We started the meeting by discussing a reason a few men have mentioned for wanting to restore. More than once at our meetings there have been men who had problems with tight skin on their penises, sometimes creating pain upon erection. Our coordinator mentioned having been contacted in recent months by a few men who had this problem after having been circumcised for phimosis, a condition where the foreskin is too tight to retract over the glans. Although it is never necessary for doctors to remove the entire foreskin for this problem, some still do it anyway. Ironically enough, this can create a whole new problem: a lack of penile skin, causing tightness upon erection (sometimes painfully so) that can't easily be fixed. Several of us who were circumcised as infants were in the same situation. The solution is be to expand the remaining skin, to more comfortably accommodate the erect penile length and to alleviate the tightness. Although this can be done surgically, what we're doing without surgery works just as well, and the cost is minimal.
We've heard about an upcoming study conducted by McGill University in Montreal on the subject of male body image. Researchers are including statistics on body features that aren't normally studied, including perceptions of the genitals. One of the questions asked of participants will be whether or not they are circumcised. Some of us here at NORM have seen that being circumcised can negatively impact one's body image, but it's a subject that hasn't been widely researched. Many years ago, one of NORM's co-founders, Tim Hammond, conducted a survey on men who were circumcised.
We finished up our meeting discussing the various methods we've all been using for restoring.