I am an adult in my 30s and have had phimosis since I was a teenager.
I have been very scared about trying to fix this, to the point that I developed a phobia of seeing a urologist. I am happy to say, though, that after working with a therapist over the past year to reduce my fear about seeing a urologist, I recently got the courage and went to see a urologist who assured me that the situation was correctable. He gave me betamethasone cream and basic instructions on doing foreskin stretching exercises.
My problem is that because of essentially never having retracted the foreskin for 20+ years now, I am incredibly scared about the likelihood of extreme sensitivity and pain. When I was a kid, I remember retracting the foreskin and feeling like the head was extremely sensitive, not always painful, but sometimes a bit painful or at least uncomfortable.
I am not afraid that the stretching exercises won’t work. In fact, I think that I will probably have no problem with the physiological act of stretching, especially along with the steroid (betamethasone) cream. However, what I am afraid of is that I will not likely follow through with actually completing the stretching exercises. Many times over the years, I have started stretching the foreskin, and then got scared and stopped when I started to see some success.
My questions are:
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How have you all dealt with the pain of extreme sensitivity after stretching post-phimosis?
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Is there anything I can do to help manage or reduce the pain or sensitivity? Some kind of medication or treatment?
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Is there anyone out there like me, who wasn’t able to retract for decades, but then was able to successfully do so as an adult?
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If I go with the circumcision route, will the pain/sensitivity be extremely strong still?
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Are there any tips for dealing with the psychological fears of stretching the skin? (And the possibly irrational fears of: the skin maybe getting stuck behind the head… the sensitivity being extreme…. the smegma being so built up that it’s nearly impossible to get rid of… the fear of how it all might look after years of not exposing the head.)
I will continue to see my therapist, and hope that I will be successful. But anything that anyone here can help with, I would be extremely grateful.
Thank you.