"Redundant prepuce" -
another circum-fetish keyword!
Strictly speaking, the term "
redundant" in
common usage implies "unnecessary", which is why such terms are used on the sort of sites people really should
not look at as they exist to deliberately "mess with your mind".
In reality the
engineering meaning of the word is more correct, but since most people are not engineers, the word is better avoided.
Strictly speaking
again, the term "redundant foreskin" when spoken or written means "Personally, I
myself am circumcised!"
And similarly, "phimosis".
Genuine medical articles tend to distinguish between "physiologic" phimosis when the foreskin simply has not grown
and been stretched to a functional state, and "pathological" phimosis where it fails to stretch (whether or not it ever did) due to the development of scarring or fibrous tissue (within the skin - which is what scarring is).
Even then, such articles often go on to presume that "pathological" phimosis - indicated by
a particular appearance of the foreskin opening when retraction is attempted - implies a need for circumcision which is
still mendacious - in reality it simply means that more intensive treatment (with the
correct steroid ointment) is required, and that it is assumed that parents (in the case of children) are incapable of implementing such long-term management for something (a foreskin) that is implied to be of little or no value.
I trust this answers your question adequately, in conjunction with Jim's explanation and reference. The tight part - the "ridged band" - may well be developmentally narrow, and needs progressive stretching through adoption of "exercises" and daily habits (retraction to pee, not obligatory but appropriate in this situation to
maintain function).
On the other hand it
may have developed scarring due to chronic Candida (or possibly other infections about which we know little because nobody has done the research) or dermatitis due to caustics such as soap, or Lichen Sclerosis which is a condition about which
equally little is understood (including whether it is simply an extension of the other processes). And there
is a body of knowledge of the treatment of LS in
women which has sanely turned away from surgery (to the use of the "ultra-potent" steroids).
And just by the way, what is your personal progress in this regard?
