When was your first genital exam after starting to get pubic hair?

It would have been my first sports physical when I started high school at the age of 13. It was a group exam where you went station to station. I had heard rumors before hand that they were going to check our genitals, but I did not know if it was true. The last thing you wanted at that age was someone looking closely at your genitals and new pubic hair. Of course, it did turn out to be true. A hernia check and testicle exam were part of the exam. Having hair down there just seemed to make it more embarrassing.

I was 14. The doctor didn’t comment on it to me directly. But the nurse did, she told my mom the doctor would need a little longer. They had my mom leave at the end, and the doctor gave me a breast exam, and he did a manual (rectal) exam to feel my uterus and ovaries.

A physical exam was required before I entered High School and it had a checklist which included genitalia.

I was 14. The doctor didn’t comment on it to me directly. But the nurse did, she told my mom the doctor would need a little longer. They had my mom leave at the end, and the doctor gave me a breast exam, and he did a manual (rectal) exam to feel my uterus and ovaries.

Was this growing up in france or in the states? Was it routine ?

Nobody examined my genitals until I was 17 and had to have a pelvic exam/pap smear before starting birth control even though I wasn't sexually active. I still think it's medically unnecessary and am glad they've changed the recommendations.

... unnecessary and am glad they've changed the recommendations.

I think you are spot on. In the early decade of the pill being available from a science and safety point of view can argue being cautious but certainly for a long time the evidence suggests recommendations could have changed some time ago.

Even just the previous generation some clinics used access to oral contraceptives as a means to insist you had pap smear and pelvic exam. Could billing have been a factor I suspect so.

" thereluctant patient "

I understand easily why your mother was present in the exam room since you were only 12 age but not your older brother you might have said to him that he might wait in the corridor ?

Was it at a private doctor's office or elsewhere ?

@esaterman he was my younger brother. Until I was 15 or 16 we were always in the same room for our physicals and had them one after another so we each saw each other. It was the only time I ever saw him naked. We had a very modest house