My background, and assorted.

[Tormod - IRL]

Hi all - real name is Norm, using it here would give me an influence which I do not deserve. I'm close to Belfast, Northern Ireland and Tormod is the Irish language equivalent.
I was circumcised by parental demand when I was about one year old in 1948. That was at the start of the UK free national health service. Knowing my parents, I very much doubt if I would have been circumcised if it had not been free.
The result was very "tight" - very little skin movement even when flaccid. Most of the original inner foreskin was removed - the scar is close to the glans - but I still have most of the frenulum structure. There are areas of roughness type scarring on the dorsal surface and at the end of the frenulum remnant on the ventral surface.
I discovered at about age five or six that I was different from the other boys. Circumcision is very rare here and it was obvious that it was me who was different. Always hated it and felt embarassed and angry. I send some donations to NORM-UK.
When the internet arrived in the early 1990s I joined Gary's email restoration group and have been T-taping since. My restoration efforts have been periodic (we all have our lives to get along with) and I am now at about CI 7 or 8 with full reliable flaccid coverage. It looks realistic and I am a lot happier in locker room/shower situations. I run and use weight resistance machines at a sports' centre most days.
I'm now retired from work (was in education) and have a beautiful family. My wife is supportive and, although we have no sons, we have two, whole, grandsons.
Happy to go further into any of the points above, or, into any other aspects of my restoration. Unfortunately, I have no "starting" photographs. Digital cameras were not available in the early 1990s.

[keith-g]

I can relate with a lot of what you have said. Although I'm only mid 30's I was cut at about age 7 or 8 due to some supposed phimosis problem, which I certainly don't remember having. I think my parents were over cautious and always worried about health and doing what they thought was the right thing. Without the internet for research I suppose they just trusted what the doctors told them. As you say, we are in the minority in the UK and it's not a subject that I would feel comfortable discussing with other people, let alone my parents as they would probably end up feeling really quite guilty if they realised or had any knowledge of what you lose through circumcision and the profound effect it has on the sufferer, both at school and emotionally in the bedroom.

I'm also very grateful to the www to be able to learn and realise that there is a possible way out of this embarrasing disability.

[Peter]

I'm another guy from the UK who is cut, and stupidly, it was my choice to be so.

I knew as I got toward 15/16 my penis was a little different. Around this time my Dad mentioned to me he got circumsized when he was 13 because a supposed infection which doctors believed was due to tight foreskin etc. I realised I had this tight foreskin or 'phimosis' as it is called too. It was physically impossible to pull the skin over my glans when erect and even flacid it was extremely difficult and uncomfortable to do so. This problem led me to avoid sex with my then girlfriend and eventually I asked a doctor for a circumcision to 'sort' it. If only I had firstly, known about methods of stretching your foreskin I could easily have done, and secondly, known how different sexual pleasure and performance would be after circumcision.

I have very visible scarring and stitching all over where the foreskin was cut away, and it's to this day (I'm now 24) still very sensitive on the scarring at times (not in a good way) which I believe affects my sexual performance and sometimes ability to maintain an erection too. Whoever performed the operation on me did a pretty bad job of it, but at 16 and with little knowledge of the subject, how was I to know what to do? I still have a decent enough sex life, and I never knew what actual sex was like with a foreskin, but I do recall masturbation being somehwhat more pleasurable. I'm also sensitive about how it now looks, and this too can sometimes play on my mind and affect my confidence and performance.

I can only agree with the majority of people who are totally against circumcision. I really wish I could go back in time and change it for myself. I see the "positives" I believed would result from doing it are now easily outweighed by the negatives. I wish it was a more publicised subject, ie. not having to trawl internet forums for information etc.
Anyway I've thought about looking into restoring, so here I am. Just thought I'd introduce myself to this three-strong so far community of British circumcees!

Ben

[likes]

I was born in Kenya in 1974 and circumcised because my father was circumcised. He was also born in east Africa. My younger brother by eighteen months was born in Ireland and the doctors refused to circumcise him. He was never done although we lived in Africa a long time after he was born. I remember my mother saying she wanted to get him done but don't know why they didn't. I suspect because her mother might have objected to my being done.

I lived my teenage years in Ireland and had huge body image problems from being circumcised. They only boys that I knew were done were Jews and many of the Jews I knew even weren't. I think my problems were exacerbated by the prudishness about sex that is dominant in Ireland. Penises were never discussed and there was no sexually explorative play at school.

When I started having girlfriends at university it was straightaway obvious that they had no idea how to play with a circumcised cock. Generally they tried pulling gently as if playing with a foreskin but then stopped when there was little or no movement. A complete torture (if my description isn't clear have a look at the Lucifer video on GirlsOutWest: there an Australian girl used to foreskin does exactly the same thing).

As a result I became rather obsessed with being circumcised but didn't know what to do about it. I thought of restoration a number of times but was put off by very unattractive in progess pictures posted on FRC chat. It was only in 2006 that I saw Chuck's pictures on the DTR site and decided to restore. My partner comes from a European country where circumcision is very unacceptable and although she had one Jewish long term boyfriend in the past has generally come to be encouraging about restoring. Especially so as our son is uncircumcised.

I am currently living in Brussels and would be interested in meeting other restorers.

[Rhamiel]

Here's my story...


I. They Cut Me

Am very glad to have found this restoration network, as heretofore restoring has been a lonely chore with advice hard to come by.

I have no memory of it. My parents told me I had my foreskin surgically sheared off at the age of three. ('Circumcision' is such an inappropriately polite euphemism.) They found I had a tight foreskin and were worried I'd never be able to retract it. Infants apparently have protective connective tissue holding the foreskin forwards early in life. As I told my folks decades later, I'd have enjoyed loosening my own prepuce as I grew up.

My father was a doctor and he'd booked me in with a 'reputed' surgeon. On the day of my loss, the ignorant butcher - sorry, 'reputed surgeon' -, was not available and so an unthinking student butcher took his place and cut part of me off. After my genitalia had done their best to heal from the irreversible violation, my parents were not very happy with the 'end' results. I was left with a big scar and the dangling remnant of unintegrated frenulum. Ugh.

Through my childhood, not seeing other boys, I had no idea I was disfigured. We were shy in our school changing rooms. Gradually I came to realise that ignorance had robbed me of one of nature's gifts.

My brother was born ten years after me. My parents mentioned circumcision (my father is cut). I said "Leave him alone" to them and managed to dispel any daft ideas. I have spoken with my parents about my mutilation. They know how I feel and regret their conclusion. We love each other very much. Parents really need to be better informed; doctors and religious leaders can do this and in my view have a duty to be better informed to educate with intelligence as part of their practice. Right over rite. While organisations like Norm UK strive to spread sense, some governments prefer to leave a status quo than have the courage and sense to be imaginative, appropriate and forward-thinking. See:

http://www.norm-uk.org

Let kids make up their own minds about their bodies, by allowing them to reach an age when they can make their own decision about themselves.


II. Restoration

When the internet started, I found out about foreskin restoration and have tried to restore on and off for two years. I've made a little progress, from circumcision index (CI) 1 to 2. I need to be much more consistent now to make progress. I have promised myself a restored foreskin within the next two years.

BTW For an explanation of 'CI', see:

http://www.newforeskin.biz/CI/CIchart.htm




1. In restoring, I started by using tape. Progress was invisible and I thought I was on a hiding to nowhere. It did not seem as if I could get tension without hurting myself.

I got a CAT-II RO foreskin restoration device and started using that. See:

http://www.catstretcher.com/Installation.html

After using it for a day or two, the skin on my shaft would split on the surface here and there. I'd take it off and wait for the shaft skin to heal, over a week. This would really bother me, because it meant I couldn't have sex - it would have been unsafe. Without tension, it did not feel as if my skin shaft was growing.


2. Later, the CAT-II Q came out (see URL above). I bought one and started using that. It would work by 'sliding' instead of 'screwing' a 'pusher' in.

Sometimes I would use tape around the edge of the CAT-II Q's outer cone, to stop it from falling off. The tension rod on the CAT-II Q is necessarily designed like a smooth ratchet. It goes in, but not out unless released. Sometimes I'd find the CAT-II Q getting increasingly tight on its own during the day as my briefs moved against the rod. The 'pusher' part (see diagram at URL above), would press painfully into my glans and leave an indentation. It's then I realised that pushing against the glans to stretch the foreskin perhaps wasn't the best way to stretch a foreskin. Perhaps someone can invent a method that pushes against the pubic bone (e.g. on either side of the base of the shaft) instead of the soft glans. Today I found reference to a method that seems partly to solve this problem (see section 4. below).


3. As an alternative to the CAT-II Q, I turned to a weight method instead, and bought a P.U.D. Tugger. See:

http://www.foreskinrestoration.info/pud.htm


The PUD Tugger is good in that you don't have to take it off to pee. My penis is quite big, so I went for a large size ...and therefore heavier weight. It took a while to find the right kind of tape to use, as some tapes don't stick, and others stick so well they're agony to get off once or twice a day. In my experience, the best kind of tape to use is 2.5cm-wide zinc oxide tape. This can be bought more cheaply in bulk at online auction stores than in single rolls from chemists. Foreskin restorers get through a lot of tape! :) Be sure to note tape length when comparing the prices of different rolls.

Both the CAT-II Q and PUD Tugger worked, and I owe some growth to them. The PUD tugger also caused problems though:

(i) It has really to be worn with underwear like boxer shorts rather than briefs, because otherwise the weight does not hang down like a pendulum to stretch the foreskin. When it did dangle, if I walked up to an object like a table, the weight would sometimes bang loudly against the furniture, and people in the room might have wondered what the hell I had in my trousers. Embarrassing.

(ii) The PUD Tugger also caused my shaft skin to split or chafe. I'd have to stop using it and wait a week with no stretching, for the skin to heal. This is frustrating as it halts progress. The edge of the PUD Tugger protrudes slightly and is quite sharp. It could be painful when the skin stretched over it, rubbed against the insides of my underwear. More chafing was caused as the side of my lowly shaft would rub against the leg seam of my briefs. This caused abrasion to the skin, then I'd be a week without tugging again. Gah.

I have persevered though. Finding this forum has provided inspiration and encouragement. I am keen to find a way that I can stretch continuously in comfort and without damaging my shaft skin. A tape on its own is comfortable to wear, but I'm conscious that the skin is not being stretched as much as it could be - gently and continuously which is the key to progress.

It may be psychological (a by-product of the single-mindedness necessary to drive foreskin restoration), but I have over the last few months found my glans to become smoother and more sensitive. This makes a positive feedback loop in that it encourages you to keep restoring. If you stop restoring, the glans is denuded again and chafes painfully while exposed, being in a process of dekeratinization. The glans is an internal organ part! This makes you want to cover it up again, either with tape or a restoration device.


4. Solving the 'painful pusher' problem described above, I came across this:

http://www.foreskinrestore.com/innergrip.html

Chuck's Advanced Inner Grip technique, using an upside down gripper and a shaft collar, looks interesting. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

Courage and persistence to all restorers here. Thanks to those who have succeeded, for sharing their transformations. - And I thought 'a snip' meant a small price to pay. :o


Onward and longward!


Rhamiel. :)