Genital Exam Without Hernia Check (and Vice Versa)

My brother and I went to the same pediatrician growing up and our physicals were pretty similar. The only difference was that my brother (who played sports in high school) got checked for a hernia and I did not.

We both had to strip down to our underwear from the beginning. At the end, we would be lying down on the exam table and he would completely remove our underwear and have us be naked for the genital exam. While we were lying down naked, he would look through our public hair and thoroughly examine and palpate our penis, testicles, and scrotum. After this, the exam would end for me and I was allowed to get dressed but my brother had to stand naked and cough twice for the hernia check.

On the other hand, a friend of mine from college had his sports physicals at his high school's nurse's office. He only had to slide his underwear down briefly turn his head and cough for a hernia check; he didn't have an extensive genital exam.

How common is it to have a genital exam without being checked for a hernia? How often is it done the other way around?

At school, I never had hernia checks. The first one was for military recruitment, without penis check. Much later a sports doctor checked the hernias, but not the penis (or only visually). I am circumcised, it was never necessary to retract the foreskin.

I didn’t get checked for a hernia, by that I mean having to cough, until I was 12 or 13. Prior to that, the doctor just felt around my scrotum. I had my foreskin retracted from age 7.

I'm guessing it's very common to have one without the other, just depends on the reason for the exam and what doctor you're at.

When younger, I never had "annual exams", but I did have sports physicals for school and, later, pre-employment physicals for jobs. Those almost always included a hernia exam but no genital exam, other than maybe a quick visual. When I visited a urologist before my vasectomy, he did a thorough genital exam but no hernia exam. The first time I experienced both hernia and genital exam was last year when I first visited my new family med doctor for my first annual physical.

Never had an hernia check.

As a young boy, in High school in France, from 11 to 18, I had a comprehensive genital exam, my foreskin being retracted several times and my testicles palpated, by a lady school doctor, followed only the last year by a rectal temperature standing up, but I never had a hernia check.

Did I miss something ?

I've had hernia checks for as long as i can remember, up until I had my last complementary annual physical at my former workplace (45 yrs old). It wasn't until a few years after i started working there (my mid to late 20's) did my testicles get checked as well. Up until then, it was only a hernia check. My genitals never got physically checked all those years (other than visual).

Now I no longer have hernia or genital checks at all. Except one time I raised a concern about occasionally feeling a l;ump in my left testicle. So the doctor checked my testicles without checking me for hernia.

@Svensson

Yes, you missed having to turn your head and cough whilst the doctor cupped your scrotum.

I had annual or bi-annual hernia exams up until 5 years ago. Doctors asked me if I regularly check my testicles for lumps - I said yes so I don't recall the last time someone checked the pistachios .

How common is it to have a genital exam without being checked for a hernia? How often is it done the other way around?

I had it the other way round for the only time when I was eleven at junior school when they did a hernia check only and I had to go behind a screen and the doctor said "Can you remove your boxers for me please so I can check below?" before they did a cough and turn check but nothing else. My first proper genital exam came a year later at senior school where as well as a hernia check they also retracted my foreskin to check my glans, brushed through my pubic hair, palpated my nuts and had a feel of my shaft.

I’ve always had both a hernia exam and genital exam - testicles have always been examined but I have had doctors that don’t specifically examine my penis, though my current doctor does.

If my physical included a genital exam, a hernia check was always included. But I have had preemployment physicals done that included a hernia check, but no genital exam.

Every physical I have had by my own primary care provider has included a genital exam and hernia check since I was 14 or so years old. I started having a rectal exam included in my physicals since around 37 years old.

All my physical exams included the hernia exam (cough twice) followed with palpation of the testicles, retraction of my foreskin to expose my glans, ending with the doctor spreading the lips of my urinary meatus so he could look into my pee hole. Very invasive. Some practitioners would return my foreskin to covering my glans while other would leave my glans exposed.

Pediatrician always performed a genital check, during a yearly physical as far back as I can remember. Hernia check started to be included during a yearly physical around age nine or ten, and then done yearly thereafter.

Haven't had a genital check or hernia exam in years, but did get a prostate exam a few years ago.

As far as I can remember, I've always had both a genital exam and a hernia check. I'm sure I must have had some exams that included one or the other and not both, but I honestly can't think of any right now.

The pediatrician I saw until age 10, used to stick his hand in my briefs and feel the testes. When I changed pediatricians at age 11, he would have the genitalia fully exposed at each exam. During my exams at ages 11 and 12 years old, he pulled down the front of my briefs and examined the glans and meatus and then felt each testicle. Starting at age 13, he had me stand in front of him, drop my briefs to my mid thighs, and he checked the meatus, felt the testicles, and checked me for a hernia. From age 13 until the present, all exams have included both feeling the testicles and checking me for a hernia with one exception. A doctor I saw one time for a graduate school exam had me drop my pants and shorts and had me turn my head and cough without touching me, just watching my groins. In a way, I found it especially embarrassing that he did no actual palpation because it felt as though he was just checking out my penis.

I have always had both a hernia check and genital exam.

During preadolescence, my pediatrician would only visually inspect my genitals and palpate my testes with me supine. After age 12 or so when I began standing for my genitals exams, he added the hernia check.

My last physical included a hernia exam but no genital exam. Last year, the same doctor did both. I guess it just depends on the mood of the doctor, or how busy he is, or who knows what... ???

Since my prostate cancer diagnosis my urologist checks my genitals but has never done a hernia exam.

The last hernia exam I had was my employment physical many many years ago.

I’ve never had a hernia check at any of my exams. I’m not sure why since it seems like a lot of people on here had them while they were growing up. Maybe pediatricians just don’t do them as much anymore?

My current urologist doesn’t do a hernia exam with a genital/prostate exam. A few years back a different urologist suggested he felt a slight hernia forming and if I felt any pain to see a surgeon. The next time he checked for a hernia he didn’t notice anything. I think I’d notice if I had one. My son had a double hernia and he knew it before going to a doctor.

Growing up 50/50 whether hernia exam was done. Work physicals almost always have them without fail. Interestingly there was actually one occupational health exam I had where the doctor had me get back on the table frog legged post hernia check with the gown raised up totally exposed no underwear. Penis palpated and lengthy scrotal exam. I thought it was odd but wasn’t going to say anything. Heard from other male employees after it was the same with that one doctor.

As I said previously in this thread, I always seem to receive a hernia exam during every physical. But years ago I did have a bi-lateral inguinal hernia surgically repaired, so perhaps because of that my doctor always checks it.

From 11-13 I had genital exams lying in the table but no hernia exam. At 13/turning 14 I had my first hernia exam. I was in eighth grade going into freshman year of high school. But kids had been talking and joking about the “cough test” at camp and school for at least 2 or 3 years and I was really wondering why I had not had one and when I was going to get one. When I finally did, although it was mortifying with my father standing over the doctors shoulder, it was also a relief. As soon as we got home after that appointment and I got some privacy in the bathroom, I barely had to jack off at all before my penis just exploded.