Examination | Medicals Exams in the UK 6/6

Views: 16119 Created: 2009.07.08

First post

I know there are a few threads on school medicals but this one is specific to the UK. I wondered if anyone here ever had or knows anyone who had a school or university exam in the UK? If so-where abouts was the school, how old were they, what year did this happen and could you give some information as to exactly what happened and how they/you felt about it? Was it compulsory, did you undress etc...

I only ask because I never had so much as my height taken at school in north london (mid 90's). Shortly after meeting my girlfriend we were talking about stuff and somehow we got on to the subject of her school exam. She isnt into med fet and didnt know i was but I managed to get her to tell me all about it and was slightly shocked to find out that exams like this do happen in schools in the UK!

She went to a high school near Dundee in Scotland. She was 17 apparently (so in her final year) and this was the late 90's/early 00's. She told me that a letter had been sent home informing them and their parents that the school doctor would come in to update the pupils medical records. Apparently the school dr or nurse had been in a few times previously and had checked their height/weight and blood pressure but that was it so my GF didnt think much of it.

A few weeks later at morning registration notes were handed out to her and her classmates with a time that they should go to the medical room for their health checks. She told me she left her English lesson at 1130 to go down. She said that the nurse was outside and told her to take a seat whilst the dr finished with the previous pupil. Apparently this is when she became nervous as the door opened and a girl in her year quickly walked out stareing straight down at the floor looking slightly red and embarrassed!

My GF was called into the room and a male dr, apparently mid 30's, shook her hand and explained that he would perform a physical exam on her. Still not quite sure what was to happen she was asked if she wanted the nurse to remain in the room but declined. The doctor then apparently pointed her to a screen in the corner and asked her to undress behind it. She told me that she asked the dr why and said that she wasnt comfortable undressing completely so the doctor asked her if she would go as far as her underware instead. She agreed to this and undressed to her bra and knickers, apparently still rather unhappily and very nervously!

The dr checked her height/weight/blood pressure and breathing with a stethascope then asked her to squat slightly and hold her arms out whilst he felt her arms and legs. She told me she was a little uncomfortable with him checking her inner thighs as he felt all the way up over her groin and buttocks. He also had her touch her toes so he could feel her spine which she was very embarrassed about as she only had a thong on so knew he had a fair view of her bum! He then had her stand infront of him whilst he sat in a chair and felt her tummy and apparently even pulled her belly button open a bit!

She was then asked if she checked her breasts. They spoke about breast health for a moment before he asked her if she would let him perform a quick check. She said he was very kind and reassuring about it and asked if she wanted the nurse present, which she declined again (she said that she was embarrassed enough being examined like this by 1 person, let alone 2!) She felt that she couldnt really refuse the exam so took off her bra and was asked to lie on the couch with her arms above her head. He felt her armpits, breasts and nipples and also felt her tummy again as she was laying down.

Finally, he asked her to sit up and asked if she was sexually active. She replied that she was and he offered her an STI and general sexual health check but informed her that this would require 'further undressing'. She absolutely refused this(!) and was told that she could dress and go-and that everything was fine and healthy.

She told me that she found the entire experience very embarrassing and intrusive. Whilst she said it wasn't exactly compulsory (if she had refused then they wouldn't exactly have tied her down or anything!) and the dr was very pleasant she still found the fact that she had no idea of what it would involve and had to disrobe very un comfortable.

As I said, I never had anything like this in my north london school and wondered if anyone else in the UK had anything like this at school or university?

JohnTom

151

JohnTom

Had school medicals in Scotland at age 4 (Pre-school), 11 at Primary and 15 at Secondary (1969-1980)

Can’t remember the medical at 4 much other than having to undress completely.

The one at 11 was an around the stations wait to move on medical. I failed it on fitness grounds which meant I had to go for 8 swimming lessons two years running. There on 2 occasions we were looked at by a female nurse naked after swimming.

The depth of medical at 15 depended on factors like parental consent (vague generic descriptive letter home and concent card) and facilities/staff available. Not all schools in my area had the medicals. Our school had a purpose built medical suite.

JohnTom

152

JohnTom

Medicals were no longer carried out after June 1980 at my high school in Scotland. Do not know what was done with the purpose built facilities but they were only used for medicals for 2 years.

Examined

153

Examined

I went to school from the early 1970s to

Mid 80s. I was mainly in the midlands at boarding school and had a school medical every year until I was 18. These included being undressed to underpants before going in to see the dr, being examined from head to toe, including a genital examination, foreskin being retracted, hernia check and a visual inspection of the anus. That was for boys, but I don’t think they were quite as invasive for girls. They stopped soon after I left school I think. It was part of school life albeit pretty embarrassing in parts.

Lickingatallsorts

154

Lickingatallsorts

Interesting to see how many of us Scots are represented here. I have posted this same message on another thread about my exam when first going to school:

I was always incredibly self conscious of my body as a child and the following exam probably affected my hiding any medical issue I had for most of my childhood.

Here in the UK we for the most part don't have intimate examinations unless we believe something is wrong and we see our Dr. However during the first and last years of primary school we did at that time get an intimate exam.

The first I can remember was aged around 5 and took place in the medical room of the school. What made it ten times more humiliating was my mother turning up at the school at the appointed time. There were others being taken to and from the room with the girls and parents changing in the gym toilet block and boys in the staff room. With staff who didn't have a class at the time sitting in it. We had all been told we could keep our underwear on, but my mother being a bit nasty and I believe possibly getting off on my discomfort, forced me crying and protesting to remove all my clothes and put on my dressing gown to wait my turn.

The examination was extremely humiliating being inspected, touched, especially my genitals, told to expose my bottom and weighed and height taken at the time. All the time the nurse talking about me to my mum leaving me feeling so exposed and ashamed. I coudn't wait to grab my clothes and dress again. Looking back I believe that experience is partly responsible for my submissive nature and kinks in bed now.

We had the nit nurse and school dentist now and again but the next medical exam was in the final year of primary so aged around 11. Parents didn't attend this one. Like previous posters we were sent down alphabetically and told to undress to our underpants. I think the girls got to keep a t shirt on. We went into the consulting room one at a time where weight height etc was measured. Told to do exercises and then us boys got the cough test and had to expose our bottoms for viewing. The female Dr couldn't have been too good as she never spotted the bollock I had kicked back inside which I was too embarassed to tell anyone about.

Although the boys talked about what happened, the girls never spoke of it and it was something I dreamt about for a long time after wondering exactly was done, I was at the age where girls bits were becoming of interest.

As for whether they should have been done or not, I'd argue no. It was so humiliating it made me hide and disguise any medical issue I had as I was scared of similar examinations happening again.

JohnTom

155

JohnTom

What I found odd about my medical at 15 in 1980 at school in Scotland was most of the doctor part of the examination was carried out with me sitting facing her.

All consent was parental, we as pupils had no say on the extent of the medicals, we all got one.

The letter home requested consent for a “full body medical with a focus on physical development”.

My mother consented.

We left class with a card and everyone knew what we were going for just not the extent.

I was instructed to take a seat facing the lady doctor (seemed close to retirement age) who was seated opposite. She had me move my chair closer until my legs were wide apart around her knees without touching them.

Blood pressure was taken over my shirt sleeve then I had to unbutton the shirt and lift my T-shirt for the stethoscope on my chest. My heart was listened to for seconds. Everything after that was done in serious mode.

I was ordered to open my trousers whilst she watched, not even allowed to pull my T-shirt back down first. “I’ll tell you when they are open wide enough”. She did and then told me “not to look down”.

My underwear was pulled open away from me after a 30 second or so pause and my pubic hair examined in one swoop.

She left her hand inside my Y-fronts for a delay for form filling whilst looking over at my genitals a couple of times. I could feel the air around my genitals.

I looked at the frosted glass open at the top window so nobody could see in, only one like it I knew of in the school. Told myself what I had been told happened next may have changed. What seemed like a couple of minutes went by.

She put down her pen and looked me in the face, “I’m ready to continue, do not look down, no matter what you feel happening”. What happened next was instantaneous, my penis was pinned at the base in a grip between her thumb over the top and her fingers up behind my testicles. She heId me like that for a few seconds then palpitated fast. I felt myself take an erection and she took her hand away.

She then held my testicles together in one hand and retracted my foreskin from below using her thumb. She put my foreskin back over my glans and that was the last she touched my penis.

She palpitated one testicle all directions then likewise the other. When she finished feeling the second one she trapped it and squeezed it very firmly, it hurt to the point I gasped in pain. She then returned to the first one, trapped and squeezed it equally hard, it felt like I had been kicked between the legs.

She then let go of my underwear and I was covered. I looked down and saw my covered erection, was told off for doing so.

She had me place my hands on my knees, stand and walk forwards and back a few times between the door and the window as I did my erection went away. She then told me to stop and she stood behind. She had me stand up straight and my trousers hit the floor. I was instructed to bend down and pick them up without moving my feet. Don’t know for sure, but I suspect she was examining my back.

She told me I could get dressed and to get the rest of the clothes from the nurse outside the door. The nurse met me with my initially removed clothing and apologised I couldn’t go back into the prep room because “girls were undressed in there”. She saw the pain in my face asked me if my testicles were still painful. I told her they were and she told me I didn’t have to go straight back to class, instead take 10 minutes go to the toilet and if the pain doesn’t ease come back. I didn’t go back but I’ve had on/off testicle pain for the rest of my life.

If a parent said no to consent for a full medical for a boy at 15 the medical was different in the doctors room. Boys would be shown drawings and asked which ones were closest to them for development, hair pattern/penis/testicles. They would also be asked if they had wet dreams and if they woke up with an erection. Their genitals were not examined.

Girls rarely had a full medical, in my experience they would talk more to their mother about their development and talk their mother out of consenting.

Every girl had their breasts looked at by the nurse in the first room.

They were asked questions about their periods by the doctor who did other basics.

If full consent was given by a parent for a girl to be examined they had to undress completely behind a screen and then breasts were examined standing and lying down, there was an examination table unused by us boys.

The examination down below for girls was not a full internal, quick opening and a peek. Very few girls had that full examination. We all talked about the medical experience a couple of years later in a break room in disgust.