Hi

I've been stretching with the "two fingers inside" technique, and have been getting good results until recently.

Basically, I overdid it, and broke the skin around the circumference of the tip of my foreskin. The surface of the skin has split around about 3/4's of the circumference at it's tightest point. 100% sure that there is no yeast/infection problem, just mechanical failure due to the skin being taken beyond it's breaking point. By the way, I didn't notice any soreness until I finished stretching.

I've rested it, and the skin heals quickly but is more constricted than before. If I then stretch or try to retract, the skin re-opens along the same fault line.

So what do I do?

Leave it a couple of weeks to completely heal, accept the fact that it will heal tighter and then resume stretching (albeit less vigorously than before)?

Or...

Continue gentle stretching, accepting that the skin will continue to open up for a while until it settles down?

Or... something else?

I'm pretty fed up as I was making good progress up to this point, and obviously want to carry on with minimal scarring or other problems.

Any help much appreciated!

Man, the stretching should be gentle. Even so, if the skin tears, you'd either have some pretty strong pain or something else is going on. The first thing to suspect is yeast. Have you been washing with soap? If so, quit.

While the wound is healing, you need to keep it moving, but not so much to tear it open. If it's tearing open after two or three days, start treating for yeast with something like Lotrimin.

There is no reason to be fed up as you have stated you were getting good results. Be inspired by those results, but from now on, don't try to build Rome in one day.

Do keep stretching, even as it heals, just be gentle. Do not be tempted to use "antiseptics" or "antibiotics" on it. I suggest Zinc and Castor Oil cream ("nappy"/ "diaper" cream, plain unscented, no smart-arse extra ingredients) as a soothing and protective agent- which also provides some barrier against Candida.

We are always suspicious - completely healthy skin is not so likely to react in this manner, so there is always the subtle implication of a sub-clinical Candida ("Thrush") problem, so using an anti-fungal if it is not settling properly, is worth considering.

Thanks for the replies guys.

So I should continue gentle stretching, but what if this opens up the previous cut/weakness? Where it's healing there's a shallow, thin, light-coloured "scab" that doesn't seem likely to stretch without opening at the moment.

I'll get some anti-candida stuff from the chemist just to be on the safe side, although I really don't think it's an issue.

If you're gentle, it shouldn't reopen.

Let us know what happens after three or four days of application of the medicine.