I can assure you, as a kid from the 70s in the U.S., that there were plenty of rectal temps and penicillin injections being carried out in our bottoms. I recall receiving rental temps at the pediatrician and the pride of “graduating’ to temps taken orally. I recall that graduation also included being permitted to keep under pants initially. I also recall being over my mother’s lap, bare bottom in the air, and the feeling of the thermometer being inserted. I do not recall vaseline. It could be I just failed to notice, butI could swear my mother simply wet the glass thermometer with tap water. Once inserted, my mother would hold the thermometer between her index and middle finger like a cigarette and rest her hand, then, on our bottom (my younger sister and brother). My recall a living room setting, observing my siblings undergoing the procedure, but most of the time it was done in the privacy of our bedrooms.
I am guessing I was around six or seven when rental temps changed to oral and exams in the nude changed to underwear. However, I am pleased to tell you that the last time I received a rectal temperature was at a visit to the hospital when I was suffering from severe abdominal pain when. I would guess I was about 17/18-ish, so mid-eighties. I wasn’t sick, but was nauseated for sure from the extreme discomfort. I just recall being completely naked under a hospital gown, laying on my stomach with a curtain drawn, mom sitting to my left, waiting to be examined. A nurse came in with a device about the size of a cassette tape recorder, and she was either holding it vertically by a handle or maybe had it hanging off her shoulder with a strap. Extending, then, from it was a cord with a thermometer on the end.
She dipped the thermometer in what I recall was a plastic sheath, and, without and warning, then lifted my gown and inserted the probe deep inside my bottom, all in a matter of a second or so before I knew what was happening. To make light of the gravity of the situation and my potential embarrassment, she then chuckled and announced, “just like when you were young!” with a smile. More, by that time in my life, I already knew I liked rectal temps. I often took my own in privacy for sexual gratification. I also was very fond of rectal play and insertion, so, despite the fact that I was aroused and enjoying the nurses decision to take my temperature rectal, I was equally embarrassed that my mom was witnessing it as well , so I recall looking over at my mom and making sure my expression was one of disgust, while, secretly, I was grinning ear to ear inside my head.
The disappointing part was that, no sooner did I grasp the reality of what was happening, a beep sounded on the device, and with that, before I even had a chance to enjoy the intrusion in my bottom, the experience was over. The nurse then announced the 98 point something result and said no fever.
I am specifically fond of the feeling of the initial insertion, and the knowledge that my bottom is bare. I also look forward to feeling my wife spread my bottom in preparation for insertion. In fact, I have tried positions that spread my bottom for her, thereby allowing easy access, and also ones that require my bottom to be spread, and, honestly, I gravitate towards the latter because I really enjoy and look forward to the feeling her fingers spreading my cheeks apart.
The embarrassing aspect is big for me, as well, but, sadly, I it had been years since I have experienced actual embarrassment. Those days are long gone, I guess. I would imagine that I could only achieve embarrassment in a setting where friends and their ability to observe the ordeal were some how introduced into the scene. Our reality just does not allow for such a setting. I do look back on the embarrassment aspect with fond memories.