Phimosis in antiquity

The medical term phimosis has been in use since antiquity; but in contrast to the imprecise definition of the term that is characteristic of nineteent h-century and some controversial modern medical writing, Greek and Roman me dical writers imbued it with a clinically precise definition. Using the too ls of the history of medicine, an analysis of the medical writings of antiq uity reveals that phimosis was defined exclusively as a rare, inflammatory or cicatricial stricture of the preputial orifice consequent to a true path ological condition rather than a disease process in itself. Putative associ ations between phimosis and diseases such as urinary tract infections or ca ncer were not made in antiquity and are reflections of modern, geographical ly isolated social anxieties. The modern European scientific conceptualisat ion of phimosis, however, represents a return to the precise terminology an d conservative therapeutic approach characteristic of Greek and Roman medic ine.