Question
Does foreskin restoration work?
Answer
Circumcision isn’t as common as it once was, but there are still plenty of people around who have had their foreskin removed. For most of them, circumcision happened when they were only a few days old, after a decision made by their parents. For a minority, circumcision was a medical necessity because of a health problem, like phimosis for example.
Some circumcised men struggle with the loss of their foreskin because of concerns about effects on sexual function or appearance, or the long-term psychological consequences of feeling violated.
There are lots of options for men who want to restore their foreskin, in the forms of various devices designed to stretch the remaining skin on the shaft of the penis over the head (glans) of the penis. Stretch is a normal stimulus for skin growth, so over time (the process takes years) complete coverage of the glans is possible.
Surgery for foreskin restoration is possible but these operations are rarely performed.
Foreskin restoration isn’t a widely studied topic in medical research, but there are a few studies of men’s experiences with foreskin restoration (see here and here). It seems that those who restore their foreskins are generally pleased with the results.
Tim Moss
Healthy Male Health Content Manager
Associate Professor Tim Moss has PhD in physiology and more than 20 years’ experience as a biomedical research scientist. Tim stepped away from his successful academic career at the end of 2019, to apply his skills in turning complicated scientific and medical knowledge into information that all people can use to improve their health and wellbeing. Tim has written for crikey.com and Scientific American’s Observations blog, which is far more interesting than his authorship of over 150 academic publications. He has studied science communication at the Alan Alda Centre for Communicating Science in New York, and at the Department of Biological Engineering Communication Lab at MIT in Boston.
