Some published evidence has revealed that the dendritic cells can interact with pathogens that exist in the inner foreskin. This information provides a new vision that pathogens could play a role through the redundant prepuce; numerous studies have failed to find pathogens in prostates of patients who had chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS). However, no studies have reported an association between foreskin length and CP/CPPS. Hence, we conducted a retrospective case-control study of clinical data from 322 CP/CPPS patients (case group) and 341 nonCP/CPPS patients (control group). Demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, and foreskin lengths were collected and analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression was adopted to calculate the odds of foreskin length for CP/CPPS. According to the multivariate logistic regression results, when the foreskin length covered up more than half of the glans penis, the odds for CP/CPPS were higher with an increased foreskin (odds ratio (OR): 1.66, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04-2.66). In comparison, when the glans penis was completely covered by the foreskin, the OR value increased to 1.86 (95% CI, 1.2-2.88). The study results showed an association between foreskin length and the odds of CP/CPPS. When the foreskin length covered up more than half of the glans penis, there were greater odds for CP/CPPS. This possible mechanism might result from interaction between pathogens and DCs in the inner foreskin, consequently activating T-cells to mediate allergic inflammation in the prostate and producing the autoimmunizations causing CP/CPPS.

Keywords: case control study; chronic pelvic pain syndrome; chronic prostatitis, prepuce

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