

Infections like thrush are possible when you’re uncircumcised. It actually has its own little biome going, just like a vagina, and can have that disrupted all the same. For comparison, vaccinations can also cause issues but for both it’s exceedingly rare enough to get such serious complications that major intervention, like your buddy’s circumcision, are needed.
What we need to do is destigmatise seeing a doctor when things down there aren’t 100%, especially so for men. Because I’m willing to bet things would have been fine for your buddy with just a cream if he’d gotten help sooner, though obviously I don’t know his circumstances and don’t want to blame it on him when it’s society with the weird hang-ups.
Sorry, I quoted the whole paragraph but I was speaking to the “something’s wrong with him” part.