I am 16. About 4 months ago I realised I had really bad phimosis, I could pull the foreskin back so that the hole was about 2-3mm across. At first I was of course very worried and reading on the internet I was worried I might have to be circumcised. I had also read about stretching methods but I couldn't find any evidence or success stories of people with really bad phimosis fixing their problem with that method. I tried stretching but only did it about 5 min every day or so. I saw some results but not much at all, only about a millimetre or so in a week. Looking on the internet more I found the website for the gfs or something that used a balloon to stretch the foreskin. It claimed to be able to stretch the foreskin completely in 14 days, with about 10 min a day of use I think, I can't quite remember. But anyway I thought, what was the difference between this device and just stretching with your fingers? Apart from the fact that it applied even pressure to all sides and just the right amount of pressure there wasn't a lot of difference. So I decided that if that device can do it in 14 days, then It should be possible to do it eventually. A lot of websites had said that you should do 10-15 min twice a day. I couldn't do it during the day because I had school and then when I was home there was always someone else home as well. The morning didn't suit me because I struggled to get out of bed and get to school on time as it is. So I decided I would do it at night while lying in bed and trade half an hour of sleep for stretching exercises. I found it very hard to stick to and so it had to come before anything else, even if I was extremely tired. Instead of pulling my foreskin out and then stretching it with two fingers I instead just pulled it back as far as it could go and just before it got really painful, my hand could then rest at the base using gravity to pull it down. It was much much easier to keep that up for half an hour. I managed to do this almost every night but sometimes skipped a night due to things like staying at friends houses. I made steady progress for two months and finally managed to get my foreskin to retract which was such a great feeling. It was stuck to the glans in a few place but I managed to unstick them after a few days, and of course there was a bad build-up of smegma, which took quite a while to completely clean off as the glans were so sensitive. After that I sort of stopped doing the stretching exercises and would do them less and less until I wasn't doing them at all, but stopping the foreskin going back to before by pulling it back whenever I went to the toilet or had a shower. The glans got less and less sensitive from touching them lots, mainly from trying to get the smegma off which gave me a good reason to. I can now pull my foreskin back when flaccid and when erect but is still a bit tight. I could loosen it more but I just haven't got round to it and I'm happy with it at the moment. Also my, ah I've forgotten the name of it but it's the band on the underside of the glans connecting the glans to the foreskin, is very short and when my foreskin is retracted all the skin bunches up behind the glans. In the last couple of days I have been stretching the band by simply pulling the foreskin back, I find I can do this for much longer periods of time than the 'pulling it out away from you' exercise. Already the band is much looser and the skin does not bunch up so much anymore.

I think that the best stretching exercises are simple pulling the foreskin back. The other exercises that are on the Internet and this site as well may work better but cannot be maintained for as long. And the very key to the stretching exercises and the reason why they do not work for so many people is the dedication that is needed to do it every day for a set period of time. If you want the exercises to work they have to be at a set time and place, not just whenever you have time, and they need to come before anything else otherwise you'll find that there are always excuses for not doing it. You just need to find what works best for you and fits in with your schedule. After you have managed to retract your foreskin then the others exercise for stretching the foreskin will be good for loosening it even more. No phimosis is too serious to be fixed with stretching, no matter how hopeless it may seem. Good luck!!

Yes, anyone can do it.

Well of course as we always say, few if any men ever need to be circumcised; the only significant reason would be cancer and I'll hazard a guess that you don't actually know anyone who had cancer of the penis - it really is rather rare. And hearsay stories of the friend's cousin twice removed, do not count.

In fact it can be argued that you don't even need to "fix" a foreskin that cannot be retracted - many men do everything in life in this condition - it does not prevent any essential activity of life and is in fact, no worse that having been circumcised and having no foreskin remaining.

Fellows do get some problems with a foreskin that will not retract - as do fellows with a foreskin that will and as do women with the vulva. These are treatable if one has - or a doctor has - the necessary diagnostic skills to understand what is wrong - most irritations are caused by inappropriate use of soap or similar substances. Anyway, we have dealt with all this previously, but my point is that being "worried I might have to be circumcised" indicates that you have something badly out of kilter with your understanding of a problem, and it is that which must be fixed first.

Your point being that persistence is everything, is most important; thank you for explaining it yet again - it is valuable to have someone other than ourselves (Jim and I) point this out.

I think that if you feel "The other exercises that are on the Internet and this site as well may work better but cannot be maintained for as long", then in respect of those we advise, you have not quite figured out the technique. If what you do works for you however, that is absolutely fine! I will just remind you something - stretching by retracting as far as you can will only stretch just enough to allow the foreskin to retract, but snugly. If that suits you, then certainly no problem but if you wish to have it slip more loosely you will need to stretch it that much wider with the "two fingers inside" technique, because of the need to over-stretch to obtain the effect (and the need to stretch longer than just to reach the desired result).

I am of course referring to stretching the opening. Retracting will stretch the frænulum as well as any other method, but this does remind me of the other limitation - it only works if you can keep an erection for the necessary length of time and while you may be able to do that, not everyone can - even young fellows!

So keep those things in mind, but - good work!