Hi guys, first of all, thanks a load for the fantastic help u are offering people here, its a fantastic job ur doing to keep up the good work!

Im a 21 yr old guy, ive just recently discovered the existence of the condition 'phimosis' and have the typical symptoms. Before this discovery, i had never really attempted to retract my foreskin, and on first attempt it would not retract far at all.

Ive now been doing the stretching exercises for 2 weeks, i can now retract over almost the entire glans when flaccid, but only about 1/3 of the way when erect. I typically do 40-60 mins worth of stretching each day.

Im very happy with my progress so far, but concerned that since 4 or days of stretching, there is itchiness in my foreskin comes and goes, and sometimes is pretty irritating. I had been applying hydrocortisone cream to the foreskin, but immediately stopped when the itching started just in case this was anything to with it, but the itching has continued. There is no redness, no soreness, just itching that seems to come and go at random.

Perhaps you are irritating the tissue being stressed. Sometimes healing processes cause itching.

Interesting situation.

We presume you are not, having read all the warnings here, allowing any soap to get inside your foreskin, as that is a definite source of irritation and itch.

Reading a little further back into the threads here, you would have seen it mentioned that the major concern about using the steroid creams is that they can make it easier for Candida ("Thrush") to develop in the moist area under the foreskin, so you might consider using one of the readily available (Over-the-counter - "OTC") anti-fungal treatments containing clotrimazole or miconazole (or a couple of others) under the foreskin. If that cures the itch, then you have a reasonable proof that was the trouble (in which case, just keep the anti-fungal and use it whenever you need to); if it does not, then pretty clearly that was not the cause.

On the other hand, the hydrocortisone is in itself a useful treatment for itch and dermatitis, so if it was helping, you could safely use it in conjunction with the anti-fungal.

And it may just be that the itch is a straightforward consequence of the stretching, although (as best I recall) this does not seem to have been mentioned before. However it may be, it most certainly would not be any reason to restrain your activities in doing the stretching.

Im happy to report that the itching seems to have gone away, and hopefully wont come back! Ive not used the hydrocortisone since and probably wont bother with it any more.

And as for my progress, i retract the foreskin every time i urinate and it now goes past the corona, and i can retract about 3/4 when erect.

Thanks for the help

Try the stretching exercises outlined in some of the other threads.

Well, we will keep this in mind as a possible consequence or side-effect of starting a stretching program. Although temporarily disturbing, it may actually be a good sign - that there is enough stretching to actually make something happen.

We trust you are focusing on the "two fingers inside" method and the frænulum stretch.