The psychological basis for a medical fetish

Rockdoc, you are spot on.Mashie

Thank you. Good to have my thoughts confirmed.

Often, medical fetish develops from experiences in childhood, even in infancy. Though the memories are not retained (from the first two or three years, generally) on a conscious level, they leave their mark. Throughout our early years, we are routinely required to have physicals and take inoculations for school, and those of us who are drawn to this sort of fantasy have obviously been impacted by those experiences.

So many factors for me, but there are (I think) two main ones. First is the family doctor I went to as a child. I think I've mentioned him before in a post. He was very sweet, caring, affectionate... he loved his patients like they were his own kids. (Let me emphasize he was never inappropriate, just the epitome of caring and compassion.) If he had to do something scary or painful, he would make it okay. He made it so I never feared going to see him, and in fact looked forward to it because I knew he would be happy to see me, would take good care of me and make me feel like the most important person in the world if only for a short while. The other factor is something I touched on in my story I recently posted, that actually stems from negative experiences with doctors I saw for an orthopedic condition I was born with. To many of these doctors I was a science experiment, or "damaged goods", and I didn't feel like they cared about me as a human being with feelings, who was perfectly satisfied with the body nature gave her. I also have encountered an astonishing number of doctors in my life who know little to nothing about the condition I have, and would not have the slightest clue how to help me deal with the additional challenges it has presented as I've aged. As a result of those experiences, I guess I have longed for another doctor like that one I had when I was young, who would examine me with respect, and know how to use their medical knowledge to honestly try to help me even if they don't know about my condition specifically.

It started for me in childhood playing doctor and I was always the patient. As I grew into adulthood I have always been in somewhat powerful roles work wise so for me it's nice to fantasize about handing that over to the 'doctor' and let him have the power of telling me what to do and how things will proceed. The more I read in forums more if my interests come to light. It's a matter of trust as well. I think the person you play with has to be on the same page so conversation is a must. I think alot of fun can be had and you can go very far without harm as long as you understand it's play. For me some real situations have played part but when I am having real exams I'm excited about the feelings afterwards of having been violated so to speak more than in the real moment. Real doctors can't legally cross boundaries nor should they. But hey nothing wrong with closing your eyes and imagining your play fantasy to get through it.

Thank you for your interesting take on the subject. I'm fascinated with the psychology. You say that you have powerful roles work wise and that serves to reinforce my belief that often those in a position of power need some way to turn the tables at some point, to relinquish control to another.

I think many of us had our interest kick started at an early age also. You are also correct requiring trust, it's vital for any hope of a good play experience.

Being on the same wavelength is very important, but it can be difficult to find someone who will hit all the right buttons, there often has to be compromise. Discussion is the way to go in my opinion although there are some who feel to much interaction prior to play can distract from the doctor/patient dynamic.

I've pondered this for quite some time and, to be honest, I really don't have a good answer. Freud would likely argue that it is some sort of mother issue. My Mom was a nurse and talked about her job at the dinner table a lot. However, that just doesn't feel like the right answer, I had a very happy and un-eventful childhood. I've known in some way, since the begining of puberty, that I had a medical fetish (but that's another story for another day). I think I lean more towards the "nature" argument rather than the "nurture" argument for myself.

Either way, I'm coming to accept it and open up more about it. It's been a slow process. As Popeye says, "I yam what I yam"!!!

-T

I have thought about this and my view now is that it is all down to someone having power over another. Unless you are lucky enough to be bought up in a nudist family you are taught that you have to cover your gentiles and also for women breasts in public and only people of the same sex should see you naked, think HS showers and gym changing rooms. And yet you have to present yourself often naked in front of a dr who can touch you almost as intimately as a lover and you have little recourse to refuse, for to do so could prevent you getting a job, getting insurance and early diagnosis could save you life.

For reasons that I will not bore you with I had to go to a "boot camp" as a teen and the initial process was that the sexes were divided, the boys went off and I assume went through the same thing as I did while the females of which there were about 30 had to undress, wrap a towel around yourself and wait in a group until called in the nurse. As soon as you were in front of the dr you had to hand the towel to the nurse and then the dr looked you up and down and then seth'ing you. Being naked in front of total strangers was really humiliating and I felt that I was surrendering myself without my consent, having to stand there whilst he and the nurse was fully clothed and I confess I would have felt the same had it been all women medical staff. Then I had to put the towel on, leave the room and eventually when everyone had been checked had to go for a shower in a massive shower before going to our activities.

The power over people has carried on to my own med role play.

For me, it started when I was about 10 or 11 and I had to go for a posture exam to check for scoliosis. I was examined by a female doctor, and a female nurse was also in the room.

Basically, I had to stand completely naked in the middle of the room, without a gown, while they looked at my body. I then had to do various bending, stretching and flexibility tests while they looked on. I then had to do various exercises in front of them, including walking back and forth across the room. All the above was done with me in the nude.

They were both extremely nice, but it was so humiliating. I felt so exposed standing there naked in front of them, with my penis hanging out for them to see. The worst part was when I had to walk naked back and forth across the room, and I could feel my penis flapping around as I walked. I was so glad when the exam was over.

However, that night, I masturbated while thinking about the exam, and ever since then, it has been one of my favourite fantasies. My explanation is that I am taking a traumatic experience and reliving it, but this time I am in control and I determine the outcome. Although the experience was extremely unpleasant at the time, I am so glad it happened now, or I may never have discovered this fetish.

Psychological basis for a medical fetish. I would think for people in general who have one (as a patient) has to do with the unique situation whereby you're examined - meaning both looked at and touched - scrutinized both visually and physically - while yielding control to the examiner to call the shots, so to speak. It's the rare occasion to be nude in front of someone in a private and appropriate setting.

It's about the twofold exploration of one's own body, that being having a professional explore one's body visually & physically, while one mentally explores his/her own body, assessing how one feels about what's happening to himself/herself during this process. How does one feel about being touched and viewed in this non-everyday situation? Does it cause one to become turned on, thus erect ? Does the experience plant memories, wishes for what could or could've been, perhaps as memories of being touched, wishes of having been masturbated during a "safe" situation of rare, private, physical contact by a trusted professional.

If MedFet begins for most people at a young age, then this exploration of one's feeling about these experiences is part of sexual development that begins at young years, as one begins to discover himself/herself sexually, and everything that comes along with it during the growing & maturity developing years. If, however, Medfet wasn't discovered until considerably later in life, I want to say that represents the ultimate allowance by oneself to uncover feelings that may have been repressed that were repressed initially due to a conflict of interest within one's own morals, ethics, etc. as well as those of society. An example would be of one's MedFet for experiences with a same sex physician, real or imagined, when one is not gay. In this case, if the patient is not gay, there may be the repression of a feeling of having been turned on by the same sex experience, which contradicts the frowning upon homosexuality by both one's personal morals & what's perceived as society's morals in regards to homosexuality.

Then after psychoanalyzing it, it reaches an acceptance stage - that it's okay to be turned on by the same sex experience without being homosexual, say. The key is realizing what it is really based on, that being more about the feelings one's own body encounters in a role situation or a just a plain act vs a gender situation. The patient is turned on by the experience because it's a doctor vs a man who is performing the examination. Of course this is just one case. Truly, there will be other cases of MeFet being all about gender, being examined by one's own sexual preference, and the feelings associated with that as well.

Now on the other hand, psychological basis for a medical fetish. I would think for people in general who have one (in a doctor or examiner role) has to do with the ability to have the power to treat an individual from a desired perspective. Desired perspectives could come in a range of being a hero via providing physical/medical care to having the unique opportunity to both view & manipulate the body/bodies of either specific people or types of people, thereby translating the allowance of one's own pervo tendencies to play out.

In general, the psychological basis for MedFet, either as physician or patient is related to role &/or gender as it pertains to one's own sexual proclivities Of course there's also the situation too where it's about neither role nor gender, but rather the ability, opportunity, the act, or the experience to "do" or "have done" regardless of role or gender. Examples of this would be the feeling of being undressed by another person or undressing someone, or the thought of being exposed & viewed nude by another person or being able to expose & view another person.

The acknowledgement & acceptance that one has a MedFet based on the act, the role, the gender,or any combo thereof is the psychological basis for those of use being on this website. As for these 2 posts about the topic, some may say i pulled all of this out of my head if they concur; others may say I pulled it all out of my ass if i'm missing something very important. But I think the main thing is to be happy and comfortable with the way you are, and recognize there's no harm in it, as long as you're not at potential risk of harming yourself or others. The best part about all of it is that it contributes to us believing that we can be who we are, and what's not healthy about that?.

I fully share rockdoc point. feeling vulnerable is a relief from the everyday pressure

In my case, there are two contributing aspects to my particular fetish - childhood fear and a dominant personality.

Throughout youth and most of adolescence my greatest fear when going to the doctor was the painful humiliation of pulling everything down and bending over a receptionist's lap for her to watch me get injections in my bare bottom (penicillin when ill and booster shots when I wasn't). That fear has developed into such a fetish that I now enjoy going to a nurse dominatrix for shots like that, which brings me to the latter aspect. Chatting to the dominatrix and her receptionist after my buttock injections, it was remarked that I had a dominant personality and many such people have a role-reversal fetish, which was satisfied for me by the vulnerability of being held across one girl's lap while the other repeatedly jabbed my naked posterior. I knew I had to get the unseen shots and there was nothing I could do to avoid them - just like in childhood but enjoying the ordeal instead.

Wow, there are a lot of great thoughts in here about a topic I'm really interested in. Seems like the power/vulnerability aspect is a huge part of it for most people, and I definitely get that (taking off my clothes, for any reason, makes me feel a vulnerability I associate with being a kid at the pediatrician's office) but there's another side of my fetish that can't be explained by the power/vulnerability dynamic: the *sound* of a heartbeat is byfar the strongest turn-on for me. I can't even begin to imagine how a *sound* became so intensely sexual for me.

Agreed, there's certainly a power-play element to it. Another aspect for me is the way that it hides sexual arousal within a scripted, almost ritualised, encounter. The doctor and patient each have very specific roles to play out, which specifically include concealing any erotic thoughts. The idea of two people getting turned on by a shared experience, each knowing the other is turned on, but having to wear a mask of respectable behaviour nonetheless, is very arousing for me.

I do have a "arrangement" with my Primary, I email when I need help, and that is a Foley catheter change, or a infusion ( Lactulose enemas) and she arranges for this to get done. I only use this arrangement when it is needed. Not for play.

Agreed, there's certainly a power-play element to it. Another aspect for me is the way that it hides sexual arousal within a scripted, almost ritualised, encounter. The doctor and patient each have very specific roles to play out, which specifically include concealing any erotic thoughts. The idea of two people getting turned on by a shared experience, each knowing the other is turned on, but having to wear a mask of respectable behaviour nonetheless, is very arousing for me.

Great post. Yes, it's just like the disciplinarian and the student scene. The more sex is kept out of the scene, the more ritualistic it is, the stronger the erotic and sexual undercurrent is. At least for me... the shame of the bared bottom, the anticipation, the surrender, the idea that this is for your own good and you have to submit.

100% psychological, as with all fetishes and sex.

Love the delicious irony of SwitchableSusie's earlier post where she states (yells?): "I'm the DOMME, I'm the AUTHORITY figure, and I'm the one IN CONTROL."

Yet the first line of her comment is "Absolutely no psychological basis for me." Oh...really??

Masks are my fetish, dating back to my elementary school years, before I understood anything to be sexual. I used to enjoy looking at some pre-surgery books I was given as a kid, and a girl my age would have a black beauty anesthesia mask held on her mouth and nose, and while I never got into wearing masks, per se, I always, from this moment, enjoyed a girl having to wear a mask. At some point, it drifted mostly into the girl patient needing to wear an N95 or surgical mask in order to deal with immunosuppression from, say, an organ transplant. Later on, I realized Stanford goes even further: the patient wears a yellow earloop before transplant, but after transplant starts out wearing a silicone 3M half mask cartridge respirator with big pink pancake filters on both sides. This fact has gotten me into those silicone half masks, which actually do look kind of like the old black beauties (even if they are some other color, like gray). And it's still a medfet for me. I need the girl to be wearing it because it is her hospital's policy or doctor's order.

I think of the medical fetish as a mild form of BDSM.

You submit to an authority figure in several states of undress. That's what arouses me when I go for a physical.

I wish all this COVID-19 wasn´t a thing, so I could ask for one.

This --> "The more sex is kept out of the scene, the more ritualistic it is, the stronger the erotic and sexual undercurrent is."

A lot of people do seem to want to keep sex out of it, which when you consider it, it makes sense because you don't go to the doctor for sex, lol. Even so there is like you said an undercurrent due to the common association of nudity and being sexual.

This --> "The more sex is kept out of the scene, the more ritualistic it is, the stronger the erotic and sexual undercurrent is."

A lot of people do seem to want to keep sex out of it, which when you consider it, it makes sense because you don't go to the doctor for sex, lol. Even so there is like you said an undercurrent due to the common association of nudity and being sexual.

Because a real headmaster or disciplinarian would not just have sex openly with who they punish. I read once about some guy who worked in a school long ago, I think in England, and he was one of the people who administered discipline, and he admitted to fondling some of the buttocks during a spanking.

It always feels out of step, when someone is role-playing and trying to punish, then they disrobe and want to push something sexual.

(One exception would be....if the woman is noticeably wet, being punished for getting excited about the punishment.)

Nor would a doctor openly have sex right in a normal exam. The more it stays true to the real form, the more real the silent eroticism is.

I believe there is a strong psychological basis for my enema paraphilia and equipment fetish, as well as my medical fetish. Undoubtedly, this started at a very young age and is a result of conflict with my domineering mother and our family pediatrician. I've posted elsewhere about being dragged from a closet where I was hiding, in order to be given an enema prescribed by our gruff doctor. After being held down and having the nozzle inserted, I found myself resenting any procedures that involved insertion of an object whether it be anal or penile.

I was a large child and was subjected to enemas, rectal temps, and other procedures as directed by our pediatrician. My mom took these ministrations very seriously. Housecalls were common and enemas were routinely prescribed. If I had stomach troubles and mom called the doctor, he would invariably state, "just give that kid an enema". Eventually, mom gave me enemas to avoid being scolded by the doctor. The doctor threatened me several times that he would put me in the hospital on a strict diet of "Metamucil".

Feeling totally helpless at a very young age, I came to dread the sight of the enema bag, nozzle, and any other item that I had been subjected to. The domineering nature of the various interactions, certainly elevated such things to extreme prominence in my development.

As I got a bit older, I discovered that I could overcome much of the contention by using the enema bag on myself. Because I was maturing very quickly from a physical perspective, I also came to realize some very positive sensations from the insertions and the sight of a full enema/douche bag became an indication of extreme pleasure. Additionally, my sister and I, as well as friends, had played doctor, nurse, and mom. Enemas, rectal temps, and other medical procedures were acted out. This also fueled some reactions and attention to the opposite sex.

All in all, the paraphilic and fetishistic aspects, have been part of a lifetime of self enjoyment. This became especially true upon the confirmation that many others also enjoyed some of these activities. EFEST, personal interaction and experiences, and cyber communications keep it interesting!

The 'psychological basis' for my mouth fetish (and anaesthesia fetish) is this: my mouth was a part of my young boy's body that all-powerful doctors and dentists (and anaesthetists) seemed preoccupied with, and would even put me to sleep to do things to. Also, l soon found that other kids my age had had the same things done to them. Also, we enjoyed playing 'doctors' ourselves (behind a shed) and looking into each others' mouths. Also, all of the above gave me some exciting masturbatory images. Also ... but l'm probably boring you. In sum, l was just built that way psychologically - and thus susceptible.

- Ken

For me it was an 8-month stretch at children's developmental disability ward at a large children's hospital. It was before all the laws about restraints and seclusion. We wore a wrist cuff on our right-hand. If we got in trouble they just cuff our hand to the nurses station. We'd sit there till they were happy. We wore scrubs and whites. Some kids had helmets. The nurses gave us our showers. They put the wrist cuff right back on afterwards. They had padded rooms in the floor padding was thicker than my bed. They were usually for kids that would harm themselves but if you wouldn't shut up they'd put you in there too. if you did good for about 2 weeks they'd let you take the wrist cuff off. The whole thing turned into a BDSM fetish for me later on in life.

For me it's fairly simple and straightforward; my first memories of arousal are all from medical exams. The first was when I was about 8 or so, I remember the feeling so clearly. I was laying on my back on the exam table, completely naked except for panties pulled down around my ankles, legs spread at the knees, and male doctor pressing his fingers all along the creases on either side of my outer lips. The sensation felt really good and I wanted him to keep doing it; I didn't understand that my feelings were sexual in nature, exactly; just that it felt good. When he opened my outer labia and ran his fingers along the inner lips and touched my clitoris I experienced a definite awakening of sensation like I'd never felt before. I really wanted more of that feeling. I went home and finished later that night. From then on, I really looked forward to those exams, and continued to fantasize about them. Certain things that were said during various examinations later became trigger words for orgasms.

The intensity increased when I was around 12 with breast exams, which didn't feel as good physically (except when they gently pinched my nipples), but definitely added to the embarrassment factor, which I also Iooked forward to. It was exciting to be naked in front of a fully clothed man, an authority figure who could tell me what to do and I had to do it (I wasn't very submissive in real life at all). There was never anything particularly questionable or unethical about those exams; nothing happened except perhaps one or two taking a little bit longer than seemed necessary, which I enjoyed immensely, so I'm pretty certain I'm not psychologically working anything out in my head, such as abuse or anything. It's just enjoying the memory of my earliest arousal experiences.

I can only write for myself but I think it’s from a time of going Through puberty and having a new step mother that took me to all of my medical appointments where I frequently had to strip down to my underwear and then be seen by her, the female pediatrician and usually her female nurse that gave the injections. It was simultaneously embarrassing and arousing especially when my underwear was removed by the doctor In front of all three. That feeling has not gone away and I was also hospitalized at age 14 and given enemas and rectal temps that were taken on all of us in the ward. All the nurses were female and they didn’t take no for an answer.

So much to take in and chew reading everyone's posts here. The psychological basis behind this medical fascination is quite the undertaking and there are many factors, I'm sure most of which was touched upon here. I agree with @JTMac that, altogether, the exams, whether real or play, allow a safe space to explore one's feelings and even their sexuality. For me, I was kind of a late bloomer, and in fact, have many repressed emotions stemming from childhood into my teenage years that left me with emotional scars and trauma. Meeting my husband, opened up a world I never knew about and one that scared me because it meant my entire paradigm had to be reexamined. As a 30 something year old, that's a tough pill to swallow but also, in its own right, gave me this problem that I NEEDED to get solved. I'm a problem solver, I love figuring out "the why behind the what's." I'm never satisfied with incomplete and unknowns, there just HAS to be an answer.

My husband helped me unpack a lot of my emotional trauma, though there were still missing pieces. As we continued on exploring his own fascination with rectal temperatures, we met other like minded individuals with similar interests. These individuals aided in my own discoveries and in the process, those missing pieces started to come together for me. More memories I tried to repress re surfaced as I let them come to the surface.

As a result, these exams, provided they're done in a safe environment, not weird or awkward chemistry present, allows me to explore my own sexuality in a sense, in a safe place. It's not like we're having sex with other people, what I'm saying is there's this whole element that takes place during an examination where I'm giving up control that I try so hard to hold onto in my everyday life. With the right person, it's safe to let go and enjoy the experience of being explored. Maybe being married and my husband watching, as opposed to being single doing this, makes it safer.

These play exams my husband and I have, are more than just play for me. It's kind of like losing your virginity for the first time. It was a little scary but it was thrilling and now you want to continue to learn more about it..how to make it feel better, how to embrace it. I can tell you, since I've allowed myself that safe space to let go and have fun, our love and sex life had become better. I thought there was something wrong with me because I always felt, as good as my husband is in bed,I could never really enjoy sex. It was those repressed emotions and trauma that I couldn't find a release for.

This is why, thus far, my safe space is with the opposite sex and with a dominant, confident but also endearing, doctor. I believe there's also some father issues re surfacing for me, and I think in a way its fulfilled through these exams. Maybe to some, that can be strange but for me, it's cathartic and again, it's allowing me to reexamine and process my emotions. We work sooooo much and don't have much time to ourselves. I look forward to play exams now, more than I've ever allowed myself to be, in the past six years. For me, what else am I going to learn about myself? Just thinking out loud, and maybe there thoughts will evolve overtime. 🙂