Phimosis is the narrowing of the opening of the foreskin on the penis. According to statistics, approximately 10% of the male population of the planet faces this disease.
It should be noted that until a certain age, phimosis in boys is considered physiological. Indeed, only 4% of boys immediately after birth have such a mobile foreskin that they can completely expose the head of the penis. By the age of six months, approximately 20% of babies already have the opportunity to open the head. And in most three-year-old boys, the foreskin acquires the necessary mobility. Thus, in infancy, phimosis in boys is a purely physiological phenomenon aimed at protecting the penis from infection. Most often, this condition is perfect does not require treatment and goes away by about 7-12 years.
But even before the age of seven, phimosis in boys can acquire a pathological course. It is necessary to treat a child if he has difficulty urinating or has signs of inflammation of the glans penis.
The cause of the development of pathological phimosis in boys can be an injury, due to which scar tissue forms on the foreskin. As well as inflammatory diseases caused by insufficient hygiene, and a genetic predisposition.
If pathological phimosis in boys is detected, treatment should not be postponed, since this disease can give serious complications. For example, paraphimosis, when the narrowed foreskin pinches the glans penis, causing circulatory disorders up to gangrenous changes in the tissues. Balanoposthitis, urethritis, and other inflammatory diseases may also develop.
Is the diagnosis of phimosis in boys really the only treatment? There is no definite answer here. For example, in the absence of pathological changes, that is, the appearance of scar tissue, surgical intervention is often avoided.
A conservative treatment method for parents of a baby will be taught by a pediatric andrologist or surgeon. When choosing this method of treatment, parents should very carefully at the end of bathing the baby carefully move the foreskin of the child to the level that is currently possible. It is very important to act extremely carefully and carefully. Since rude actions can lead to tears and, as a result, scarring, which will further aggravate the situation.
Such gradual stretching of the skin of the foreskin is necessary only in warm water, as the skin after bathing becomes more elastic. The slightly open head will need to be washed carefully, and then it is imperative to return the foreskin to its original place.
The use of steroid ointments is sometimes recommended to increase skin elasticity, however, this treatment technique is controversial. And it’s not at all worth using it yourself, without a doctor’s prescription.
In case of cicatricial changes in the tissue or with a pronounced inflammatory process, one has to resort to an operation that is mysteriously called circumcision or, as the people say, circumcision. Such an operation in young children is usually performed under general anesthesia. If the operation is prescribed to a teenager or adult man, then the intervention is performed with local anesthesia. The operation lasts no more than half an hour and consists in a circular excision of the tissues of the foreskin. After such an intervention, the main cause of the appearance of phimosis is eliminated, so that a relapse of the disease is impossible. However, resorting to circumcision without serious evidence is still not worth it (of course, if the desire to carry out the operation is not caused by religious motives). Since circumcision, like any surgical intervention, can lead to a variety of complications.