I'm 19 and I believe I have full phimosis, I cannot retract my foreskin even when flaccid and never have been able to. The opening is around the same circumference as my pinky finger. I've been prescribed betnovate 0.1% cream to work onto the foreskin, but I'm really not sure how to stretch afterwards?
Seeing as I can barely fit 1 finger in the opening I try this method

I really don't know exactly what I need to be doing, am I trying to stretch the opening from the inside? Because when I try to work the foreskin usually the outerskin comes forward and I don't know if stretching that is working the opening as well. I really need some tips on how to work foreskin of this tightness.

And if anyone has had experience with this cream, is there danger of getting it on the glans? Do you wash it after you've rubbed it onto the foreskin? Does it go on the inside of the foreskin too?

Cheers

If you pull your foreskin forward, you should be able to grasp it as illustrated. Just copy doing what you see.

The cream should be applied only to the tightest part. Keep it off the glans. By rubbing it in until it disappears, you should be ok. Stretch before application. Do not wash it off, and do not wash using any soap of any kind, including shower gel.

You should also be doing the exercise in the other picture. This will lengthen the frenulum and also help to loose up the opening.

Your post won't show till approved. Yes, it's safe to use cotton buds, but they're probably too flimsy to do anything.

it's difficult for me to explain, do I grab the skin 'folds' that collect at the tip when it's flaccid? Or do I pull back the skin and try to grab the actual opening, which is quite difficult to get a hold of and doesn't seem as stretchy

Do just exactly what the guy in the picture is doing. Yes, flaccid preferably.

because all this is explained, albeit if you read sufficiently far back into previous discussions.

If you can get a little finger into the opening, then that is what you use to stretch to start with, always swapping for the largest finger - or combination thereof - that you can insert.

The trick is in getting the finger(tip) in through the opening, so that it passes all the way through the tight part and sits beside (or above) the glans. You have no hope of doing this while the foreskin is sitting on the glans, so you have to stretch it out as in that picture, away from the glans so that it is a smooth "tube" into which you can slide your finger while you hold it on the stretch. Three hands would be a distinct advantage if you can find a spare.

I am impressed! Where did you find a doctor with the competence to prescribe you an actually appropriate cream (though the ointment form would be preferred)?

You are correct - you do not want it on your glans as far as possible (though it isn't really fatal), in fact anywhere but the tight part so you do not want to apply it until after a stretching session because you do not want it to be spread further by the stretching procedure.

To apply it only to the tight part, you can either do so while you "funnel" the foreskin (gripping as far inside the opening as possible by "rolling" it back in your fingers) - that third hand is invaluable in this case - or else you may just pull the foreskin back as far as it will so that the tight part is caught at the tip and hopefully, some of the inner foreskin pushes out through it, and applying the cream to where you see the tight part. Use no more cream than rubs in and disappears - if it feels "greasy" afterward, you have used more than necessary.

Thanks very much for the informative reply. My GP didn't recommend circumcision immediately because my case isn't severe enough to give me trouble urinating or anything, she referred me to the hospital where a doctor prescribed me the cream and, if it fails to work a dorsal slit or circumcision.

So you would not recommend stretching after applying the cream, only before?

Sad that the GP didn't have the competence, but at least the hospital doctor was better trained.

In fact, it would be singularly rare for a foreskin to be so tight as to cause any impediment to urination (or anything else), and only then secondary to some disease factor, which is clearly not the case for you. It might perhaps be more likely for a young boy who cannot prevent the administration of soap or "bubble bath" by parents despite the clear irritation and damage they would be causing by this.

The only reasons for the betamethasone cream "failing to work" would be where an underlying yeast (Candida) infestation was not being treated beforehand, or where the actual stretching was not being performed. The cream facilitates stretching, but does not actually achieve it in itself - as should be obvious.

And importantly, it has no immediate effect - it does not physically soften the skin but modulates the progressive development and remodelling of connective elements - so it is not appropriate to apply it before stretching. You apply it after so that it will not be spread (by the stretching manipulations) to areas where it is not wanted.