Last updated on October 8, 2020
Question:
Why do some boys have the extra skin on the end of their penis and some don’t? I had to have mine taken away because it was too tight, but I didn’t know if that happens to everyone.
Answer:
Every male is born with a foreskin — that extra skin at the end of their penis. Some, like the Jews and the Muslims, have it removed for religious reasons — to show that they are a part of their religion. Some in the past had it removed because it was believed that it cut down on disease or kept boys from masturbating. The reasoning was wrong, but it became a family tradition — Dad had it, so his sons have it to look like dad. But the Bible tells us that under the Christian covenant circumcision (the removal of the foreskin) serves no purpose. “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters” (I Corinthians 7:19).
What you had is called phimosis. It is when the opening of the foreskin is too tight to allow the foreskin to slide back when you are erect. Circumcision solves the problem by removing the foreskin, but there are other ways it could have been done without complete removal of the foreskin. In the United States, about 10% of boys have phimosis, but most grow out of it in their teenage years. Somewhere between 1 and 5% of all men have a permanent problem with phimosis.