I have a few questions to ask. Ive never really been able to retract my foreskin and im about 26. Basically Ive used a condom during sex all the time and thats how ive dealt with it.

About a month or two ago Ive been finding i get alot of sensitivty on my foreskin and just below my foreskin especially in the morning (I think the location of the freneluem). I generally feel a degree of pain on the underside my penis when i wake up (lasts about an hour). It seems to be just in the skin though. I was curious if nocturnal erections at night caused this part of the skin to be aggravated?

I have started stretching exercises this week though (5th day now), and i am pleased to say ive begun to see some results (though small). About how long do the strecthing exercises take to work?, and secondly how often should i be doing them? (I do about 2 sessions a day right now for maybe 10 minutes) Any pointers would be very appreciated. If you need me to clarify anything let me know.

Since your retraction situation is not new, it's hard to say what could be causing the discomfort. Nocturnal erections should easily be accommodated as you've not mentioned any problems during sexual activity. I'm wondering if you have been using soap which somehow got inside. Soap can cause some irritation.

Your regimen seems fine. Just don't miss a day. Depending upon the tightness, you could find some remarkable progress in about two months, but not everyone gets the same results. A lot will depend upon what the problem of the pain is caused by. Also, there may be no connection between the two.

Success in your endeavor will require working a few weeks past the point at which you are satisfied. Doing this will allow time for the skin cells to generate. Some guys quit too early and find a minor loss of what they worked so hard to get.

Well now, interesting symptom. It's rather fascinating just how varied symptoms in general are, though they generally come down either to either quite well-known conditions or else are quite unaccountable but sort themselves out harmlessly in the fullness of time.

Note that one of our recommended assessments where the foreskin simply cannot be retracted is the "balloon test" in which you hold the foreskin opening shut and inflate your foreskin with pee as far as you comfortably can (at which point you have to cease peeing to examine the result, or let some "overflow"). If the resulting "balloon" is clearly and uniformly separate from the glans, then you are OK. If there is significant "dimpling" where the frænulum is, or you reproduce the pain in that spot, you may have a problem with it.

By remote control, it is rather difficult to determine the actual problem. The fact that it settles in an hour or so (and is not provoked by peeing) would suggest no actual injury or damage (breakage) to the skin and does suggest that pressure is being applied to this point, and presumably you have considered the position(s) in which you lie and anything you might be wearing. You sort of imply that this is not connected to sexual activity - I gather?

And of course, the "pressure" could be from erections if your frænulum is actually tight. I trust you have been performing the "frænulum stretch" as a major part of your stretching? If the frænulum were the problem, this would presumably reproduce the discomfort (but the appropriate response would be to continue the gentle stretching over days or weeks with the expectation that as it stretched, the discomfort would settle).

The answers to your last questions are: How long stretching takes depends a lot on how often you do it, how firmly, and for how long on each occasion. You should therefore do them as often as possible; what you are doing now sounds a good start. I suspect that granted that you stretch for minutes at a time, stretching shorter times more often is probably most effective for the same total time. On the other hand as you will note, we are most impressed with the concept of a device (such as the GFS) to stretch all the time, or a substantial part of the day.

Now, do nocturnal erections make phimosis worse? Well, if we look at growth during childhood and adolescence, it seems to me that there is a "toggle" situation. If (when) at some stage, erections manage to impact the glans (penis head) into the foreskin opening, then they will tend to stretch it open so that it then retracts. Whilever however, erections do not manage to "wedge" into that opening, then the foreskin will be caused to elongate to accommodate them. It is perhaps for this reason that external "guidance" (by which I mean, by hand) to deliberately retract the foreskin in childhood would appear to be important.

And you might care to contribute to the recent matter brought into discussion, as to what form of masturbation you are accustomed, which might not have (over 13 or 14 years?) encouraged retraction?

Thanks guys for the quick response.

Ive been careful not to get soap onto my penis i generally rinse the top just with hot water in the shower. Occasionally but not recently i have had a hot bath (minus using soap) I found sometimes this help aleviate the pain. I would have a shower after of course, so unless im missing something in the routine i dont think im getting soap down there. I think ill increase the stretching a bit now. Ive been pulling the foreskin away from me and also been using both fingers to stretch along the side. I found that when i started there was more resistance but seems to be decreasing now. I can expose the whole uretha entry at this point. Which one week ago i could barely see it. Sometimes it feels a bit itchy but i imagine its only an irritant. Regardless the strecthing is helping as this week it hurts alot less overall. I do find that sometimes after going to the washroom, (not all the time) i get a bit of a seemingly 'kick back pain' in the location of the frenelum. Its not really a pain but feels like a band that trickles back. It doesnt last long. It might be a short frenelum. Ive never thought of the 'balloon test' but ill give it a shot tonight.

It makes sense to me that the problem could be about not 'wedging' it in place growing up during erection. I do highly suspect my problems come from lack of masterbation not so much tenchique, but maybe. For my masterbation routine when i was 14 maybe till 15 i did the dry hump routine. and about after 16 i moved onto using my full hand (palm on the bottom of the shaft fingers wrapped on the top), around then i didnt notice anything wrong or pain but the foreskin didnt retract. Now i did grip near the bottom of the penis and away from the head. This might have been the problem since the skin near the top really wasnt forced to retract. Ive never really masterbated often though maybe 1 time a week 2 tops.

Thanks again for the pointers. Ill make sure i post back when i have more results

Well, I am not here to instruct you as to how often you should masturbate. (As often as it is genuinely enjoyable! ) Nor in fact would I advise you how you must, as long as you do not harm yourself (or anyone else for that matter). As mentioned in another (recent) thread, the methods you describe seem mostly to be self-taught - by no means a problem in itself - and are just as often practiced by fellows who do have a nicely retractile foreskin or indeed those who are (sadly,) circumcised.

It simply seems that when retraction does not occur spontaneously, whatever the reasons for that may be, forms of masturbation that focus on retraction do over a period of years materially favour proper retraction. Such was the thesis of a fellow (a doctor) by the name of Michel Beaugé.

In fact, the technique you describe last is quite appropriate. Since your glans is all the more sensitive for never being exposed, it will generally be very pleasant to use the tight foreskin to "squeeze" the glans in a uniquely uniform manner. I can see little difference in gripping the outer skin up near (or indeed, over) the glans or further toward the base if the tension is the same, and this would clearly be tending to retract the foreskin. Beaugé's discussion refers to the alternatives of stroking predominantly pulling the foreskin forward which does not serve to stretch it, or predominantly pulling the foreskin back which will tend to stretch it, and what you are presently doing is the latter, so that is not to be criticised.

It would appear that you have the right ideas at this point, and we will certainly be pleased to hear of your progress.

Thanks for the thesis read. I figured id drop in with some updates. The pain has significantly declined over the past two weeks. there is no pain during urination anymore. That and its definaetly easier to clean up after words (less 'run off'). The foreskin is exposing alot of the glans now, and the skin appears to retract more during erection without any strecthing. The foreskin tends to be a little red some times before i go to bed but it goes away. So things are looking somewhat good.Id say you can probably insert about a finger and a bit right now so progress is occuring. The plus side is i defineatly feel more active these days (probably due to the fact that i know it was phimosis causing the pain and nothing else (knocking on wood). Im doing maybe 15-20 minutes of stretching during the day total.

Anyway this forums been invaluable. thanks a bunch guys for the pointers. Ill post back when i finally expose the full glans. Ive set a semi target of 6 weeks from now which i think ill meet.

I just wish more guys would give this a shot or talk about it more at least. When you think about it from what ive read healing from a circumscison takes two weeks. and if you can make progress in that time without the snip, its cheaper and hurts alot less. Ive talked to a few people about the role of circumscision and sexualty in canada. Quebecers i find tend to be more open about sexuality than more english parts. From what ive been told there seems to be less circumsision practiced over there traditionally, and more openess to concepts of sexuality, where in other parts of canada, seems to be more circumscision and less openesss of sexuality. Just an observation, may not be true, but an observation.