Adjacent to the smooth mucosa and just behind the lips of the foreskin is the ridged mucosa. This exquisitely sensitive structure consists of tightly pleated concentric bands, like the elastic bands at the top of a sock. These expandable pleats arise from the frenulum and encircle the inner lining of the foreskin. They allow the lips of the foreskin to open and roll back, exposing the glans. The ridged mucosa also gives the foreskin its characteristic taper.

The ridged mucosa is a highly vascular zone of specialized sensory tissue containing a dense concentration of specialized erotogenic nerve receptors. Eversion and reversion of the foreskin during erection and sexual play cause the pleats of the ridged mucosa to expand and contract like the bellows of an accordion. This movement allows every surface of the pleats to come in contact with the rim of the glans. The unfolding and refolding of the ridged mucosa over the glans allows all the erotogenic nerve endings to be stimulated, increasing sexual pleasure. If the foreskin is fully everted, the ridged mucosa will be repositioned around the shaft of the penis.

What Is The Smooth Mucosa?

The last segment of the internal foreskin is the smooth mucosa, which extends from the last ridge of the ridged mucosa to the point of attachment at the coronal sulcus. The surface of this segment is composed of stratified squamous epithelial mucous membrane.

What Is The Frenulum?

On the underside of the glans, the foreskin's point of attachment to the body of the penis is the muscular, bandlike ligament called the frenulum. If you turn your lower lip down, or your upper lip up, you will see a similar ligament that serves a very similar function in holding the lips in place. The tongue also has a frenulum that holds it in place. The frenulum functions as a spring, holding the foreskin in place over the glans and also drawing it back over the glans (reversion) after the foreskin has been retracted (eversion).

At What Age Will The Foreskin Freely Retract?

At birth, the foreskin is usually attached to the glans (head) of the penis, very much as a fingernail is attached to a finger. By the end of puberty, the penis will usually have completed its development, and the foreskin will have separated from the glans. Separation of the glans and foreskin occurs as a result of hormones secreted during childhood and puberty. Erections, which naturally induce the foreskin to retract, also stimulate the separation process. This separation occurs in its own time. It is very important to realize that there is no set age by which the foreskin and glans must be separated. Even if the glans and foreskin separate naturally in infancy, the lips of the foreskin can normally dilate only enough to allow the passage of urine. This ideal feature protects your young son's glans from premature exposure to the external environment.

The penis develops naturally throughout childhood. Eventually, the child will, on his own, make the wondrous discovery that his foreskin will retract. There is no reason for parents, physicians, or other caregivers to manipulate a child's penis. The only person to retract a child's foreskin should be the child himself, and only when he has discovered that his foreskin is ready to retract.

Parents should protect their child from doctors who try to retract his foreskin. Many doctors never learned about the normal development and care of the penis and are unaware that the foreskin should never be retracted by anyone, except its owner, and only when the penis has matured enough to make retraction free and easy.

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Tags: Circumcision

About the Author

PAUL M. FLEISS, M.D., lives in Los Angeles, California. More

FREDERICK M. HODGES, D.Phil, lives in New Haven, Connecticut. More