Long foreskin refers to the fact that when a man reaches adulthood, the penis's skin wraps around the glans, preventing it from being completely exposed. However, it is common for immature children to have excessively long foreskin, which is a natural phenomenon during development and does not belong to the category of diseases. During embryonic development, the foreskin is closely connected to the glans with the growth of the penis and encloses the glans, which has a protective effect on the genitalia. Therefore, young male infants may have a long foreskin, but it can protect the delicate glans, especially during periods when babies are prone to diaper rash. If you force the foreskin behind the glans, it can often cause injury or even scars, and the child may feel pain. This physiological phimosis gradually disappears before the age of 3 in boys, and the foreskin can retract or separate from the glans to form a soft coat. At this time, it is easy to pull the foreskin behind the glans. "Once you have passed the age of 3 and the foreskin still cannot retract, it is called phimosis.".
After puberty, the penis develops rapidly and increases in size, with the foreskin shrinking upward and exposing the penis's head. Some people cannot turn up and expose the penis head to form a phimosis because the outer opening of the foreskin is too small. Although the outer opening of the foreskin is not small, it can also be turned up to expose the penis, but the foreskin is too long to cover the entire penis and the outer opening of the urethra. This condition is called foreskin, which is the most common congenital malformation of the male genital canal.
Prolonged foreskin can affect urination and easily induce infection. When the foreskin is too long, the urine flow is blocked, causing the urine flow to take on a divided shape, making the clothes and pants wet and soft. The foreskin often secretes a smelly substance called foreskin scale. Due to lack of timely clearance, it creates a good condition for bacterial growth and reproduction, causing penile foreskin inflammation. There is erosion of the penis head, redness, swelling, pain, and pus secretion in the foreskin or urethral orifice. Prolonged recurrent inflammation can lead to urethral stricture and further difficulty in urination. "Due to the inability of the urine produced by the kidneys to be discharged smoothly, over time, pyeloureteral dilation occurs, which is called hydronephrosis.". Bacteria can also tilt upward into the bladder, ureter, or kidney, causing urinary tract infections. Hydrostatic water and infection often impair kidney function. "The accumulation of foreskin scale and sediment in urine can form a soybean sized foreskin stone, which can easily be mistaken for a tumor and can reflect a patient's nervousness.".
Don't Ignore the Harm of Excessive Circumcision in Adults
1、 Obstruction of penis development: During puberty, due to the tight wrapping of the penis head by the foreskin and the lack of external stimulation, the development of the penis head is greatly constrained, resulting in a significantly smaller circumference of the crown of the penis after sexual organ development and maturation, which affects sexual pleasure.
2、 Causes penis inflammation: There are abundant sebaceous glands within the foreskin that can secrete a large amount of sebum. An excessively long foreskin can prevent the secretion of the sebaceous glands within the foreskin from being excreted, and the sebum and sediment in the urine form a cheesy and odorous "foreskin scale". Scald on the foreskin is suitable for bacterial growth and can cause inflammation of the penis and foreskin.
3、 Damage to renal function: Inflammation of the penis can cause stricture of the urethral orifice or anterior urethra, causing difficulty in urination. If urination is difficult for a long time, the function of the kidneys will be impaired.
4、 Cause of premature ejaculation: Due to the long prepuce and the inability of the glans to contact the outside world well, local nerve sensitivity is quite high. Once having sex, ejaculation can occur after rubbing twice. If this happens for a long time, habitual premature ejaculation can occur.
What should I do if my foreskin is too long?
"Prolonged foreskin is a normal phenomenon in the development of children. Don't worry too much. If it affects urination and does not repeatedly develop penile foreskin inflammation, it must be treated, and the earlier the treatment, the better.". Long foreskin in children is a great danger. Parents and friends need to be cautious, timely detection, early diagnosis and treatment. There are generally three situations that require surgical treatment:
1. Acquired phimosis with a fibrous narrow ring at the prepuce opening;
2. Recurrent episodes of penile foreskin inflammation;
3. After the age of five or six, the foreskin mouth is severely narrowed, there is difficulty urinating, the foreskin cannot shrink and expose the penis, and the conservative treatment effect is not satisfactory. One of the first two conditions is that surgery must be performed. Generally speaking, foreskin surgery should be considered only after puberty when the patient does not require general anesthesia. However, if a young boy has recurrent inflammation or even urinary tract infection due to an excessively long foreskin, surgical treatment should be performed as soon as possible to remove the foreskin. Whether a newborn boy should undergo circumcision or not should be considered carefully because of many disputes and should not be decided hastily. If the baby has hypospadias, it is not advisable to remove the foreskin, as the foreskin is required for repair of hypospadias.