At 46, I got a ring on it due to horrible ballinitis for six months with all STIs negative and cultures non-specific (but lots of flora). I read a lot of journal articles about non-infectious penile lesions and it seemed like a bit of this, a bit of that. I wasn't too keen on a dermatoligst referral as the skin is a very challenging organ to treat. Eventually I got the inspiration to be circumcised and found a GP (Australia) who does it out of a local medical centre.
I had always suffered with mild phimosis, though when I first became sexually active the frenulum ripped a little and it provided solid relief. Later, without a partner the femulum healed back tighter over the years. Lack of stretching due to lack of sex meant it got to the point that just peeling back the foreskin would rip the skin on the neck of the penis and I could see all the veins in the foreskin were struggling to get good blood flow. I could still masturbate but it was extremely aggravating for the condition. I did have the frenulum removed as part of the procedure.
Without a foreskin the rash dissapeared overnight, though antibiotics targeting the skin were taken 5 days either side of getting the ring. In fact the antibiotics caused 90% of the rash to dissapear before the procedure, but clearly friction was a culprit in aggravating any trauma and I could not take antiobiotics forever. The rash has not reappeared and was gone completely once the ring came off.
Definitely wearing the ring was torture, especially at night when getting erections. I got it taken off after 6 days, instead of 7. I was pretty unhappy with how the skin was healing so my doctor manually removed the ring of dead skin with just a bit of local anaesthetic cream after a week, but I still had a lot of slough on the wound. The most soothing product at that point was solosite, but it was only very slowly reducing the slough. The four shots of local anaesthetic in the base of the penis when the ring was put on were horrendous but I discovered a new torture when the slough would dry and form strands which would harden, attaching themselves to the glans and then stretch with movement, tugging at the wound bend!
I just wanted to offer a realistic picture of what this procedure is like given the journal articles with photos showing predicted course of wound healing are 100% best case scenario. They may apply if you have no pathology and are just getting circumcised for cosmetic reasons, but most of the reading I have done here relates to some pathology as motivation for the procedure. Be prepared to freak out due to swelling and trauma, but rest assured it just takes time to heal and subside.
Something which has really speeded things up for me to heal the wound is a moxa stick. You may want to get advice from a Chinese medicine practitioner before trying this, but moxa is simply the herb mugwort compressed into a big fat stick which you light until the tip is glowing red, taking care to knock the ash off periodically. A box of sticks is probably $10 in any Western country in an Asian grocer or herb shop, much cheaper in Asia itself. It is quite stinky when it burns. You simply light the stick and wave it in very small circles around the wound and swelling on the shaft if you like. Moxa promotes wound healing through increasing the flow of blood and qi, it has a high specific infrared penetrative quality according to research. If you do this 2, 3, 4 times a day for 5 - 10 minutes you will see any slough dissapear before your eyes, it may reappear, but less each time, then the skin will start to epithelialize properly.
Keep your distance! Obviously be extremely careful with something hot near the penis, you only want it close enough to feel a gentle heat. Make sure your grip on the penis is sound so it doesn't bump the moxa, just move the stick. You can get a sense of how hot the moxa is on the back of your hand or inner forearm, depending on your wound you may find you can bring the stick closer to it than that. This indicates there is poor flow of blood and qi in the tissues there. Thus the moxa will promote the flow of energy there and speed things up. Well, best of luck if you try this, it worked for me, I still had a consistent slough nearly four weeks after getting the ring off until I started using it.
I wanted to share my story here as I have read these forums quite a lot before and after my procedure.
Thanks
