Treatments for phimosis in children and adolescents

Phimosis is an ailment that affects children and that can lead to having to undergo an operation -circumcision- to solve it and avoid greater evils when they reach adulthood. It is an irregularity that occurs in the penis and that tends to disappear as the child grows, but if it is not corrected, it is when it is necessary to resort to a treatment that can lead to a surgical intervention . It is a deformity of the skin of the penis and that makes the skin that surrounds the foreskin not come down easily.

This circumstance is common when they are babies and the foreskin and genitals require minimal care . When they are born it is like that but as the penis grows, the skin also stretches and ends up giving way until it can be easily removed from around the foreskin. If not, it can be very annoying and cause infections, so a treatment is usually sought to eliminate it and that sometimes involves operating to do what would be a circumcision.

PHIMOSIS, NATURAL AT BIRTH

As we mentioned, all babies are born with phimosis but as they grow the skin of the foreskin gives way and it is easy for it to come down. When the child reaches a certain age, such as eight or ten years old, and the skin does not just give in, it is when it becomes necessary to consult a doctor to start a treatment that, as the last solution, has the operation.

If as the child grows, his parents detect that the phimosis is not decreasing , they should consult a doctor to analyze the case . The professional is the one who can best advise the family for each specific case, but generally it is waited until he is about 10 years old before even considering the operation. Until then it is believed that it can still be fixed naturally.

REASONS TO OPERATE

Even so, there are reasons that can lead the doctor to recommend operating the child before reaching that age and it is because phimosis is causing another series of ailments . You may have pain or swelling when urinating, caused by the skin preventing you from passing. And you can also suffer from various infections, due in part to the fact that by not removing the skin easily, it makes it difficult to clean the foreskin and thus hygiene.

In these cases, it is not usual to wait for the phimosis to resolve by itself or for the minor to reach a certain age, a circumcision is planned as soon as possible. In this way, the problems that the minor was having will be solved.

OTHER PRE-OPERATION SOLUTIONS

But circumcision intervention is not the first solution. There are cortisone creams on the pharmacological market – always recommended by a doctor – that are applied to the skin of the foreskin and ‘help’ it to be easily removed. They have a high rate of effectiveness, which has led to a significant reduction in the number of children who undergo phimosis surgery in recent years.

When the ointments do not work, it is time to intervene on the child. The operation consists of making a small cut -circumcision- and removing part of the skin so that it can move easily. It is done under local anesthesia and the child can be discharged from the hospital on the same day. It does not involve complications and the recovery lasts about two weeks in which physical exercise is prohibited and appropriate cures must be made to avoid infections.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF IT IS NOT TREATED

If the phimosis has not remitted before the child reaches adolescence, the doctor will always recommend a treatment to eliminate it due to the consequences that failure to do so in adulthood can have . To begin with, you are more likely to suffer infections, because hygiene is more complicated and problems urinating, since the extra skin makes it difficult to get out. It will also make sexual intercourse difficult as it will be very painful.