Heart exam for woman

Doctors usually tell women to take off their bras to auscultate the heart

They should, but here in the US they rarely do. In a play exam, I always auscultate the woman's heart with her chest fully exposed. There's no way to listen all around a woman's heart, especially if she has large breasts, without exposing her breasts and lifting the breast to get a good listen at her mitral valve. Several of my "patients" have told me that I was the first one to steth them bare chested since they were children before their breasts developed.

Well said @steth . it's very unfortunate. sometimes I sympathize with the doctors but only because I wanted to be one and was going to med school at one point (long story) and there's literally so many people they see during an average day that they can't possibly spend the time they need nor want to with any of their patients, if they even really wanted to do that. it always feels very rushed or extremely brief. looking forward to the day I get a full auscultation

@nowyouseeme

looking forward to the day I get a full auscultation

If you're close by, my cardio stethoscope and I would be happy to give you the full auscultation you long for. Takes me a while to thoroughly auscultate a woman's heart.

@steth been dming you ..?

@steth your patient is large breasts??

@megaputra90 I've had the good fortune over the past 25 years to steth about a dozen women. Youngest was 19, oldest was 54. Breast sizes ranging from 32A to 40DD.

@steth Wow, you are very lucky to be able to check the health of those girls

@steth How many minutes do you usually perform a thorough auscultation on a female patient??