So, how does it feel and look?

I guess these are the questions that I wish I had the answers to in advance, so I will try to answer them as best I can for you. After your surgery, the medics will apply a dressing to the penis. For those of you who don’t understand what actually happens during the surgery, I will try to explain. This will probably help you to understand how it will look.

The surgeon (apparently) estimates how much of your foreskin needs to be removed, and then removes it with a scalpel. At this point, your glans (head) is exposed (possibly for the first time), and your foreskin now begins just under the head of your penis. Obviously where it has been cut, it will be bleeding, so you will have a ring of stitches right around the circumference of your penis where the foreskin has been stitched. The only other place you need stitches is your ‘frenulum’ which is a ridge of skin which attaches your foreskin to the underside base of your glans. It is basically the ‘safety pin’ which stops you foreskin from rolling down your shaft and not coming back up again. In our case, this has to be cut – so there will be a couple of stitches on the underside of your glans, ending just below your urethra opening.

The medics WILL apply a dressing to your penis after the operation. This dressing is basically a gauze bandage, wrapped around quite a few times, and fastened with surgical tape. I was informed that this dressing mostly falls off before you have even left hospital. Don’t worry if it does. Apparently most people go home without one. However, mine stayed on until the following morning, when I removed it myself. Because of this, I didn’t actually see what it looked like until the next day. On the dressing you will, obviously, see a fair amount of blood. This is nothing to be alarmed about, and is perfectly normal. In fact, it is normal for the wound to carry on bleeding to a certain extent for a good few days. Again, this is nothing to worry about provided the bleeding is not excessive.

In terms of how it felt, the answer is quite simple. I couldn’t feel a thing. Whilst you are under general anaesthetic, your surgeon will probably inject the base of your penis with a long lasting local anaesthetic. You will thank your surgeon greatly for this ‘parting gift’ as it will give you a few hours without any significant pain. Well, it did for me anyway. You might be different.

One thing I wasn’t prepared for was the first time I passed water. It is nothing scary, but I just wish someone had warned me! Basically, the nurse will want to make sure you can pass water before you go home. You don’t want to get home and then find you can’t! So I went to the toilet when I felt the need to go, and ‘let go’ as normal. However, it was the weirdest pee I have ever taken.

Firstly, I couldn’t feel it. This is a very abnormal sensation. I could see it coming out, but could not feel a thing. This was a little worrying at the time, as no one had pre-warned me. But as the anaesthetic wore off my normal sensation returned. Secondly, it sprayed everywhere! I literally had no control over where it went. Again, this is apparently quite normal for the first few days. No one warned me! I assume that this is simply due to swelling in the general area after surgery. I was a little worried that this might be what I had to put up with from now on, but I was peeing straighter than ever just two days later! In my case, I actually find that my pee stream is much more powerful than it was pre-surgery, so I have had to learn to control that a little. Also, it will feel slightly different when you pee, as you don’t have a foreskin anymore! This means that your pee has an even more ‘direct route’ out, and doesn’t have to brush past the loose skin at the end of your penis. It’s pretty obvious when you think about it!

Apart from this, however, I went home around 2 hours after I woke up from the anaesthetic. I was almost pain free, still bandaged up, and felt like I could have run a marathon to be honest!