment pass.
The last 3yrs i only get probs every 6months or so now, half of my foreskin has totally fused to my shaft and although i`ve never had great sensation during intercourse (which makes me last for ever, well untill recent yrs when more than 15mins results in almost definate splittin as i`m quite well endowelled in both length and girth) i do have an average sex life with my fiancee as long as we use lube or a condom or both.
4wks ago i got a very localized itching in my foreskin as tho it was thrush or something, next morn there were 3 small squigely veins only bout 5mm long that were bright red and swollen as tho they were blocked by something, later that day the tightness reappeared around the end of he shaft of my penis which resulted in me bein unable to pull the forskin over the head of it, splittin occured in 2 areas and for 3wks i couldn`t or struggled painfully to pull the skin back enuf to clean myself properly.
This wk its slowly got back to normal and altho there is very tight skin wen its pulled back i can do it without pain now til it decides to "flare up" again.
As its not constantly a prob a decided not to take the urologist advice to have a circumcision but to look on the internet and after findin this site am glad to hear i made the rite decision as its apparentle not always the right/only way forward. Takin advice from this site i went to see my gp again and asked for referral to a dermatologist which is where i`m headin next month. Urologist may have been my obvious line if enquiry at first just as the docs was but a comment that somebody made on here ("good skin doesn`t split") made it so obvious thatits a dermatologist that i need 2c.

Where are you? This seems like a long time to wait for appointments.

When I hear splitting, the first thing which comes to mind is yeast. Has anyone suggested that?

I could of got a slightly sooner appointment but it wasn`t the closest hospital and as i`m not in pain or discomfort atm i chose the easiest appointment slot.
I have for quite a while had a whitish "film" over the head of my penis which i can peel off in small ammounts but as there`s no itching or anything i thort it was a layer of skin that for some reason was growing over the head as another sympthom of ls/bxo but now having read more posts on this site have got myself some fungal cream which altho not totally cleared it up has certainly made a substantial diference. Does anybody know if there`s a questionaire on this site that we can fill in to compare results from fellow sufferers? Surely there must be something like this somewhere for collecting statistics? IE, do u bath or shower, do u take any recreational drugs, how often/long do symptoms occur, how old were you wen symptoms started that sort of thing. By the way, i`m 41 and had this for 6yrs now.

Are you sure it isn't smegma you're peeling off? This often occurs as a whitish film and comes off as little pearls or granules.

Keep applying the fungal cream. If you don't make substantial progress, change brands to try a different active ingredient.

There is no fact finding questionaire.

Thanks Jim. Nows the question i really want to know the answer to. In flacid state my penis looks exactly like any normal penis apart from an area of white skin which i think is just the pigment loss where the scare tissue is. When i pull my foreskin back over the head of my penis it looks like i`ve got an elastic band on the end of my shaft like a restricture, this i can only immagine is the scare tissue that cant/wont stretch to full girth capacity anymore, for 4 or so months at a time this is not uncomfortable altho slightly unnatractive but when the ls/bxo flares up i can`t pull my foreskin over the head more than half way without splitting occuring as for some reason the skin becomes extremely tight and if i do manage to get it right the way over (at this stage is for cleanin purposes only) i`m usually in great pain untill i`ve brought it back to its normal position. How come? Whats happening with the foreskin or internal workings now that doesn`t happen usually? It usually results in 2 or 3 splits, another small bit (3or4mm) of fusing then it dies down over 3wks or so and thats it again for another 4months. I even asked if there is an operation to have a skin graft on the shaft around the restricted area so in "flare up" mode it isnt so painfully tight but was told not and that circumcision would be the way forward, if my symtoms were permanent then i`d of had the circimcision by now as believe me, it hurts to have cuts on your foreskin but as the symptoms come and go i`ve decided not to have this surgery yet and hopefully not to have it at all.

You're in pain because that ring won't flex and get larger as it should. Has this ever been definitely diagnosed?

I`m hopin he will be able to shed more light on the restricture when i go 2c him in a couple of wks time.

OK, I'm going to suggest that you do have LS - Lichen Sclerosis - and refer you to my previous advice in its entirety.

LS can - quite often does- coem and go. What you describe is entirely consistent. What I previously described covers the matter of "Thrush" (Candida) as a complication. I did however revisit the topic recently, but only to provide another, perhaps clearer, summary.