Vanishing Penis After Circumcision. No Pain. Will It Be Cured On Its Own Or Surgery Needed?

Posted on Tue, 5 Feb 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 5 Feb 2013 Answered on

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : My son is now 5 years old, 35kgs, approx. 3ft height. When he was 6-7 days newborn, we had done his circumcision from a local doctor. Since then, his penis is not completely outside, and the paediac doctor who was our consulting specialist had told us that this is a situation known as "vanishing penis".

Kindly advise whether this will normalise with progression in his age / body or it will require some surgical / operative procedure. Presently he does not experience any pain on account of this state of the organ.

Answered by Dr. V. Sasanka (26 hours later)

Hi,
I am sure your son will not have any pain on account of the fact that the penis is buried.
If your son has excess fat in the area above his penis, it might cause his penis to disappear in the fold of fat in what we call pre-pubic area.
If there is a difficulty in his directing a stream of urine, or if the child is overweight, sometimes a surgery to correct this can be done with good results.
On the other hand, if the child has no other issue, and has no hormonal conditions which can cause a small penis and overweight abdomen, you can wait till he is 11-12 years and see if the condition corrects itself at the onset of puberty.
Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar