Maccabees 1, 13-15 (KJV) c200 BCE
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"After four weeks of keeping my glans covered, - Rob Roberts |
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This will be just a bare outline, because the object of these pages is to make foreskin restoration (uncircumcising) unnecessary. |
Foreskin restoration is the attempt to reverse the effects of circumcision. Some important points need to be made:
Surgical restoration has been known to give satisfactory results but it has also produced some disasters. It is expensive. The cosmetic surgeons who do it are mainly concerned with appearance. They tend not to know of the foreskin's function. Many circumcised men are unwilling to subject their penises to a knife again. The main advantage of surgery over tissue expansion is that results are quick.
The kind of restoration favoured by most restoring men is stimulated
growth by tension. It differs from stretching, because new
skin, muscle and
mucosa are caused to grow. The process is like the growth of earlobes
under the tension of heavy earrings, or the so-called "stretching" of
the lips of tribespeople with introduced discs and other objects.
The technique is recognised in medicine. It is used to grow skin to cover amputation stumps and major surgery such as the separation of conjoined twins. A similar techique was invented by urologist Hugh Hampton Young (1870-1945) of Johns Hopkins University to enlarge the bladder.
Results are slow but much cheaper and more likely to be satisfactory than surgery. Part of the satisfaction comes doing it for yourself. Part comes from taking charge of a part of your life that was stolen from you. A restoring man offers more reasons.
The process generally involves attaching something, such as a cylinder of surgical tape, to the shaft skin and pulling it gently forward, until evenutally it covers the glans full time. This has been known to occur within 18 months, but some men take much longer.
Various aids may used to pull it forward:
On no account use duct tape or other non-surgical tape for restoration. You want something that not only holds fast, but lets go.
Ready-made T-tape is sold through NORM of Michigan and T-Tapes.com.
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Advertisment from T-Tapes.com: We are currently developing a new T-Tape design and we're very excited! The beauty of this new T-Tape design is The Wearability Factor: you can wear each t-tape for days, if you'd like! They will remain intact for prolonged periods of time and you can even wash and shower with the t-tapes on! Very thin and flexible, our new specially-designed t-tape has strong adhesive properties yet is gentle to delicate skin and easy to remove. Specially impregnated with mineral balm to moisturize and soothe delicate skin, this tape is breathable, flexible and comfortable. In addition to the obvious benefits of being able to wear one t-tape for days, this new design is great for those periods of less sexual 'times', where t-tape removal and reapplication can be a hassle. You can also easily maximize the long-term use of this t-tape by rotating them with your other t-tapes, thereby extending their use as well. We are still in product testing, but if you are interested in being on T-TAPE.COM 's mailing list, send us your e-mail address so we can let you know when our newest T-Tape design is ready. |
One site (w w w . m a l e s t o r e . c o m) sells ready-made T-tape as well as penis enl*rg*m*nt devices, the V drug, etc.
"Sick and Wrong" interview
with Ron Low.
These devices are worn by day and/or night according to convenience, but some men find it encourages growth to wear them intermittently. A study by Ron Low of TLC Tugger comparing constant with intermittent tension failed to reach statistical significnce because of the high attrition (drop-out) rate.
 After about a month The circumcision scar is visible at the rim of the advancing foreskin. Restoring using T-tape only. |
 After 14 months The restored foreskin is relatively thick and does not yet taper in an acroposthion like an original one. |
 After 5 years, on and off Another subject, using a TLC Tugger |
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Progress this rapid is better than average; others take much longer. |
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Restoring men are often pleased at first by the rate of growth and then disappointed. This is because there is an initial degree of coverage of the glans that it not true growth but just increased mobility. After circumcision, fibroblasts formed through the dartos fascia, between the underlying shaft and the tight shaft-skin, further immobilising it. The first effect of the tension is to disconnect these fibroblasts, freeing the tissue up.
If the reader is familiar with how the original foreskin works mechanically, the restored foreskin works in just the same way, except that the attachment at the frenulum is likely to be missing. Neurologically, the ridged band with its thousands of Meissner's corpuscles is always missing and can never be replaced. The glans (head), being constantly covered again, loses its keratinisation (hardening) and becomes more sensitive. Some men report a sudden "shedding" of the horny layer. Some also report an increase in sensitivity of the inner (mucosal) skin of their restored foreskins.
An important benefit of restoration is psychological, the feeling that one has taken charge of one's destiny, and at least in part undone the harm that was done. A restoring man offers more psychological benefits.
Some men also report a longer and/or thicker penis as the pressure of the skin on the interior (the corpora cavernosa and corpus spongiosum) is relieved. This is in line with a recent finding that circumcised penises are on average smaller than intact ones.
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AAP Jan. 12, 2001 By SUSAN SKILES LUKE Greg Beirise of Chicago has never quite forgiven doctors for circumcising him 32 years ago, nor his parents for requesting the procedure. "It always bothered me," said Beirise, a Web page developer. "I just wanted to be whole." Beirise is one of what many estimate are several thousand men in the United States and other countries who are taking back what doctors cut away at their birth. Brought together mainly over the Internet, these men - young, retired, straight, gay, blue collar and professional - say they are growing back their foreskin, transforming themselves from circumcised to near natural in a few years for better sex, general comfort and emotional healing. Beirise has worn a pair of men's tall-size suspenders under his pants for the past four and a half years. The suspenders are attached to various devices - from first-aid tape to a contraption made of halved plastic Easter eggs and copper wire - that gently stretch the skin on his penis. His goal: to grow back skin that resembles the foreskin he lost when he was circumcised. Doctors say men like Beirise, who call themselves "tuggers," won't likely do themselves any harm. Dr. William Reiner, a psychiatrist and urologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said trying to regrow foreskin is safe, as long as men avoid cutting off their blood supply, piercing their skin or causing themselves any pain. [The irony of this, in the light of the risk and pain of circumcision, is apparently lost on him. Johns Hopkins is where David Reimer was unsuccessfully turned into a girl after his botched circumcision.] Experts say the extent to which the skin grows back depends upon how much was cut away in the first place. [Who are these experts? It just takes longer.] They also say the new skin may not have the same sensitivity as the original would have. [True, which is why restoration should give no comfort to those who support circumcision. But many restorers report greatly improved sensation in the glans.] But Reiner says that may not matter to some. He says men who try to regrow their foreskin may be trying to restore "some sense of sexual function or maleness they think they've lost." "And some are (trying to) restore something that was done to them when they were a baby and didn't have any say," Reiner said. "These issues are more psychological than physical, and there's probably some placebo effect that's very helpful to them," he said. [What studies has Dr Reiner has made of restorers or restoration that justifies him passing these judgements?] The American Academy of Pediatrics in 1999 reversed its support for routine infant circumcision, citing questionable benefits and medical and anecdotal evidence that circumcised men have less penile sensitivity. It was a move welcomed by R. Wayne Griffiths of Concord, Calif. The construction engineer and his friend Tim Hammond put ads in local newspapers more than a decade ago inviting men to a support group for those hoping to restore their foreskins. The first meeting attracted 12 men, Griffiths said. And the response grew from there. "We got 25 calls a week for the first few months," said Griffiths, a 67-year-old divorced father of five. Not bad for a subject most men were afraid to mention, he said. Today, Griffiths says as many as 7,000 men of all descriptions have contacted him online or over the telephone about restoration. He now heads the National Organization for Restoring Men, or NORM, a group with chapters in 20 states and six countries. "It used to be hush-hush," said Leo Freyer, a retired engineering drafter in Spokane, Wash. "Now it's mainstream." Those interested now buy books written on the topic, the most popular of which, "The Joy of Uncircumcising," has gone through two editions and is on backorder at Amazon.com. Some 13,000 copies have been sold so far. Guided by online instructions, many men make "uncircumcising" devices themselves, using adhesive-backed foam rubber, plumbing washers, empty pill bottles and rubber O-rings, among other things. They also buy equipment designed for the purpose, including the $100 Tug Ahoy, which includes plastic Easter egg halves, and the wares of retired motorcycle dealer Roland Clark of Huntington Beach, Calif., who sells three patented products online for as much as $450. Above all, men interested in the subject are computer savvy. One 3-year-old online discussion group on restoration has 400 to 650 members at any given time based in the U.S. and 16 other countries, said its moderator, Gary Burlingame. And Freyer, who edits an online directory, counts 69 Web sites and four chat rooms devoted to the topic, most of which he said have appeared within the past couple of years. Participants trade ideas and support because doctors often want no part of it, said Dr. Morrie Sorrells, 62, a retired pediatrician in Atherton, Calif., who is on the board of NORM and who practices uncircumcising techniques himself. "The medical profession is conservative and tends to look askance at anything that is lay-oriented, or not originated by medicine," Sorrells said. Reiner, the Johns Hopkins psychiatrist, agrees that physicians, for the most part, usually are not comfortable discussing sexual issues with their patients and tend to steer clear of such topics. For that reason, he said, foreskin restoration remains very much a quiet topic. Though they are talkative with each other, many of those men - no matter how mainstream they believe the practice is becoming - say they're not likely to mention their activities in polite company anytime soon. They say many people don't understand why they do it. "Knowledge is the key," Freyer said. "They just don't know what they're missing." On the Net: http://www.norm.org |
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HoustonPress The Fantastic ForeskinCircumcised men are employing weights and pulleys to cover themselves back upBy Craig Malisow "I'm wearing it right now," John Long says. "But I didn't wear it most of the day yesterday." The 27-year-old bookstore employee is talking about
the device attached to his circumcised penis, beneath his clothes.
Picture a miniature silicone lampshade with a handle on the wide end.
It's cupping the head of his johnson, and the skin of the shaft is
pulled forward over it. An elastic band runs from the handle to a knee
brace, applying constant tension to the skin on the penis, stretching
it forward, coaxing it to grow.
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Fathers
A cut father tells how it was for him to have an intact son - and how restoring makes a telling rejoinder to "A
boy should look like his father".
Well, actually, no, this one (in Woodville, New Zealand) seems to be about furniture, but for more information and contact with other restorers, go to the Links page.
The definitive textbook on foreskin restoration is Jim Bigelow's "The Joy of Uncircumcising!" available updated as a download, on CD, or in print, from NORM.
NORM-UK
has a video "Restoration In Focus" available in US-VHS format,
also available from NOHARMM:
Destin Gerek interviewed about foreskin restoration on VOA Variety, "Sex with Jaiya". (audio only, starts 6' in)
"Little Plastic Rings: The Ethos and Eros of Foreskin Restoration" at Sexis
The future? Foregen
Some men are pinning their hopes on a radical method of
foreskin restoration that is in its
infancy.
Foregen is the proposal to use stemcells to grow a foreskin
on
a frame, either in vitro (in glass) or in situ on a man's body. It is
an open question whether regrown nerves can be attached where cut
nerves have been out of use for decades. An article here
or here goes into more detail.
Restoration substitutes, testers
Products that should give some idea what the effect of restoration
would be on the glans are the ManHood™
(made in the US) and the Senslip
(made in the UK), sheaths for the penis with soft linings. The Senslip
looks very like a foreskin. They do not restore the gliding action,
however, unlike restoration.
Restoration
clothing
Tug N' Wear makes underwear
designed to contain restoration gear comfortably and catch it if it
falls off.
To help promote restoration:
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Visit The Intactivism
Shop |
Related pages:
Vorhaut-Restoration - ausführliche Informationen auf Deutsch Back to the Intactivism index page.
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or "Un-circumcise" yourself: 1.) RESTORATION RETURNS THE PROTECTIVE "COVER" OVER
YOUR GLANS SO THAT
WHEN NOT NEEDED, IT WILL BE PROTECTED. 2) RESTORATION LENGTHENS THE PENILE SHEATH SO
NOCTURNAL ERECTIONS ARE NOT
DISTURBING. 3.) RESTORATION PUTS PUBIC HAIR BACK ON THE PUBIS,
WHERE IT BELONGS. 4.) EVEN PARTIAL RESTORATION (a few months) ALLOWS
THE SKIN TO BE MORE
RELAXED SO THAT IT DOES NOT ABRADE OR TEAR ON ERECTION. 5.) RESTORATION ALLOWS THOSE MEN WITH ADHESIONS TO
AVOID PAIN. 6.) A LONGER PENILE SKIN ALLOWS THE CORONA TO BE
"TEASED" BY THE FOLDS OF THE PENILE SHEATH, AN ACTION THAT INTACT,
NORMAL MEN KNOW TO BE PLEASANT. 7.) RESTORATION GIVES YOU BACK THEN NATURAL GLIDING
MOTION OF NORMAL INTERCOURSE 8.) RESTORATION RECREATES THE MOIST ENVIRONMENT IN
WHICH THE GLANS WAS MEANT TO RESIDE. 9.) RESTORATION PROVIDES SOME NECESSARY ADDITIONAL
SENSITIVITY TO THE OLDER MAN. 10.) RESTORATION IS RIDICULOUSLY EASY, SIMPLE,
CHEAP, AND HARDLY
NOTICEABLE WHEN DONE CORRECTLY. 11.) EVEN IF YOU ARE YOUNG AND FEEL JUST FINE NOW, restoration is an investment in your future, and will provide benefits for that more many years if completed early. And you may also discover you"ve been missing something. And some psychological benefits: 1.) RESTORATION IS VERY SATISFYING TO THE MAN WHO
FEELS SOMETHING WAS STOLEN FROM HIM (which of course, it was). 2.) SINCE CIRCUMCISION WAS HISTORICALLY A
PUNISHMENT, RESTORATION IS LIKE A REPRIEVE. 3.) RESTORATION IS RESOURCEFUL, LIKE FIXING YOUR OWN
CAR. 4.) A" GROWER" MAY BECOME A "SHOW-ER".
5.) RESTORATION OBLITERATES THE OBSCENE "SIGNATURE"
OF YOUR
CIRCUMCISER. 6.) IT IS ALSO COOLER AND LOOKS MORE "EURO" TO BE
INTACT AND NORMAL. |
