Frequently Asked Questions
updated 14th October 2009
New Q & A16 HIV/AIDS (added 20th March 2008)
New Q & A17 I have problems with ejaculation, will restoration
cure this? (added 20th March 2008)
 | Q1 I want to restore but do not want a floppy skin tube as a foreskin is this what I will get? |
| A Don't worry about this, the skin you generate will naturally hug the glans as does a natural foreskin provided that you do not expand the skin circumferentially. In other words as long as you stretch the skin lengthways on your penis your new foreskin will conform to the glans. |
| Q2 Will the end of the new foreskin close like a proper foreskin when it is forward to cover the glans? Is there a method of restoration that will ensure I get a tighter closure to the end of my new foreskin? |
| A It will hug the contours of the glans to form a taper but the end or opening will not be constricted as a natural foreskin. This is because the 'ridge' bands are always amputated by circumcision. These bands form an elasticated area to draw the skin together as though there were a draw string under the skin at this point. There is no way of replicating this at the moment but if you have restored to the point of sufficient coverage beyond the tip of the glans a series of small incisions can be made and closed to shorten the skin at the circumference. This will help hold the skin forward but great care must be taken to ensure just the right degree of restriction is made or the foreskin may become painful during erections or non-retractable. This should always be the LAST thing to consider when all restoration is complete. The following link will give you an idea of the sort of procedure but would in your case be the opposite of that described: Preputioplasty |
| Q3 Is there a method of restoration that will ensure I get a tighter closure to the end of my new foreskin? |
| A Although many restorers claim to ensure a natural taper by various methods including O rings that hold the skin tight to the glans during restoration I do not believe that this principal makes one bit of practical difference so simply restore and don't worry about this aspect. |
| Q4 Should I pick one method of restoration and stick to it? |
| A No. As long as you tension the same portion of skin for sufficient length of time a variety of methods and tensions may help rather than hinder. Using more than one method may help with avoiding soreness of the skin where attachments are made, the confusion to the skin caused by variety of methods may even help. They do say "variety is the spice of life". |
| Q5 If I restore will I be likely to get infections of the penis or urinary infections? |
| A Absolutely not. The talk about a foreskin being dirty, unhealthy or causing infections is utter nonsense, you will wash regularly and keep clean as normal and that does not change just because you have gained a foreskin. Just a word of caution, don't use soap to wash under your foreskin it may cause an irritation, use either a vaginal wash or use some hair shampoo by scooping a handful of lather when washing your hair (a restorers suggestion) just be sure to rinse well with clean water. |
| Q6 My wife gets a fungal infection called 'thrush' quite regularly will I make things Worse for her if I restore my foreskin? |
| A No you will not, if anything you are likely to help your wife combat this irritating condition. The yeast that causes the condition is all around us and just needs a warm moist home to flourish, your wife's genitals are the ideal place and so will your foreskin, however, the secretions under the foreskin are to some extent hostile to thrush; if an intact male does get thrush he will become more aware and treat the condition whilst circumcised males still harbour the condition but less likely to notice. However some research in the UK has shown that women with circumcised men are more likely to suffer recurring bouts of 'thrush' than those with intact partners. The possibilities are that the prolonged and somewhat rougher sex of the circumcised male causes abrasion of the vagina and this is worsened as the female becomes dry as penetrative sex continues way beyond the point where she is satisfied. Even more abrasion is done by the hairs on the shaft skin which get pulled up near or into the vaginal opening. All this leaves your partner open to this fungal infection. Once restored the extra sensitivity will reduce the time to ejaculate more in step with your partner and the gliding action will reduce friction. Treatment for thrush is simple and you should both apply the treatment cream to the external parts and the female should take an oral tablet or insert a suppository. The removal of pubic hair from both of you will also help (you may even like the intimate, warm and moist sensations this gives). The name of the cream is Clotrimazole BP 1% and one trade name is 'Canesten'. For those that want to use a simple, cheap and natural method of elimination try a plain live yoghurt culture. Coat a tampon with the yoghurt and insert it into your vagina or use a small clean syringe to put squirt it inside, smear your genitals with it and do it for say 7 days. Always remember that your male partner needs to treat his genitals including the pubic areas and crotch at the same time irrespective of what methods you choose. |
| Q7 Will restoration make the shaft of my penis hairy by pulling the hairy skin up the shaft? |
| A No it will not. Restoration may pull hairy pubic skin forward when you tension the shaft skin but this area of skin is thicker and tougher than the soft pliable shaft skin so the most resistance to skin expansion will be this hairy skin. The shaft skin that does contain hairs will have more than the outer foreskin that was amputated by circumcision. The consolation to this is the fact that you will end up with expanded skin that has hairs further apart than before you started. You can restrain the skin at the base of the penis whilst restoring and this may help but you should not worry about this aspect of restoration. |
| Q8 What if I need to take a break from restoration? |
| A No problem. Obviously while you are taking a break you will not be expanding the skin and growing new skin cells but many restorers report periods of no progress, reaching a plateau and like expressions for frustrating periods of effort that produce nothing. Taking a break may be a good thing especially if it coincides with low growth periods. This no growth period may be the body telling us to stop a while to allow rejuvenation. You must not allow yourself to be dominated by the restoration or become a slave to it. |
| Q9 The skin has become sore and red what could the cause? |
| A To much tension, lack of rest periods (try to tension for say 8 to 10 hours a day only), if using tape there may be residue adhesive on the skin, allergy to the type of tape, lack of air to the skin, a fungal infection, restricted blood flow to the skin, bruising due to knocking the skin between the device you use and furniture and perhaps simply overdoing it. Try using more than one method of restoration and consider having a rest from it either for a week or restrict restoration to daytime only leaving the night period for a rest. |
| Q10 What if my partner does not like me restoring? |
| A I hate to say this but it's your body and someone robbed you of a highly sensitive and functional body part and quite rightly you have decided you want some of it back. Try listing all the advantages of having a foreskin like gliding action, gentler sex, better sensations for your partner, less drying up, deeper penetration, less sweat, less fungal infection, less soreness and more tenderness. If that does not convince then you need a new partner that loves you and is prepared to understand your needs. |
| Q11 I want to restore but I feel embarrassed about hanging weights or taping things to my penis, it can't be normal for a man to do these things can it? |
| A It depends on your view of normal but surely it cannot be strange for a man to want to regain a body part that was stolen from him! If a woman has breast enlargement then not everyone would agree she should do this but few would ridicule her for it. Similarly a woman that has her breasts removed either to prevent inherited cancer or to cut out cancerous tissue and then opts for implants, breast reconstruction or padded bras is never criticised for this cosmetic action. A breast that has implants or is reconstructed can never function again for what it was designed for i.e. the production of milk and if the woman is past the point where she wants children then what is the point, simple, to look normal. What then is so strange for a man to try to regain a functional part of his body both for his own pleasure and to the benefit of his partner if he has or expects to have one? There is no reason whatsoever why we that decide to restore should not shout it from the roof tops that we are rectifying a terrible injustice done to us and recovering from the physical and mental trauma caused by the sexual assault and abuse we were forced to endure. |
| Q12 I was tightly cut and have very little inner foreskin left, can I hope to restore? |
| A Yes you can. You will need to first gain extra shaft skin so that you have some skin that will accept the various devices you need to use in the restoration process. You may not be able to gain enough inner foreskin to cover the glans and may have to use shaft skin in contact with all or part of the glans but this should not be a barrier to you. |
| Q13 Can the hairs on the shaft of my penis be removed permanently and what type of home use device should I buy? |
| A There are a number of methods that will permanently remove hairs and ensure they will not grow back but they are expensive, need to be done by trained operators. To add to the problem of permanent professional hair removal many clinics will remove pubic hairs from women but will not do so for men, in other words they discriminate against us. There is electrolysis which involves pushing a very fine probe down the shaft of the hair to the root and passing a high frequency current into it, the hairs need to be treated one by one. A new process being developed is a tiny silicone chip on the end of a fine probe which heats up to about 130 degrees centigrade in milliseconds to evaporate the root tissue. Then there is laser light which if of the right frequency penetrates the surface of the skin and then heats up the dark pigment in the hair root to destroy the growing cells. This last method works better on dark hair but for blonde or ginger hair a special liquid is used to put artificial pigment into the base of the hairs before treatment. Fairly large areas can be treated in one session but you need a series of treatments for it to be effective as it only works on hairs that are in the growth stage. As far as home devices are concerned save your money few seem to have even the scientific basis to work, you may as well buy an empty box. The day someone can prove a home treatment to work it will be posted here and perhaps even promoted so there's a challenge to the manufacturers. |
| Q14 What sort of lubricant should I use on my glans? |
| A There seems to be disagreement on this as there are those for grease or oil based products and the other camp that believes water soluble lubricants are the answer. Most creams are based on oil or grease, even if it is claimed to be non-greasy cream it may still be oil based. Water soluble lubricants have the advantage of being completely removable by washing with water and unlike the creams do not leave a coating that inhibits the adhesion of tape or forms bridging of the skin surface to cover up and de-sensitise nerve endings on the skin which can temporarily reduce sexual sensitivity. Water soluble lubricant makes your penis sex ready all of the time. |
| Q15 How long does restoration take? |
| A It depends on how much skin you need to grow and how disposed to good skin growth you are. From circumcised to full coverage with some skin beyond the glans can take two to five years but to gain enough skin to increase sensitivity and sexual pleasure may take as little as a year. You will probably notice increased sensitivity within a few months as all restoration involves protecting the glans/remaining inner foreskin from abrasion on clothes and some induction of moisture to the skin. de-keratinisation will start the moment you start restoring but it is a slow process so don't delay. |
| Q16 Does circumcision prevent HIV/AIDS |
| A Some research done in Africa suggests that a 60% reduction of acquired infection in circumcised males over intact males is proven, however, facts prove otherwise. The research was seriously flawed and lets face it even if the protection was 60% and you practiced unprotected sex with infected women over a period of time the 40% failure to protect (60 + 40 = 100%) with catch up with you. Of course on the other side of the coin the woman is not protected by male circumcision so for the safe health of both male and female you will still need to wear a condom. Circumcised males have been shown in an Australian study to have a greater incidence of condoms splitting, yet another downside. The greater friction needed by a lifelong amputee male to ejaculate does mean that the female has a greater likelihood of becoming dry and although a newly circumcised male is much more sensitive than a child victim the loss of sensualtivity will eventually make sex less sensitive and more prolonged. The micro abrasions caused by hair and extra vaginal friction will make the female vulnerable. The USA has a high rate of male circumcision and also a high rate of HIV/AIDS, the rate in the largely intact European Countries is much lower than the USA so one could counter claim that circumcision aids infection. |
| Q17 I have problems with ejaculation, will restoration cure this? |
| A Probably not. It can only help. There is a complicated set of triggers to ejaculation and it is not just sensitivity. There are emotional factors, general health, and age all factor in the problems associated with ejaculation, intact males also suffer this problem. One of the problems with the glans being permanently exposed by circumcision is the continuous stimulation on clothes and your own pubic area. The brain receives the stimulative signals but realises that no sexual activity is taking place, the signals are thus treated as normal background stimulation and a threshold is set up in the brain to reject much of these signals. During sexual activities this threshold has to be exceeded to gain the experience of an intact penis. The intact male does not feel his glans except when sexually aroused or unusually physically compressed. It will take time to overcome the problems. Eat a healthy diet, don't smoke, drink alcohol in moderation and if you ride a bike look to replace the saddle with one that does not compress the root area of your penis as it enters the body in front of the anus (this compression can cause erectile dysfunction in time). Keep your glans moist and protected at all times. |
| Q18 |
| A |
| Q19 |
| A |
| Q20 |
| A |
Šelks2002 Page last updated 14th October 2009