Who went to pediatrician as a late teen and how did they treat you?

It was always a toss up if I saw husband or wife doctor. Annual physical included testicular exam and hernia check with underwear pulled down.

Can you describe how the exam went with the male doctor? What happened? Any embarrassing moments?

This is what will always stick out in my mind. I was 18. Mom still had to come back with me. “Please have your daughter undress”

I’m going to college. Treat me like a fucking adult. You can engage me. I promise to listen.

I like others saw mine up until my 19 year old Physical . . . I was given the choice to have a parent. I went alone . . . The other significant part was there was always one of the nurses chaperoning.

Wouldn't you have preferred having your mother chaperone since she always used to be there ?

Went to a highly recommended pediatrician from age 12-15. His exam was very detailed and took way to long. He would do the exam with my mom in the room. When he got to the point where it was time to drop the underwear he would ask her to step out though. At my last physical with him and a shot for school at age 15 - the practice with other doctors had moved to a bigger building. They were supposed to have rooms that were more appropriate for teens. THEY DIDNT! The exam table was way to small and the whole office was all childish! I absolutely hated it. Before the doctor came to see me they had me fill out this long ass survey and had my mom go to the lobby and fill one out. Finally he came and did his physical on me. Kids were running and screaming down the hall. I was so nerved out. I had to tell him I couldnt take it anymore and to hurry up!!! He finally listened and wrapped it up but kept saying i needed to come back to finish the exam and went out to the lobby to tell my mom that. I got done and walked back out to the lobby with the nurse while he was talking to her and was so nerved out with all the damn chaos. We left and I told my Mom... NO! I can't go back there. and she agreed. He was a very good doctor but every time it was nothing but a shit show in the halls and lobby. I couldn't!!! I remember they called a few weeks later wanting me to come back and finish and have lab work and they kept telling my Mom, "..We prefer the kids to stay here with doctor till they are 21."

My mom said, "NOPE. Its to loud and to crazy in there for him."

So many of these posts seem to indicate these Pediatricians often forget that some of their patients are transitioning into adulthood and need to be treated age appropriately. The adolescent years should be considered as a crucial time as it is the final component that lays the foundation of adulthood.

Many pediatricians study Adolescent Medicine during their education and residency but I think such a course of study might be short in duration and somewhat inadequate. (I could be wrong) What I do know is a Pediatrician can take additional training so they can subspecialize in AM. When a teen enters an examination room there should be no more more cartoon characters or infant scales. It should be an adult styled exam room. Such an exam room made me feel like I was an adult and I was (to a certain degree) the shot caller. My doctor understood and respected I was transitioning into adulthood. After getting a shot once I jokingly griped to the nurse about how I didn't get a Sponge Bob band aid. The nurse smiled at me and said "Some grown ups desperately try to hang on to their youth. Guess what? You are an a adult now." We both had a good laugh and deep down inside I felt more like a man and less like a boy. A true turning point for me.

I was very fortunate when I was 11 and started obtaining care from an AM specialist. I had just ended a difficult childhood (foster care since age four) and moving into adolescence I was facing challenges of adjusting from chaos to the stability of my adoptive parents home. My doctor, my parents, and my child psychologist were real heroes to me. At age 11 I was weak, underweight, asthmatic and had issues with insomnia anxiety and low self esteem. By age 18 I was a confident, healthy and physically fit university bound young adult.

So many of these posts seem to indicate these Pediatricians often forget that some of their patients are transitioning into adulthood and need to be treated age appropriately. The adolescent years should be considered as a crucial time as it is the final component that lays the foundation of adulthood.

I think you're right but it wasn't untypical of those times. I felt the same, that they treated teenagers like small children and frequently used age-inappropriate language or talked as if we weren't in the room.

There seems to be much more of a focus on transition to adult care now, and various studies on how it has been managed historically and people's experiences of that, and I expect in twenty or thirty years time the experience will be much more positive.

This is what will always stick out in my mind. I was 18. Mom still had to come back with me. “Please have your daughter undress”

I’m going to college. Treat me like a fucking adult. You can engage me. I promise to listen.

I wasn't 18 but up to 16, the doctor's office my parent most often took me and my brothers to do this, too (communicating more with the parents than with me and my brothers directly. The line that stands out the most is the physician's assistant (who did all the preliminary stuff) saying, "have the boys take their clothes off. They can leave underpants on for now, but everything else has to come off."

I went to the pediatrician until the end of high school. My last visit was my physical for freshman year of college, summer after I graduated high school.

I also went to the pediatrician before being a teen and when I was a teenager. Once I turned 13, the pediatrician convinced my mother to place me into a "growth & development" study which measured my growth and my endurance.

I was always asked to get undressed by the nurse, she would do my vitals and when the doctor came into the exam room, he would listen to my heart and have me lay down on the table, he would talk me to my mother who was sitting next to the exam table, as the doctor would examine my penis, take measurements and as my mother would watch, he would continue examining my penis unit I ejaculated.

I grew up chronically ill and was in and out of hospital for most of my childhood. My teen years leading up to finally being transferred to an adult hospital were unbearable.

Most doctors and nurses are used to working with young children and as such will default to treating adolescents and even borderline adults the same way. They assume you don’t feel embarrassment or shame, don’t consider your thoughts or opinions, and informed consent are two words that don’t mean anything.

I often felt like an animal at the vet, with my health being discussed right in front of me but never being included in the conversation. They’ll very rarely ask for your consent since they’ll have already obtained it from whoever is in charge of you, and for that reason they also rarely feel the need to completely disclose everything that’s going to happen, often sugarcoating it or telling “white lies”.

I’ll never forget the time I was receiving an ultrasound at sixteen years old, and the sonographer, who was not involved in my care at all and whose only job was to do the ultrasound and send the results to my doctor, felt the need to ask if I was on any diet management (I’ve always been very slight and as a teenager this was a huge insecurity for me). No less than five minutes later, the same ultrasound technician told me to “lift my bum bum up” so she could get the paper towel from underneath my lower back. Sixteen years of age, I’ll remind you.

I obviously understand that this isn’t everybody’s experience and many chronically ill children felt safe and supported in their environment, but I had never been more relieved than when I was finally transferred to an adult hospital and treated like a human being with thoughts and feelings for the first time in my life. I’m still chronically ill, and it’s not something that’s ever going to go away, but having doctors perceive me as a person and nothing less has really helped to heal some of my medical trauma.

(Apologies if this was a little heavy, but I wanted to share my experience)

A few comments

In France where I live there was very few pediatricians at my time except for babies, so most of children of both genders, pre-teens and teenagers, went to a doctor family if they had one for all things ( a visit for injuries, a visit for illness or sickness or a routine exam to have a filled form for sports or summer camp if it was required before subscription , not for school or university or superior schools after graduation because physicals examinations were always conducted each one by year by the school or university authorities, and sometimes also the club or association or the city authorities for summer camp ot sport.

Normally until 16 age we were always accompanied by our mother, most of them did not work at that time, so that they were completely available to come with us and their presence was almost required by doctors to talk with them about our healths and ways of life and development, I must add that in a family it was not at all considered that a father might care about the health of sons or daughters, it was a mother fonction, even for teenagers !

We were never given a gown, it was only at clinics and hospitals if you were not coming for only a visit, otherwise it was the same, no gowns were given, It seems to me that it was the same for adults who were no more given a gown.

All shots were down on butts at that time at least for boys until 18 age. I must add that at military service between 18 and 22, all inductees had several shots after first days of arrival at barracks and all were done in their naked butts while now a shot in the butt is very seldom, most are done in the arms and shoulders.

And if a temperature was required, most nurses and doctors wanted that it was done rectally to be more accurate, it was the only way to take temperature at clinics and hospitals for every body and at doctor's office it was the way chosen by doctors for all boys under 16 and sometimes even after until 18 age, for last grade of high school, the mother who was gerenally present could look away or watch, it was not an issue for nurses and doctors. Now thre are only oral temperatures except for very small children.

My mother after I had 14-15 age was rather looking away when I was examined naked or with briefs pulled down ( hernia check, palpation of balls and examination of penis ) except if the doctor told her to come and watch, it happened only e time at 16 age for a rashon genitals area, it ws not serious !)

Normally we were weighted in just underwear, that meaned tighty white briefs at that time, almost all the exam was performed in just underwear after the questions, but sometimes at medical center it happened that a nurse told you to undress until briefs in a small cabin before the begining of the exam, so that you were for all the duration of the exam in white briefs even for questions while sitting on a chair, and same after when the doctor gave the results of the exam to my mother ( always to her until I have 16 age and a few times even after like if I was too stupid to understand even after 16 age!) and asked some questions again and signed a form or a prescription which was given to her and eventually the doctor instructed you to leave and dress again but only after all was finished.

As regards the brief, he was generally pulled down by nurse or doctor until 12 or even 14 age but after generally the nurse or doctor told you to do it yourself, either to pull it down, either to remove it like( at school examinations even for weigh-ins) but seldomly it could happen that a private doctor pulled himself or herself down the brief with fingers under the waist, even after 14 age, and you kept the brief around anckles, or were instructed to move to be naked if the doctor wanted to do a thorough inspection of the spine with a walk in the nude in the exam room ( like it was done each year at school mandatory examinations)

to "pdadoc "

I don't understand why the nurse after telling you to strip until underwear left the exam room while you were undressing before coming again to begin the exam, it was not more embarrassing for you to undress in front of her than to be seen after in just underwear.

You said that the routine was the same for all your exams and that you went to see the pediatrician throughout college years so after 18 age until around 21 , but did the nurse took your temperature still rectally after 18 age until you went to see an other doctor after college years.

It might be a strange feeling to be submitted to a toss up as regards the gender of the doctor since you did not know before the arrival of the doctor if it was the husband or the wife who came to perform your exam?, did they did it exactly the same or did you have noticed a few differences in the set up and requirements ? was it more thorough wiith her or with him or the same ?

Even after graduation of high school during college years all your shots were in the butt?

(Apologies if this was a little heavy, but I wanted to share my experience)

Not at all; mine was quite similar.

I went to pediatrician almost to end of high school. I remember that during last visit she treated me as young teenager, but not child. I think it is caused by my shyness at doctor's office during childhood.

At 16, they treated me basically the same as they had since I was in kindergarten.

The nurse took my mom and me from the waiting room back to the exam room, stopping by the bathroom for me to leave a urine sample (I got to be alone for that part). Before she left the exam room, the nurse told my mom as always to take everything off of me except my underpants. Thankfully for the past few years my mom had stopped taking that part literally and let me undress myself. The nurse returned and walked me down the hall to the scale for height and weight and then returned me to the exam room, where I sat on the exam table as she took my temperature (oral glass thermometer) and blood pressure. She then left, and there was usually a good long wait for the doctor.

When the doctor arrived, he only talked to me about school. Anything health-related, he talked to my mom. He proceeded with the exam as usual, HEENT and stethescope for breathing while I was sitting up, more palpation and auscultation while I was lying down, including pulling my underwear down to above my knees for the genital exam in full view of my mom. Then after he pulled my undies back up, he had me stand on the floor, while he sat on his rolling stool. He had me touch my toes while he checked my spine, and then again he lowered my undies for the hernia check before I was allowed to get dressed.

I compared notes with a couple of friends who went to the same doctor, and at least with our small sample size, the treatment was uniform. We were all treated like little kids until we were old enough to drive, and for all three of us it was the only time each year as older teens our moms saw us naked.

Until I was about 14, they had Mom undress me to underwear. After that till 18, and Mom no longer accompanied me to the exam room, they would tell me to undress to my underwear and hop onto the table. Other than that. it never changed.

Went to pediatrician until 18, strip to underwear and waited for doctor general exam then he pulled underwear down to ankles, he examined my penis and testicles. Then he removed my underwear and took my Rectal temperature. It was very embarrassing. He said needed an accurate temperature for college physical.

I went to him until I was 18. He was always kind and respectful toward me. What I didn’t like was having my mother present for the exams.

I saw her until I was 16, She was nice, she always was, but I still got treated like I was a little kid. Still had to undress completely, still had to have an adult guardian present, still remember the two of them talking about me like I wasn't there. Nothing that would have been remarkable if I was 6, but at 16 it was humiliating.

Finally moved me to demand to see someone else

Seriously, what's wrong with Americans? Going to a pediatrician in the mid-teens, let alone age 20+, even with a parent chaperone in the exam room is practically unthinkable in Europe.

I don't even have memories of ever visiting my pediatrician, since I was transferred to my family GP at age 4 or 5.

Only time I went as a teen was when I was 18. College needed me to get a physical for studying abroad.

Went to the doctor who was my pediatrican (hadn't seen him since 11). Examined me as normal. Down to the genital check.