No hernia check

I don't remenber my primary school physical exams, but I remember quite well the exam I had every year in secondary school. From 10 to 18 years old, every year , I had a genital exam with my foreskin being retracted and my testicles being palpated, but I never had the hernia check with the invitation to cough.

About ten years later, as I was shortlisted for a job in a bank, which I finally did not get, I had a physical which was a repetition of the one I had during my secondary school years, with a detailed genital exam, but still no hernia check.

Did I miss something ?

I´ve never had genital exam only standard checks like a weight , eyes etc..

Maybe it depends on where you live. Here in the U.S., it's customary to include the hernia check at the same time as a genital exam. I don't personally think I've ever had one without the other.

In my US grade school, there was the hernia exam every year with the boys all lined up in the gym. There wasn't a detailed genital exam, however. They were more interested in your fitness to exercise. You had to have a physical at your doctor's office each year and provide a form to the school.

I've never had a genital exam without a hernia check but have had a couple of physical exams in which the doctor skipped the hernia exam completely. Genital exams themselves are not that common if you mean that the doctor actually examines the penis and testicles. A urologist is the only doctor who handled my penis during an exam and that was a surprise. My current doctor always checks for hernias and also checks my testicles but doesn't touch my penis. I'm not sure why more doctors don't examine more, especially in younger guys who would have a sex related disease that would be obvious from checking the underside of the penis.

The hernia and gential exams were always done together while lay on the exam table. I remember him feeling around my belly and groin area while his finger was pushing upward next my testicles. The first hernia exam were I had to "drop my pants" was when I was 15 years old. A group sports physical in the high schools nurse's office. The gential and hernia part of the exam was perform behind a privacy screen with the doctor. He did say much except for like two phrases: "drop your pants to the floor" and " turn and cough twice now the other side." He check my penis, foreskin, uretha opening, felt the testicles and then the hernia exam.

Two parts of the physical I really did not care for we're:

1) his hands were always freezing cold- not comfortable but a shock to your warm penis and balls.

2) many times e doctor said " next" before he was done with the previous guy. I found it weird, viewing the end of your friends hernia exam. Plus, dropping your pants while the other guy is trying to get dressed.

Yes, you have missed something in not having hernia exams. The hernia exam doubles the time you spend standing in front of the doctor with your pants down. The hernia exam also requires the doctor to give you instructions. I find it extremely embarrassing to have the doctor say to me "turn your head and cough." And he has to give that command at least once for each side, and, I would say more often than not, he repeats the command again for each side. It is also a bit of an awkward maneuver for the doctor to push his finger up through your scrotum into the inguinal canal for the exam. If done correctly, this is fairly uncomfortable. I have had a few hernia exams that gave me discomfort which I could feel for a couple of days afterward. I hope you will get the opportunity to experience a hernia exam at some point. It is definitely great for some memories.

I've only had one doctor who inserted his finger into my scrotum for the hernia exam and it did hurt. Left my balls sore for the rest of the day. Not sure why doctors don't do all hernia exams that way although I might be happy that they don't. It put me on my tiptoes at the time.

I have had a few doctors over the years and I can only remember one who ever checked hernia or genitals...at all.

I have also had very similar experiences to you. The doctor would examine my testicles while I was lying on an examination table but would never do a hernia examination. I never heard of anyone outside of medical resources having one either.

I have had hernia exams at my pediatrician office between 4 and 12 years old. Always laying on the examination table. Naked by a nurse and Doctor. Embarrassing.

It does seem odd that you never received a hernia check. I had many exams from the ages of 13 to 22 (mostly for sports) and they always included a hernia check. Whether it was a group exam at school, the family doctor or a clinic. It was going to happen. There was no escaping it. It was like a right of passage you had to go through if you wanted to play sports.

I had my foreskin and testicles examined a few different times as kid but never a hernia check. I always assumed that was mostly an American thing.

I have also had very similar experiences to you. The doctor would examine my testicles while I was lying on an examination table but would never do a hernia examination. I never heard of anyone outside of medical resources having one either.

My exams as a teenager were also done like this - lying down, but the doctor would tell me to cough as they stuck their hands in and around my scrotum.

Yes, something was really amiss. I really can not remember a time during elementary school along with Jr. High and HS where I was not checked for a hernia. I even remember for summer jobs in undergrad I was given a hernia check. Maybe it's the state or generation? I grew up in IL in the 70's and 80's.

Hernia checks were a part of my yearly exam all through youth and adulthood up until sometime in the early 2010s. Standing or laying down was up to the practitioner. I don’t know why they stopped doing it during regular visits. Hernias remain extremely common and are easily diagnosed.

I even developed a hernia and had to make a special visit for diagnosis. Following repair, they still don’t check me even though the surgeon advised I was at a higher risk for developing one on my other side.