Johnlocke, LISTEN TO MICKEYLEE! He's giving you excellent advice. Let me repeat: "steroid creams and manual stretching are the [best] treatment for anything but the most severe cases of phimosis"! Do not lightly let circumcision-crazed butchers get hold of your penis with one hand and a scalpel with the other!!! Remember, they're either lazy or greedy, or, more likely, both--circumutilation is easy and quick and profitable for them, but it's a lifetime of penile sensory loss and sexual deprivation for you! (Hospitals, too, have a vested interest in getting your foreskin--they sell amputated 'skins for BIG money to cosmetic manufacturers and others.) First, you need to determine whether you actually have a bonafide case of phimosis. A too-narrow foreskin is not necessarily full-blown phimosis. Especially at your young age, steady, regular, and gentle stretching (without pain!) should most likely do the trickfor a narrow 'skin, though it might take a while. Just don't be impatient--you will start seeing partial results relatively soon. If you have a too-short frenulum (frenulum breve), that's a good bit tougher to solve, but can at least be eased (special stretching techniques are needed for it). There, too, don't let cutting-mad surgeons sweet-talk you into having the frenulum severed--with that cut go hundreds, possibly thousands, of vital nerve interconnections. Remember: there's nothing magic about being able to retract to the balls, nor is there anything tragic about lliving with a bit of tightness, so long as everything functions well otherwise. But if finally all else fails and more radical means do become absolutely necessary for your health and well-being, there are options short of complete circumcision. MickeyLee mentions one; then there's the dorsal slit (not particularly attractive, but better than losing everything); then partial circumcision, which may take the important frenar band, but leave other valuable tissue, including the all-important frenulum; or, as a last, absolutely medically necessary resort, complete but careful circumcison which leaves the frenulum intact. For frenulum breve, frenuloplasty (NOT frenulectomy!!!) will be performed by some surgeons, not by others (who fear formation of scar tissue which can possibly be worse than the original condition). ~~ So, to come to a close, let me state that I have no medical background per se, but as a rabid Intactivist who occasionally advises men on these matters, I try to keep abreast of all possibilities. If you'd like further information (stretching techniques for tight foreskin or frenulum breve, for instance), feel free to PM me (I can't speak for MickeyLee, of course, as I don't know him). Whatever you decide, all the best of luck to you, buddy...will keep my fingers crossed for you.
Addendum: Forestblahblah and Jason slso are worth listening to--they just happened to come in between me and MickeyLee while I was writing.