LouisXVI has the misfortune of being as an infant in the care of some court ladies who were uncharacteristically
chary about cherishing his prepuce. The prepuce is a valuable protection to a precious possession, but it must
be frequently pushed back until the glans is completely uncovered, before the infant is many weeks old, so that smegma may not be retained by adhesions. Failure to do this repeatedly can allow the prepuce to become very resistant to being pushed back because the opening is too small and resistant to stretching. This condition is called phimosis.
When LouisXVI got married, he was at first unable to
have sexual intercourse because of pain. He finally had to
have an operation, a risky business in those days.
And waiting too long to dilate the prepuce can have
another dreadful problem, called paraphimosis. If the prepuce is very tight, but forced back behind the corona of the glans, it can shut of the venous return, causing marked dilation of the glans, requiring emergency surgery to avoid necrosis of the glans. Which would be a terrible price to pay for bashfulness about tending to the tiny tool.