How common is phimosis among your community?

[shiny]

Hi!
How common is phimosis in your community? I am from Eastern India and I find it very common.

[jdm]

I don't know the statistics, but I think it's pretty rare.

[soundsgreat87]

Uncut guys in the USA are pretty rare, especially where I live, but it seems like a lot of uncut Americans have phimosis. I suspect - but have no way to prove this - that this is because their well-meaning parents left them intact, but didn't actually teach them how to take care of their foreskin because they had no idea how to do it. So you end up with a lot of guys who make it to their 20s without ever learning that their foreskin is supposed to retract, and have super tight foreskin as a result.

[burtonian]

I think Soundsgreat87 has a valid observation relevant to the US.  Here in the UK I suspect there were quite a few guys born in the early 1950s who suffered forcible retraction that caused acquired phimosis.  This was because our National Health Service, formed in 1948, soon deemed circumcision an unnecessary practice, meaning it was only available to those who could pay privately unless it was for genuine medical reasons. 

[GarethUK]

Uncut guys in the USA are pretty rare, especially where I live, but it seems like a lot of uncut Americans have phimosis. I suspect - but have no way to prove this - that this is because their well-meaning parents left them intact, but didn't actually teach them how to take care of their foreskin because they had no idea how to do it. So you end up with a lot of guys who make it to their 20s without ever learning that their foreskin is supposed to retract, and have super tight foreskin as a result.

Interesting topic here that came up recently under another theme too. Perhaps things are different now, but I grewing up in the UK in the 1970's and retraction or foreskin "maintainance" of any kind was never mentioned to me, either by my parents or at school. I certainly never heard any "playground talk" that would lead me to think that others had been given any instruction either, but perhaps I'm wrong, and I'd be very interested to hear of others' experiences. I think it was just assumed that we'd puzzle it out for ourselves - not that it takes much! I think there is a mistaken preconception amongst many in the US that foreskins need a lot of complicated looking after, rather than just a quick wash. This leads, I think, to a great deal of bath time retractions,  long before the foreskin is ready for it, which then leads to complications and, often, circumcision becoming needed as a result - hence the self-fulfilling prophecy that foreskins are complicated, troublesome things!

[za123za]

I am in Canada and I don't really know any offical stats on it but in my personal limited experience I'd say it's not super common. I did have one friend with a decent case of phimosis though back in high school.

[ThePiemel]

What is common in my community is that men do not speak about it.

I never walked into a bar, and a guy said, my foreskin is swollen up. Not even in the many gay bars I've been.

I find that a pity because we all basically have the same. After a few beers, things like swellings or just staying bare, without any double interest could be a topic just like the weather or the matches. But it certainly is not. In Europe. It is maybe still even a bit Victorian age here. So asking about the whole community, I have no clue. Neither does the doctor here, because the same men only go there when it hurts so much, they fear it will fall off. While most swelling simply goes away in a day. My guess is many men have it at times. If not all. I think it is a normal penis skin mechanism. But nobody talks about it. We carefully all hide our penises. Do not talk about them. Or some go to a nudist place. When it is not even appreciated to look at them. Pretty primitive actually! Even in homosexual circles here it is not a topic. Which is double odd!

[za123za]

What is common in my community is that men do not speak about it.

This is very true in my area too.