I’m in my early 30s and just discovered the importance of the foreskin…I have questions

Hi all, I’ve recently educated myself about the physical and sensory functions of the foreskin, and I’m trying to decide if foreskin restoration makes sense for someone in my position or not. Let me know if this isn’t the right sub. First, a little about me.

I was circumcised at birth. I did not think about it at all as a child or in high school. I was so uneducated about the topic that when I was 17 and a girl I had just started dating asked if I was circumcised I said no because I thought my penis looked like everyone else’s, and had to google it before I figured out I actually was cut. I first encountered opposition to the practice in college by way of a Vietnam vet hippy dude who protested on the daily at my school about the issue. I wrote the guy off at the time as having a weird hill to die on, but thankfully at least his point about letting someone else make their own choices with their bodies sunk in and when I had my son a few years later I declined to have him cut, though I still didn’t really have my head wrapped around the physical issues at the time.

A little while ago I was talking to some friends about the experience of one of them being a nude life drawing model, and eventually the topic of circumcision came up. One friend argued against the practice and I remembered that protestor from my college days. As it happens my degree is in biology so I started looking up the literature to see what I could find. I was dumbfounded by all of the physical, immunological, and sensory functions the foreskin served, and how weak the evidence was that the practice is beneficial…not to mention how that view ignores the first principles of evolution by natural selection.

Once I realized that circumcisions can vary person to person, I went into the bathroom and really took a look at myself in a way I never have before, and I can’t believe how much I noticed. Suddenly I feel like I can relate to women who post things like “I finally went to town with a hand mirror and learned so much”. So here are my questions.

1. I can’t figure out the whole frenulum thing. I googled images of uncut men, and I think I have a frenulum? What I have is a “banjo string” that is maybe two inches in length that extends in a straight line from the ventral side of my glans down into where it disappears into my shaft. I see that for uncut guys that straight line eventually V’s outward in either direction. While mine is a straight line, I also see two V’s that run into the straight line on my shaft made up of…other folded skin or like a thinner kind of frenulum material? I have often ignored this part of me, but I know it’s supposed to be sensitive. I do find if I touch it lightly it is sensitive, but maybe less sensitive than glans itself, and quite a bit less sensitive than the crown just under the glans which has always been the most sensitive for me. It’s comparable or maybe a little more sensitive than my scar line (I can’t say how weird it is to be talking about a scar on my genitals). Does it sound like I have one? Are there images that show what it looks like when the frenulum is gone for comparison? I guess I’m just confused in that I appear to have (most?) of my frenulum, but it’s not this amazing source of sensation like others say it should be. I’m kind of afraid to find out if I’m ‘damaged’ or whatever, but I also really want to know as not knowing feels worse.

2. I’m also trying to figure out the Coverage Index. The images I found linked on this sub show a lot of “showers”. However, I’m a “grower”, so I don’t know if it is a fair comparison. But when totally flaccid, I appear to be a CI 3 or so, where my remaining skin begins to edge up over the anterior portion of my crown. Could this be the reason my crown is the most sensitive part? Because of the protection the skin offers? Or is this just the most sensitive place for most men?

3. Generally speaking, I’ve always found masturbation and sex satisfying. This point in particular is where I’m struggling to decide if I should try restoration. Without getting too graphic, my wife is pretty good at teasing my balls and glans and really working me up into a big O. When I’m by myself, I do tend to focus on the base of the shaft which easily triggers climax, but if I have time and lube I’m able to get there just from rubbing the glans itself, and sometimes I have to take breaks because the sensation is too intense. This is despite clear and visible widespread keratinization of the glans. I’m guessing I rub it harder than uncut men do, but it does work and produces a different kind of climax that is more “spasmy” throughout my pelvis and legs that takes me a moment to recover from, compared to the “thrusty” climax produced by focusing on the shaft that isn’t quite as intense overall but produces a more satisfying “stick it deep” feeling and satiation feeling centered near the prostate. God I hope that makes sense. In any case, I’ve read some of the stories on this sub, and it sounds like I have adapted a way to use my glans, so would foreskin restoration be beneficial to me? I guess the glans would get more sensitive? I should say my glans isn’t all that sensitive during penetrative sex, so it might be neat if it were. And I can’t comment on the whole “gliding” thing because I have no idea what that feels like, but I guess some people are able to (partially?) restore this function?

4. Finally, sexual impact aside, I was quite upset that my parents made this choice for me without my consent. It was totally unnecessary and I consider my parents to be reasonably smart people who are not easily influenced by society. I called them and asked what they were thinking. They didn’t argue that it was for health benefits or because my father wanted me to look like him or anything like that. They kind of just shrugged their shoulders and said “It’s just what was done at the time and the doctor treated it as a matter of course”. I’m both kind of pleased and totally pissed with this answer. I knew they weren’t the kind of people to do it just so I would look like my father, but finding out the answer was ‘just because’ kind of sucks. Given that this issue didn’t consciously impact me until I found out about it, am I right to be angry anyway?

To any who read this far, thank you. It was cathartic to write. And thank you to anyone who can offer me advice or answer any of my questions. This whole thing has been kind of a wild ride. I’m left feeling ashamed of my cut genitals, curious to know what it would feel like to be intact, defiant of the choice that was made for me and wanting to reverse it myself, but also worried I might be overreacting given I have some amount of functionality I don’t want to screw up and I don’t really know how the restoration process would change my sensations. I’ve read about the different methods and I would probably go with the tug method. It’s just easiest for my life right now. Foregen seems really cool, but I know something about medical R&D and it’s a long way off.

All I know for sure is that I want to do something to reclaim my “self”. I think after the pandemic is over I’m going to take a leaf out of my friend’s book and do some nude life drawing modeling to find some acceptance of myself. Maybe I’ll volunteer at different times during the restoration process so I can see my progress in charcoal and ink. That might actually be pretty satisfying.