Men not only in Russia, but also in many other countries do not favorRosen D. S., Rich M. The Adolescent Male. Adolescent Medicine: State of the Art Reviews. Philadelphia: Hanley Belfus doctors. According to statisticsAdolescent male health , after examinations at doctors in the childhood next time men to them get years in 50 with a serious disease.
Especially they do not favor urologists and andrologists. But the penis is as unique a body as a vagina, and requires no less care and much more care and attention in matters of hygiene.
We turned to the comments of Dr. Darius Paduch, a urologist and sexologist at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York, and talked with Daria Chernysheva, a urologist at the City Center for Endoscopic Urology and New Technologies of St. Petersburg, a member of the European Urological Association to sort out how to properly care for the penis, how often to go to the doctor and what diseases to watch out for.
1. Self-inspection – this is really useful
Dr. Chernysheva believes that an independent examination of the penis and scrotum should be done from the very beginning of puberty.
This is an element of dating a boy with his body, but also this procedure has a medical meaning – an early detection of a testicular tumor, which, unfortunately, is most common in young men 18-30 years old.
Daria Chernysheva.
To get maximum benefit from independent inspections, Chernysheva advises doing this regularly. In addition, a person should have the concept of “norm” in order to determine deviations.
If a teenager began to look at himself in 13 years, then by 18 he will be able to determine the changes: it was all smooth-even, and then there was some little bump, that’s what you should pay attention to.
Daria Chernysheva.
It is most hygienic to do this in the shower at least once a month.
2. Wash your penis as often as possible, but with plain water
Doctors advise washing the penis with usual warm water twice a day. It is especially important to monitor the area under the foreskin, as it actively accumulates smegma – sebaceous secretion, a natural lubricant, which ensures that the foreskin can slide properly over the head.
At first it is whitish in color and odorless. If it is not washed off, after a few days the color changes to gray-green and the smegma begins to smell. The place itself becomes a convenient breeding ground for infections. One of them – balanitis, inflammation of the head, often caused by the accumulation of smegma – can be very painful.
It’s amazing how many men ignore the place under the foreskin. Not only that [lack of hygiene] regularly leads to complications, it is also very unpleasant for a sexual partner.
Patrick French, a consultant on sexual health.
So before washing, you need to pull the foreskin out to the end to see the entire head of the penis and wash it.
However, one should be more careful with the prepuce of the boy before the age of transition. Do not try to forcefully pull off the foreskin, as this can be painful and cause harm. The foreskin can still be attached to the head of the penis and therefore will not completely shift. At this stage of development, the boy does not need to be cleaned in this place.
3. Yes, it is necessary to wash after sex and masturbation
Unlike the vagina, the penis does not know how to cleanse itself, it will have to help. And if the owner of the vagina after sex, any liquids will not remain inside, with them will understand the acidic environment, then from the penis the remains of any liquid should be washed off. Since, according to Dr. Paduch, if they dry out on the skin, this will lead to a very rapid increase in the number of bacteria.
In real life, it is difficult to imagine a situation in which a man immediately after sex immediately rinses, but Dr. Padukh argues that the optimal option remains a period of 10-15 minutes after sex.
In extreme cases, you will definitely need to wash yourself before going to bed or use a child’s wet napkin without flavors.
Dr. Paduch adds that it is especially important for uncircumcised men to pay attention to the purity of the foreskin after masturbation and pollutions, as dried semen between skin areas is also ideal for the reproduction of bacteria.
4. Be careful with soap
Penis – it’s still a very gentle place, requiring careful care. Daria Chernysheva says that the use of soap is possible, but in this case it is necessary to wash it very carefully: “It is especially important to monitor this if the man is uncircumcised. Soap is essentially alkaline, and if it gets on the delicate skin and mucous under the foreskin and stays there, it can lead to the development of phimosis (a condition in which the exposure of the glans penis is painful or impossible due to narrowing of the foreskin. ) “.
Dr. Paduh also advises using a simple soap with a minimal amount of ingredients. As in the case of feminine hygiene, you do not need antibacterial soap either.
5. With bright blue gels for the shower, too, it’s better to be more careful
Russian stores offer men a fairly limited amount of shower gels – masculine options with “frosty freshness” or menthol. After all, no one should doubt the manliness of a man who washes his hair, face and penis with one gel. But for the sake of your member – buy for him a separate remedy.
The use of shower gels with specific smells, bright blue and menthol odors, of course, is not welcome. It can cause and allergic reactions, and intolerance of some components. Therefore it is desirable to cope with ordinary soap without fragrances and warm water.
Daria Chernysheva.
Pay attention to any irritation, spots and discolored areas of the skin of the penis. This may be a sign that your personal hygiene remedy or infection is not suitable for you.
Try a few days to wash the penis only with water, and if the irritation still remains, go to the doctor.
6. Do not use flavored talcum powder
Genitals should not smell like flowers. In time, the genitals washed by water do not stink. Enough to torture the penis and vagina with perfume, powders and odors. Daria Chernysheva says that for men it just became popular: “Now the use of deodorants for the genital area, special flavored powders has become fashionable. Of course, urologists do not all support this, because it clogs the pores and promotes the accumulation of talc under the foreskin. These are all irritating external factors and can contribute to the growth of bacteria. “
7. It is not recommended to leave the penis wet after washing
Urologists advise carefully wiping the penis. Excessive moisture contributes to the development of candidiasis and in general to the increased growth of bacteria in the area under the foreskin.
However, it is important not to forget that the skin in this area is tender, so you do not need to rub the penis to redness. Optimal – just to get wet penis with a towel and close the foreskin.
6. Do not forget about the testicles and the pubic region
At the base of the penis and testicles, where sweat and hair are combined, the smell can be as strong as under the armpits, so these areas need frequent washing. Especially if they were in tight clothing most of the day. Make sure that the area between the base of the testicles and the anus is also clean.
And a good idea is to test the testicles for swelling and swelling. It is worth doing this once a month after a warm bath or shower.
7. Do not put the penis in places that are not intended for this purpose.
If there is a desire to diversify their sex life, for this there are sex toys, devices sold in sex shops. But there is a certain category of men who stick the penis into objects that are not adapted for this. And this, to put it mildly, damages the health of the penis.
Daria Chernysheva.
Also do not forget to wash sex toys with soap after use and thoroughly dry.
8. Protect yourself
Urologist Darya Chernysheva recommends constantly using condoms during sexual intercourse with new partners or partners who did not see the results of the analysis for sexual infections: “And these results should be fresh and ideally not single, but with an interval of at least three months” .
Regular adherence to personal hygiene can reduce the risk of contracting HIV and other STDs. However, you need to balance here, since too careful washing and frequent exposure to severe detergents can damage the skin of the penis, which in turn will facilitate the penetration of bacteria and viruses, including STDs.
Remember that any skin ulcer, a scratch on the skin and poor penis hygiene can increase the risk of HIV transmission.
9. Go for preventive examinations
A teenager without complaints should go to a doctor at the age of 13-14
“In Russia everything is organized in such a way that the urologist must also examine the school children before the beginning of the school year. But it is difficult to say how this program is implemented: as a rule, the urologist is combined with the surgeon. In Europe and America this function is assigned to the pediatrician, who annually observes the child and can evaluate, among other things, his sexual development. We pediatricians just do not have this, “says Daria Chernysheva.
So, if the school examination seemed useless, there were questions or there was no examination at all, the teenager should himself appear to the urologist.
If you suspect a delay in sexual development, according to Chernysheva, you can not treat any symptoms in isolation. It is worth looking at the development of secondary sexual characteristics, to check whether sexual hormones are released and whether they reach the destination: “We need to monitor whether there are signs of hair on the face and body, whether the voice has changed, is there a jump in growth. Just feel the teenager’s scrotum and check whether his testicles have grown, it’s somehow one-sided. “
In general, the norms of sexual development vary even from region to region, so comparing the norms of boys in America and boys in Buryatia is somewhat incorrect. It is believed that it is necessary to really sound the alarm if by the age of 20 signs of puberty did not appear.
Daria Chernysheva.
But with early sexual development, parents should take the child to the urologist and endocrinologist. Early maturity in boys is one that begins before nine years. So the signs of hairiness and a jump in the growth of seven years should be alarmed.
Adult men are to be examined once a year for inspection
According to Chernysheva, there are no norms in Russia, how often a young man who does not have complaints should visit a urologist: “However, a responsible attitude towards one’s health and one’s sexual partner still suggests that a man should take tests for sexual infections, at least once a year. This, of course, should vary depending on whether the relationship is monogamous or not, but, as a rule, once a year it is necessary to be checked. “
Dr. Eugene Grekov, andrologist, urologist, head of the urology department at the Clinic of Professor Kalinchenko, also spoke about the need for regular examinations for men, as, in his words, in Russia, serious pathologies are discovered for the first time only on a medical examination in the army.
One of the common pathologies, he calls a microgenital, caused by Kalman’s syndrome or Klinefelter’s syndrome. With these diseases, the penis does not develop: it does not grow and can not perform its functions.
According to Grekov, with early diagnosis it can be completely cured by hormonal therapy, in the future treatment is more difficult.
10. Do not hesitate to contact your doctor if you have any complaints.
If there are complaints, go to the doctor should not be postponed in any case. Daria Chernysheva recommends going to the doctor at the slightest doubt, since cancer diseases, for example, a testicular tumor, develop rapidly and very aggressively. She adds that the treatment is very effective, if it is applied in the early stages, that’s why it is really very important to have an independent examination and a timely visit to the doctor.
11. Potential problems can save a man’s life
Any violation in the sexual sphere is always a complex problem. As a rule, they signal about endocrine and vascular diseases, which can not be dealt with on their own.
Daria Chernysheva adds: “It is important to understand that calling for a doctor requires any discomfort in the sexual life: premature ejaculation, too short a sexual act. These problems can be effectively solved, which will significantly improve the patient’s quality of life if he promptly contacts the doctor. In addition, it was found that erectile dysfunction can be an early sign of problems with the heart and blood vessels. In studies it was proved that signs of potency disorders occur 2-3 years earlier than signs of coronary heart disease, and 3-5 years earlier than the possible development of myocardial infarction.
Therefore, early detection of sexual dysfunction is able, roughly speaking, to save a man’s life. This is an excuse to see a doctor. This is an occasion to undergo an extensive examination, to take blood tests, to make an ECG and, possibly, EchoCG under indications, to be checked for signs of coronary heart disease.
Daria Chernysheva.
