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[[File:Circumpendium-2-penis-2-English.jpg|center|400px]]
At the point of birth, the development of the external male genital organs is not completely finished. At this stage, the foreskin and glans share an epithelium (mucous layer, the balanopreputial balano-preputial membrane) that fuses the two together. It serves to protect the glans during infancy, and dissolves as the child develops. Premature forcible [[retraction of the foreskin]] will tear this membrane, causing great pain and injury to the boy, who suffers this abuse.
Only then the foreskin can be retracted. The age at which this occurs is subject to the child's individual development. If the foreskin is retracted prematurely, before it has fully separated, that can result in painful tears and infections.
The widening of the foreskin also depends on age. A child's foreskin may be too tight to be retracted all the way past the glans, even though it has already completely separated from the glans. This early foreskin tightness , confused with ([[phimosis]]) , is a normal stage of development and vanishes with increasing age in most boys.
A study by the Danish paediatrician and school doctor, Jakob Øster, of 9,545 examinations of pupils, published in 1968, led to the following results<ref>{{REFjournal