Post-Circumcision worry/recovery

Hi there,

I am 5 days post adult circumcision due to severe phimosis. I had tried all other conventional treatments to no effect prior to my eventual circumcision.

I guess I am reaching out just to talk to others that have had the same procedure in their adult life. The actual surgical side of things was fine, had it under GA and I have had very little pain (mostly just discomfort from the newly exposed glans and stitches rubbing on things). What I didn’t prepare for was the psychological toll of having this procedure done.

To me, it is an absolute horror show down there. Everything is swollen, especially below the surgical site (i.e. the shaft) and around the back below the frenulum (my frenulum was left intact). The swelling has showed no sign of reducing, I’m terrified there is something wrong and I can’t see how this clusterfuck of swelling, stitches and bruising will ever look normal. The only positive is currently there are no signs of infection and the wound itself looks fine (I have topical AB ointment to apply twice daily).

I have also made the mistake of reading far too many forums where everyone’s healing was super fast and by day 5 everything was fine, there was no swelling and everything was looking great.

I was already ashamed of my manhood, multiply that by 1 million and that’s how I’m now feeling about things down there. I’m convinced there is something massively wrong and that I’ll have to live with my current Frankencock for the rest of my life.

I guess I just need to vent what I’m feeling, because it’s hardly a topic you can bring up at the pub. I am too ashamed/terrified to show my partner and of course she inevitably tells me not to worry and it will be ok.

Any insights would be much appreciated.

[Hidden]

I feel you mate. I'm 8 days in and still get thoughts of what have I done, how will this heal, was this actually a smart choice? Then I remember that for the majority of men who get it done for this reason seem to be happy about it and you can expect Frankenstein to be there for one month. Seems a lot of people are anxious for the first two, three or four weeks. It will get better. I hope to look back at this experience in one month as so many others have and think to myself why didn't I get this done sooner. But so far the psychological aspect is pretty bad. I just want to sleep like I want, move like I want, do whatever I want basically. Since it was only 9 days since I wasn't operated on I still have a fresh memory of my life prior to this. I look at old photos and think "look at me here, I wasn't operated on and could do whatever I wanted except for painful sex". Then I realise how f**** absurd that is. One billion men or more are circumcised, tons of people get this operation in the dark. Men bottle up and when I talked to my friends about it I found out people in my immediate friendship circle had it done for the same reason. Obviously most men aren't unhappy. Muslim men, Jewish men, Americans, they're all having a great life. Realise there is a life beyond this. That's what I'm telling myself currently. I just want to go out without discomfort. I know also after I'm healed I won't be inhibited to talk to women anymore. The only possible side effect which will happen to some degree is lower feeling in the penis. That's it. Now we have to balance that against our symptoms before. Pain or lower sensation? Constant infections and itching or lower sensation? Some men say it was only for the better since the sensation that gets lowered was a sensation that couldn't be felt anyway with phimosis.

Anyway these were just some of my rambling thoughts. Lol. I'm 22, how old are you? Keep in touch.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Thanks so much for your reply mate, it was a great help to read the insights of someone in a similar position.

You are so right, in that this procedure was not really a choice but a necessary fix for an unfortunate medical condition. If I really think about it, I am actually a little relieved that my phimosis (and all the associated issues that came with it, including increased cancer risk) has been definitively cured. I didn’t expect the psychological toll, but then again, if I am really honest with myself, my years of phimosis (I’m mid-30’s by the way) had also taken a significant toll and was something I was becoming more and more concerned about as the conventional non-surgical treatments had no effect.

Regardless of how the final outcome looks or feels for me, if I had no medical reason, I would certainly not be circumcised (don’t fix it if it ain’t broke....). However, my choice was continue to suffer and potentially do much more damage to the old fella, or surgically treat the problem once and for all. So not really a choice at all, if I look at it that way.

I have also seen some really unhelpful comments on many of these forums from people who are obviously against circumcision. So am I, in a perfectly healthy person who has no medical reason to do it. But also, your body, your choice and it’s none of my business what you choose to do......Pointing out that the foreskin does this and that and sensation blah blah blah, is unhelpful if the procedure is already done or if the foreskin is so damaged it is now non-functional and is causing pain and increased risk of all kinds of awful cock-related problems. No shit, the foreskin is great, but only if it’s not f****d beyond repair and causing problems.

On a positive note, the swelling has gone down significantly today. It still looks awful and frankencocky, but not nearly as awful as day 1.

Thanks again for your reply mate, I know how you feel and it sucks. But as you say, what’s the alternative? That definitely sucked more!

Peace.

[Cipher]

Hmm I thought I have replied to this post but I guess I didn't send it after all.

First of all, let me tell you one very important thing: STOP READING STUFF ABOUT CIRCUMCISION ALL OVER THE NET.

- it is going to make you more concerned when you needn't be

- it is gonna drive you crazy coz even if you read it once or twice, you will want to read something similar or completely different from another source (and that will drive you crazy)

- you will start seeing things and feeling things that aren't there, but you read about them

- don't read about said things, if you have concerns, address them here where people that went through it and actually experienced it can tell you their experiences and not just "general statements"

As to the circumcision itself. Yes, the sight the very first few days is absolutely horrifying, but your arm wouldn't look any better had the skin been taken off of it either :P. We're just more sensitive about the penis coz .... well ... its our penis xD.

The swelling will go down in time, the pain will subside, the stitches will be out and when its healed, you will be glad you had it done. My only regret was I haven't done it sooner myself. Even though the circumcision is a "minor surgery" (surface area) it is still quite a shock to your penis and that is a sensitive part of your body. The important thing is to keep the penis clean.

As for the Frankenstein dick, as I said, it will pass and it will look as a normal circumcised penis (if you consider circumcised penises normal that is).

If you have any further "short" questions feel free to ask here or message me, just no long ass page questions coz if you have way too many concerns then it is your doctor you should be talking to and not people on forums xD.

Good luck.

[jimfromcalif]

You fell for the best advice of exoerts, so why are you here? Go back to your experts.

[Hidden in reply to jimfromcalif]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

[sherban1988]

Day 4 here mate, and I completely understand what you're going through.

The sight of the old fellow in the evening of day 1 after removing the initial dressing was pretty traumatic. And the bleeding didn't help any, that's for sure. I was plagued by "what have I done" type of thoughts.

What really helped was these forums where others shared their experiences and I realized what I was going through and feeling was perfectly normal.

It's still sensitive as heck, and right now to be honest I can't imagine it ever not being sensitive, but from all the other experiences I read about you do get used to it.

During the day time it actually doesn't bother me that much, and I definitely find it easy to keep my mind on other things... But oh boy these night time erections are a bitch. It's 6am now, been up since 4.45. Simply couldn't go back to sleep. Tried icing it, and it calmed the pain down a bit but after removing the ice pack it was back like 5 minutes later.

This is the part I can't wait to go away the most, I haven't gotten a proper night's rest since the surgery.

I just keep reminding myself that it had to be done (phimosys was the reason for me as well).

[Hidden in reply to sherban1988]

Thanks for sharing mate It’s definitely a bit of a roller coaster, but as you point out, there wasn’t really any other option.

I think the worst feeling is worrying that it won’t ever heal and it won’t ever work correctly again!

Morning wood is the worst and to add to my worries, I’m getting these weird half-woody’s where the shaft is hard but everything from the stitch line up isn’t (i.e the remnants of foreskin and the glans). This is causing me all sorts of trauma as I’m scared my junk is now broken and I’ll never get a full boner again. Once again, all the forums I’ve read have people with magnificent, full to capacity boners approximately 25 minutes after their surgery.........well that’s an exaggeration but you get my point.

[jonblane in reply to Hidden]

So now some months have transpired can you let us know how it all resolved ?

Are you glad now you had it done ?

And can you advise what level/s of pain you had immediately after the op, and in the following couple of weeks ?

What meds were you given for the pain and did they work ?