Do school doctors give gynaecological examinations during school time?

A physician friend of mine and I once contracted with a local private girls school to perform abbreviated physicals on 7th grade girls. They were performed in a gymnasium. They had staff who did height and weight on each girl. We, the doctors, did blood pressure and listened to the heart through the blouse. That was it! I wouldn't have even become involved except they paid us and it was pretty simple. Including a pelvic exam as part of that would be unimaginable!

When I think about it - I recall reading recommendations for "juvenile halls" in the US to conduct speculum exams to take samples for STDs (if the speculum exam was infeasible, due to the hymn, take externally). The doctor would also have to inquire about masturbation, homosexual behavior and other "perversions".

I also read that in some localities, it was decided that girls sent there from "reputable families" would be spared the humiliating examination. 😃

@Velociraptor

Sir, that is a stock photo... not a picture of an actual exam room in one of the health centers. I think your imagination got the better of you when you were doing your "research". The actual exam rooms look like a primary care office because primary care is what they offer, some offer dental, vision, and behavioral health services as well. Further, these school based health centers do not only serve the students, but also the faculty and staff, families of the students, or other members of the community. The reality of what goes on in there is as mundane as mundane can be. Covid-19/flu/strep test, covid-19 /flu/strep test, UTI, covid-19/flu/strep test, covid-19/flu/strep test, upset stomach, rash, and about 10 more covid-19/flu/strep tests. I can assure you, they're not probing the student body.

To Matt83

You are in denial, or want people in general to be in denial and cling to a politically correct view about society for some reason.

The photo is not a stock photo. It is a photo made by a construction company that had made it a business of constructing school-base health centers, and it is from one of their completed projects in a school. Thereby this advert-article reveals more that the school itself would have chosen to reveal.

But the mundane primary-care-tasks you mentioned is admittedly the bulk of work. But in addition they offer specialist care too.

That is all I want to say.

That has to be absolutely BS!!!

In Germany, at least in Saxony, there are quite controversial school examinations. This includes a check of the developmental stage. There was a short visual inspection of the genitals to assess the developmental stage.

When I think about it - I recall reading recommendations for "juvenile halls" in the US to conduct speculum exams to take samples for STDs (if the speculum exam was infeasible, due to the hymn, take externally). The doctor would also have to inquire about masturbation, homosexual behavior and other "perversions".

I fear that the 'news sites' that carry such stories are probably doing so for political purposes, to stir up ill feeling about anything and everything having to do with government mandated procedures. Much like the big to-do and hysteria about trans people and public restrooms or trans people participating in sports.

Nice sex-tinted juicy subjects that are more fit for sensationalist tabloids carrying articles about Elvis sightings or alien abductions.

Not exactly a gynecological exam but I remember hearing a girl in my grade that was pregnant saying she got a finger in her butt. It was just a general physical done on the girls and guys. I just got the normal turn your head and cough hernia check

I think I can state quite categorically that such examinations do not take place in normal private schools in England . It would be considered unnecessary and unethical.

It is interesting though how the initiator of this stream excited quite a few people who where more interested in details !

See here photographs of examination rooms in boarding schools for troubled girls.

https://en.zity.biz/index.php?mx=gallery;ox=showalbum;ax=10371

On the left, the girl is to receive a pelvic, apparently. (Clermont-sur-Oise, France)

On the right, stirrups and speculums are visible. Later doctors and other personnel were prosecuted for abuse at this school, the Pararamatta school in Australia. One doctor was nicknamed "fingers", probably no need to say why.

@Kristin92 said: It reminds me of a documentary I saw where the manager at a McDonalds strip searched an employee for stealing (she didn’t steal).

BS was also my initial reaction - BUT it was mentioned a couple of years ago (along with other empoyee strip searches) in the following post:

https://en.zity.biz/index.php?mx=forum;ox=display;msg=1291242

A quick search turned up several articles describing the McDonalds incident and the lawsuit that followed fining McD's $6.1M!!

https://www.ctvnews.ca/ex-mcdonald-s-worker-wins-lawsuit-over-strip-search-1.259162

Slightly off topic and I think I may have mentioned this in another thread somewhere, but when I was in my teens the local health authority had a teen health drive..posters up in doctors surgeries and community centres and libraries. It was a fairly deprived area, there were high instances of teenage pregnancy, drug use, these kind of things...there was hardly anything constructive for kids to do so I guess it was an attempt to reach out and "educate" as much as anything else but letters were sent to parents and it seemed most kids at my school had an appointment for a regular health check at some time around then. It involved undressing to underwear, one time I was asked to remove my bra . Basic checks, ears, eyes, breathing , heart, blood pressure, height , weight and I think there was some element of development monitoring going on

@Pecan_nutjob I have doubts about whether you can describe the person facing her doctor in the photo on the left as a “little girl”. I think she is closer to being in her thirties than to childhood.

I generally agree with most of the posts. I do not believe it is possible, whether in a private or public structure, that gynecological examinations are carried out in schools welcoming pre-pubescent or barely pubescent girls.

Besides, what would be the medical benefit?

We regularly agree that there is no justification for exploring the genitals before sexual relations begin.

What would a practitioner look at? Unless we evaluate breast growth or the presence of pubic hair, we cannot imagine the placement of a speculum or the slightest vaginal examination.

Any examination which appears obligatory and without prior agreement could be criminally punishable.

Today, mothers who come to consult their gynecologist with their children are those who are convinced of the benefits of HPV vaccination.

In the school context, we can therefore imagine that the role of health programs is to raise awareness among young people of the risks of communicable diseases. This is a major public health subject that adolescents must be informed about. Beyond the need for contraception, any sexual act can generate very unpleasant consequences.

@Franklin58200 This image is, as far as I know, from a "Bon Pasteur", which were kind of reform school ("maison de correction") that the French government subcontracted to religious organizations. Girls could be held there until their majority (21). It is a documented fact that many of these "schools" conducted systematic gynecological examinations on teenage girls to check whether they were virgins or "depraved". Just Google "Bon Pasteur", you'll find testimonies of former inmates.