Hi, so I'm 17 years old and just had my circumcision today. It wasn't as bad as I thought but it's still pretty unpleasant. I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask about the recovery...
1. I wanted to know when would be the best time to remove the bandages? My hospital used a condom with a hole in the top to keep them on so they won't fall off, but I'm worried about keeping it on for too long or taking them off too early. Also, would be best to re-bandage the wound when I do eventually remove it or just leave it?
2. So I have an extremely sensitive head die to the fact that I never really pulled my foreskin back (the only time I did was peeing and showering). I've noticed most the pain if from the sensitivity and wanted to know how long it would take for the sensitivity to be tolerable? I was told it would be completely fine after 6-8 weeks, but I'm returning to college in 2 weeks. Will its still be bad? Or will it have improved so I can tolerate the pain?
3. And my last question is what is better when it comes to washing? Having a bath or having a shower? Was wondering as I'd imagine a shower would be better but way more painful but the bath would be relaxing but of course, I'd be washing myself in my own dirt so I guess that would increase the risk of infection?
I'd appreciate any advice given! Thank you
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Kaiyism
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I had a circumcision at the age of 20, around a year ago next month actually. I found it to be pretty unpleasant, but it was nice once it is better when it's healed. I was told by the hospital to soak the bandages off in a shallow, warm bath 2 days after having the operation to let the wound settle and get some air to it. After taking the bandages off I wouldn't re-bandage up the wound, unless necessary. I had a complication with my scar, I found after 4 days and two days of having the bandage off, one of my stitches broke and I had to be re-admitted to the hospital to undergo another operation to have the wound re-stitched back up, which put my healing time back by about 2-3 weeks. The best time would probably be 2-3 days after the operation to take the bandages off.
As for sensitivity, it will get better as time goes on, at the moment, you're very swollen, sore and sensitive. As time goes on the skin on the head of your penis will start to thicken and you loose some sensitivity but not all of it. It is best to wear loose-fitting clothing and loose underwear, if any for the next few days just to let everything settle down. Once you get to around 6-8 weeks you will bearly notice any sensitivity, you will have gotten used to it.
When it comes to washing, showering will be better, but a very very quick shower as leaving the scar moist will delay healing and try not to pick or dislodge any of the scabs that form on the scar as this will also delay the healing and slow down new skin growing underneath. Once you have finished showering PAT dry the scar line, very very gently with a tissue just to dry it fully, try not to leave any moisture along the scar line.
I hope all this helps, it is a very tough 6 weeks ahead, you will find that out, and you will especially notice that in the mornings if you understand what I mean. I hope that you will make a speedy recovery.
Thank you my man, I found this really helpful and helped answer a lot of my questions!
I have a few more however for you because, of course, I'm pretty anxious of whats gonna happen over the next 6-8 weeks... And I apologise in advance because they are pretty silly and specific but I want to make sure I try and have the best recovery possible as I'm missing college time! So I'll probably be asking a lot of questions!
1. When one of your stitches broke, was it because you made a mistake like wearing a certain type of clothing or was it just purely bad luck?
2. When showering how long would you take? Because I have a habit of taking a while in the shower (20-30 mins).
3. How long was it until you noticed that the sensitivity was subsiding and improving?
4. When you took your bandages off for the first time was the wound still 'open'? Or was is partially healed?
You're welcome! Yeah don't worry in completely understand why your anxious, I was when I first had it done, it's the worry of actually wondering if something so important to you is going to get better and heal up, an important note, it will heal and you will be fine! :).
When one of my stitches broke it was just pure bad luck, no error on my behalf or anything I done, it must have been too tight and just snapped. If one of them snaps, you notice pretty quickly as it will start bleeding, and will carry on bleeding. I sat in A&E from 10pm until 3am waiting to be admitted, at 3am in the morning, my jogging bottoms were soaked with blood, I had to be taken to the ward by a wheelchair as I could not walk.
When showering after my circumcision, I took a 5 minute maximum shower, sometimes I just washed my body and hair and jumped out, maybe 2-3 minutes sometimes. When washing don't wash over your penis as I could dislodge clots, try to keep it clean but don't wash it if that makes sense, I found that when I was washing my body, I would rinse soap off And just let it run over my penis to clean it that little bit.
Sensitivity can vary, I noticed it pretty quickly, maybe a week or so afterwards when the swelling started to go down but it may be a month for you. Loose fitting clothing helps a lot as it gets you used to the feeling of cloth and fabric bushing against the head of your penis so it will help with the sensitivity.
When I took my bandages off it was stitched up still, it was still "open" but closed with the stitches, the skin starts to form a bond around 3-7 days after the operation so in this time it is important that you do not do anything to irritate this process. It is painstaking time, the mornings are horrible, waking up with an erection makes it feel like your penis is being pulled very very tightly but it gets better after a couple of days.
The wound will start healing but be patient, try not to rush nothing as you've will cause damage to yourself, take it easy, put your feet up and binge watch Netflix, I found that helped!
I hope that helped! If you need anymore advice, feel free to drop me a message!
Thank you again Daniel! I appreciate the advice since I was to nervous to ask any of these while I was there. But this is really helpful man, I'm not as anxious as I was before because at least now I know what I can expect.
And man, that sounds awful! Sounds like your recovery was tough man, has the incident left any extra scars or damage?
And thats actually extremely helpful as I was going to do what you just told myself not to do, so you're a life saver man ahah! Did you use scented soap? Like Lynx for example? Because I have heard that soap like body wash is a bad idea but I never was told with a clear answer?
And thats useful man, I was told by the doctors that people said wearing tight underwear helped support the wound and helped with the sensitivity? Did you ever try using tighter underwear or did you wear baggy clothing from start to finish?
And yes, I've actually already experienced the erection situation, however I was able to control it half-way through! But even then it felt very painful and tight. Did it ever feel like the stitches would break or skin would tear while having erections? Because the thing I am more anxious about is experiencing an erection and the stitches braking because of it!
And I will definetly take it easy! I was actually lucky that I was allowed 2 weeks off as at first the college wanted me in on Monday (Which I thought was crazy) but luckily my tutor said he had a circumcision and managed to get me 2 weeks off as he said it was a very difficult healing process and recovery!
You're welcome! I was scared to ask the doctors any more questions about how to recover as well as they may have thought I was being over dramatic about the situation. The recovery is usually fine, I was just unlucky, you won't regret having the operation especially if you really needed it.
The doctors done really well to match the scar line of the first stitches, it all healed perfectly and couldn't tell that I had to be re-stitched. It's rear that stitches break but it's not nice when they do.
At first I didn't wear tight underwear as it may pull on the stitches and might pull one out or cause them to snap, loose baggy clothes are the best thing to wear, if I remember correctly after my stitch broke I didn't wear underwear for about 3 days after coming back out of hospital.
When getting an erection it did feel like the skin would break, the sad part about it is that you can't stop having erections no matter how hard you try. The skin won't break and the stitches are unlikely to break.
Brilliant, that's good. I had two weeks off work, originally I was going to only take one week off work after but after being in hospital etc, I decided that I was going to have two weeks of to fully recover. That's crazy that your college wanted you back in on the Monday! Lucky you told you tutor what it was you were having done!
Recovering is the best part as you notice how different everything looks, especially taking the bandages off. I still forget that I've been circumcised and I look down and remember 😂.
I hope you have a great, speedy recovery!
Daniel.
Hi Kaiyism and Daniel.
Daniel my good buddy is giving you excellent advice and it comes from first hand experience which always counts more. Daniel can be very graphic in recounting his experience . Certainly stopped my boner in its tracks visualising him in A&E in blood stained jogging pants.
To add my two pennies worth I would consider wearing pants for the first week or so while the skin knitted together then moved to loose boxers to get the air to the wound . As Dan the man has said this will also help with the sensitivity issue.
I'd use un-perfumed shower gel as it ain't going to sting that wound as much.
Finally welcome to the Roundheads . Things can only get better. Cheers
When I had my circumcision, I found that no one around me had been through the operation so they couldn't give me any decent advice on what to do or what I should be doing, that's why I try to get as much detail in as possible, regardless of how graphic it is because it shows any eventuality after having these operations lol 😊😊.
Thank you Daniel, I don't have any more questions and you have really helped me out and feel a lot less anxious about the recovery! Appreciate you taking the time to help me out and answer some questions man
Some great advice given here. I had mine in late September 2016, and as you say advice from the hospital was sketchy. I took short baths using Johnsons baby soap, moving on to quick showers later. After a couple of weeks I found letting the water run onto the head for brief periods helped me to get used to it. At first I wore no underwear during the day, just soft loose fitting clothing. At night and if I had to go out I would wear tight pants to keep everything still ! I have quite a physical job and my employer would not let me return to work for almost Eight weeks.
Everyone heals at a different pace and have varying pain levels. But it will get better. Take things easy and be careful.
I've recently had a frenuloplasty to fix a problem where I couldn't pull my foreskin back buto it hasn't really worked so the next option is a circumcision. After reading online I've seen a couple of cases where the guys have lost pretty much all sensitivity in the penis. So they're saying things like sexual intercourse just aren't enjoyable anymore as they don't get pleasure. Just wondering if this has happened to you as that is the main reason why I'm thinking against it at the moment.
I had my circumcision about five months ago and if anything sensitivity has increased. I do have less control now and could pace myself better when I had foreskin particularly when masturbating. I think you need to look at the whole picture. If you do not really need the Op' then, No, do not do it. For me, I had little choice. If there is an alternative for you, try it. Discuss with your Doc and if circumcision is the best or only option then so be it. Many on here will say it is the best thing but we are all different. It is not the end of the world and as they say time is a great healer.
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