(06-04-2026, 08:58 PM)fetcher Wrote: I'm coming up on a year, having started on June 17, 2025 at my husband's suggestion. He actually bought me my first devices, and I've put in somewhere between 4000 and 6000 hours. Mostly a set-and-forget thing each day, though, which quickly becomes a normal daily habit, like shaving or brushing teeth.

Although not everything can be regained, and progress can feel frustratingly slow - one year is barely getting started! - we've both definitely noticed some changes for the better, in terms of improved sensation, and better gliding motion. And, simply wearing a retainer or other silicone cover during the day immediately solved my discomfort from abrasion against underwear - quite a  relief in itself!  And although it'll take years more, one day I will no longer need that.

It's definitely helped my mental health to be on a path to improvement, to at least partly put right what happened to me all those years ago.

(06-20-2026, 06:43 AM)fetcher Wrote: Regarding Jewish men in ancient times stretching their foreskin back, you probably know this already, but until around 150 AD, religious Jewish circumcisions were considerably less severe, involving "only" removal of the overhanging portion (brit milah), not forcible separation of all portions naturally bonded to the glans in a newborn (brit periah - I think periah literally means "tearing"!).  It was made much more severe at this time precisely to frustrate those who would attempt to restore!  And, that same disfiguring version was then passed on to non-Jewish practitioners, and is the dominant form today.

Here is an old article in a Jewish publication by someone suggesting a return to the old, less drastic version as a "compromise".  It would still be a terrible thing for an infant to go through, but at least would reduce the degree of harm, for those who view this as a religious mandate and are not prepared to give it up altogether: https://forward.com/culture/139100/a-modest-proposal/

I don't know anything about the situation within Islam, or of any reform efforts there.  It doesn't seem quite so deeply rooted in that faith, but then, boys in Muslim families more often have to go through it at a later age, like between 7 and 12 or so, which has to be even worse than an infant procedure for causing lasting trauma.

(06-24-2026, 07:54 PM)Old-guy Wrote:

(06-20-2026, 06:43 AM)fetcher Wrote: Regarding Jewish men in ancient times stretching their foreskin back, you probably know this already, but until around 150 AD, religious Jewish circumcisions were considerably less severe, involving "only" removal of the overhanging portion (brit milah), not forcible separation of all portions naturally bonded to the glans in a newborn (brit periah - I think periah literally means "tearing"!).  It was made much more severe at this time precisely to frustrate those who would attempt to restore!  And, that same disfiguring version was then passed on to non-Jewish practitioners, and is the dominant form today.

Here is an old article in a Jewish publication by someone suggesting a return to the old, less drastic version as a "compromise".  It would still be a terrible thing for an infant to go through, but at least would reduce the degree of harm, for those who view this as a religious mandate and are not prepared to give it up altogether: https://forward.com/culture/139100/a-modest-proposal/

I don't know anything about the situation within Islam, or of any reform efforts there.  It doesn't seem quite so deeply rooted in that faith, but then, boys in Muslim families more often have to go through it at a later age, like between 7 and 12 or so, which has to be even worse than an infant procedure for causing lasting trauma.

[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33512277/ Remennick (2022)] reported that Jewish men who migrated from Russia to Israel and circumcised in adult life were deeply disturbed by the adverse effects of their foreskin amputation.