At What Age Did Rectal Temps Stop For You

My last time was at home. I was 17 and faked being sick so I could skip school. My mom waited until by brothers and sister left for school then arrived with the rectal thermometer and vaseline. I knew arguing would no good, so I rolled over and she pulled my PJ bottoms down and inserted the thermometer and held it in place for three minutes. Then announced well you have temperature so exactly what is problem. I said I don’t, I just don’t feel well. Fifteen minutes later, I was being called into the bathroom and told to take my PJ bottoms off. The red enema was filled with hot soapy water.

Technically, rectal temps. stopped for me at around age 5, but resumed in full force after a gf re-introduced me to them over 40 years ago, and have since become the only way that I take my temperature, when in the privacy of my home. As I've mentioned, I would never allow it to be taken that way by a doctor or nurse, however. I don't care about the accuracy, as much as the pleasure that it provides. It's great for body and mind. There aren't too many ways to enjoy a fantasy and craving, without spending money, breaking the law, risking your health, or hurting someone's feelings, these days. It's amazing what a glass rod, some Vaseline, and a little imagination can do. All the better, if you can share it with a willing partner. To the women who contributed to my rectal temp. fetish...you will never be forgotten !

It stopped a few month before my 12th birthday. And I actually restarted with a real thermometer with around 19.

Age 10 at home and the doctor

At home never only way ever taken it in hospital as kid until age 14 dew to asthma ward dint want risk any one biting thermometer when coughing

It hasn't stopped. Had rectal temps my entire life and contunue to do so at my doctors and home. My doctor agrees its the best and most accurate.

For me it stopped at the age of 8 and was never taken like that by someone until I was 26 and had the courage to tell my (now ex) girlfriend. After that I only did it to myself which is a real bummer

Never stopped and the only way my Mistress Girlfriend will take my temperature and we have no oral thermometers that I know of in our home. She is a Nurse in real life so she has plenty of different glass, digital and like the ones they use in hospitals but all only have the red tip and never seen a blue tip on any of her digital rectal probe thermometers.

My mom took my temperature rectally until I left for college. She firmly believed that way was the most accurate. When I saw the nurse at the pediatrician's office at the age of 9, she took the oral thermometer out of the container, my mom quickly told her that the only way my temperature would be taken would be rectally. The nurse got the rectal one out. After that she wrote a note in my chart. When I was 19, I was sick while home on Christmas break. I drove myself to the pediatrician's office. When I got back into the exam room, the nurse told me to pull my pants and panties down and lean over the exam table. I said I am 19! She said until my mother calls to change it that will be how it is taken. When I got home with an antibiotic, my mom put me to bed and told me to wear a nightgown without underwear. That would make things easier for her. Now I have a best friend who will come to take my temperature rectally. I so enjoy her doing it. If I fake it and she figures that she drives to my house takes my temperature, if I don't have one, she makes me bend over something and I receive one swat for every degree I am off. It is either a paddle with holes or a leather belt. Trust me, by the time she has stopped, I am sobbing..

Age 6 at the doctor and age 11 at home.

"Age 6 at the doctor and age 11 at home."

How did parents justify continuing rectal at home when oral was used at doctor visits? Clearly oral was an option at home too, and oral thermometers were not more expensive than rectal ones.

@IamArrow We had two thermometers one is oral the other is rectal.I broken the oral thermometer when I paly doctor.

I would say about age 10, both home and at the doctor. I have been taking my own as an adult for years.

For me it was around 6 or 7

The last time my mother took my tmeprature rectally was at the age of 14. Afterwards I aws in charge aof taking my temperature without being told how to do it.

However, I took my tmeprature rectally after that and have never stopped doing so.

Mom, let me do mine when I was 10 or 11 what she didn’t know was that I’ve been sneaking it since age 9 always rectal.🌡️🧴🧻

For the most part they ended around kindergarten or first grade. I probably got switched to orals at home and the pediatrician first and in the hospital last. So I would have gotten my last rectal temp at home around 5 or 6 and my (almost) last hospital rectal temp around 6 or 7.

I did get a single out of the blue rectal temp in the hospital after a surgery somewhere in the 10 to 12 range. The nurse had said it was “hospital policy” so there may have been other rectal temps in the recovery room that I just did not remember.

There were a couple of times when I was 13 that I thought, I might get a rectal temp, but it didn’t happen.

Guess it was 5-6 at home .... but got it at the pediatricians until like 8 or so.

The only accepted method at home and during hospital stays was rectal. There was an age after which adults no longer the thermometer and I instead asked me, but I don't know exactly what it was. Perhaps 6?

Rectal temps stopped around the time I started school, with even the school nurse putting the thermometer under the tongue if you reported to her office sick. I did get my temp taken rectally two other times after that. Once, at 15, when I got some kind of a flu while visiting my grandfather, and the other at about age 20, when I went to the ED because I thought I had appendicitis. (I didn’t.)

Was never given any.

Till 14 at home. 10-11 at the clinics as far as l remember.

They never stopped. Till 10 they were done. 10-12 it was self taking under supervision. From 12 self taking with privacy.

Dutchfellow. I wonder if rectal temperatures are currently the norm for adults in the Netherlands. Or is a thing of the past?

Re: the Netherlands, I hooked up a number of years ago with a great young woman, mid -late 20s from Holland. The subject came up and she said something to the effect that rectal temperatures were illegal there. I did not dispute her though I was skeptical, but hey…

Well it may have been the case , then and there, but we were in NYC and I got to take her rectal temperature in NYC, a few times. And she did not mind at all.

On the thread, for me I guess it stopped at 10. It lay dormant for years and came back in my twenties. Been with it ever since. My preference.

My grandmother stopped when I was about 12, but I had already been doing it to myself for years. I didn't care about the temperature, I just liked sticking stuff up my butt...

Dutchfellow. I wonder if rectal temperatures are currently the norm for adults in the Netherlands. Or is a thing of the past?

@MarkRT That's a good question, and I think the answer depends on who you ask and when/how you ask it.

I’m curious as well because - despite my kink - I get the impression that it’s more common here than in most other countries, but it’s hard to get a clear picture.

I’ve tried to get a sense of this. I know some of my friends (also around 50) still use rectal thermometers, even the old mercury ones from their youth.

But what is the actual norm? GPs still recommend rectal temperature as the most accurate method, especially at home, but they also admit that the ear thermometer is the only reliable and definitely more comfortable alternative, even though it requires more skill to use.

Earlier this year, I ran a poll on a general-interest forum. These were the results (51 people responded):

How do you take your temperature nowadays (in 2025) when you’re sick and suspect a fever?

- I don’t take my temperature because I can tell when I’m really sick — 35.3% (18 )

- Ear — 25.5% (13)

- Rectally (via the anus) — 17.6% (9)

- Forehead — 11.8% (6)

- Orally (under the tongue) — 7.8% (4)

- Armpit — 2% (1)

- Skin temperature using a wearable — 0% (0)

So, almost 1 out of 5 still takes their temperature rectally when they feel unwell.

And if you exclude the people who don’t take their temperature at all, it’s more than 1 out of 4.

These numbers are significant and match my sense that it’s a more common practice than most people realise or admit.

But it also means that nearly 75% no longer takes a rectal temperature, so it’s definitely not the norm.

The results are in line with current recommendations: if you measure your temperature, it’s best to use one of the more reliable methods—ear or rectal.

Two out of three people who do measure use one of these methods.

I'm interested in finding out these numbers/habits for other countries but it's not easy to research and find them. So any input or links to numbers are appreciated.

At home, rectal temperatures stopped around age 4 or 5, as soon as we were old enough to hold a thermometer in the mouth without biting it. I was not and am still not a fan. This all ended at age 10 when I was admitted for a tonsillectomy, so of course the hospital nurses flipped us over for rectal temperatures. So, long way around, 10. 10 was a glorious year.

No memory of them from pediatrician or parents. Played with a friend as a teen until she moved away. Since then have only had them or given them in Play Doctor situations.

I believe I was just about to turn 12 years old the last time my mom made me lay down on my tummy over my bed and measured my temperature in my bottom. I was so embarrassed.