How do you reconstruct a foreskin?

You talked about foreskin reconstruction years ago. I have a friend who wants to do that so he can get more pleasure from his man-woman relationships, but he doesn't want to call, so I thought I would do it for him.

A: Dr. Dean: There is no doubt that sensitivity is altered after circumcision. Men who were circumcised as adults or men who had their foreskins restored as adults talk about definite decreases or increases in sensitivity.

I well remember one fellow, circumcised as an adult, who said sex was now like being in black and white compared to being in color before the procedure.

There are urologists who will do foreskin restoration. And many men do it themselves by stretching the skin and using tape and weights.

It is odd that women in our culture can make perfectly normal breasts larger with surgery, and we accept that, but when a guy wants to restore a foreskin which was removed when he was a young child - his normal body structure was altered - people don't really get that so well.

There is a good book about this subject called "The Joy of Uncircumcising." And the organization NOCIRC has a Web site at www.nocirc.org you can check for in! formation.

Your friend can get a lot of information about all the different methods to see if he wants to consider surgery for this, or consider doing it himself. Many men stretch the skin as far as it will go - and it will stay there - and then get surgery to finish the job.

Dean Edell, M.D.