How far to strip

I'm wondering what happens at our real exams and what our preferences are.

I normally start stripped to my briefs but would rather be just topless at the start. I would also like to hear from the ladies on this topic.

Start in underwear. But they come off at the end

I strip completely and am naked under the gown when the doctor comes in including socks off

Some while since I've had an exam but the instructions have been very clear, Strip to your underpants and socks, Take everything off except your pants …. etc, no gown here in UK.

Always all the way naked. It's an examination, you're there to be examined.

I always ask patients to undress to knickers only initially, enables me to start with a breast exam and then ask a patient to remove final underwear when they are on the exam table and about to put their legs in the stirrups. I find this keeps a modicum of control / respect until my patient is ready to be fully examined. Occasionally a patient strips completely which signifies a preparedness for an exam and how it's to proceed. Doc.

I strip to my underwear and the doctor ends up taking them off during the exam

Always prefer to strip to briefs to start. Love that anticipation waiting on the exam table for the dr to come into the exam room.

I went to the gyn yesterday and it had changed since last year! They told me to sit in a waiting room and they weighed me and did my BP that was high for me. She said ok we will take you to a room and the tech will do the mammogram. That was done. She said I’ll walk with you to a room and a nurse came shortly and asked the same questions, usual & she said ok here’s a gown everything off open in front and I’ll be back with the doctor.

He comes in and we talk and he does a breast exam and he mashed harder than the mammogram machine. Scoot to the end of the table he said, do you need to go to the bathroom first? I said no but they didn’t get a urine specimen when I came in. They don’t do it anymore because insurance wont pay for it! He said ok open a little wider and he did his finger and my butt at the same time then the speculum then the rectal and get dressed and go back by and get lab work done. All that’s usually done first, I wasn’t in there anytime but I asked him and the nurse did men ever come with their wives? They said if she’s pregnant and they are doing a sonogram to find out the sex! I said I read somewhere that men loved to go watch their wives get examined in the stirrups. Nurse said I would ask him to step out for a few!

Talk about wham bam thank you m'am type of physical…geeez…in and out in seconds. Sounds like he did a bimanual exam (rectal and vaginal), which is common… but geez…did he have one hand on the doorknob thorughout the visit? And mash on those breasts? Where did compassion and gentleness go?

With my two most recent regular doctors, I'd be lying on the table face up with my shirt open and pants open for palpation of my abdomen, with my underwear still in place, as the doctor's fingers came lower. The doctor would then slip down my waistband to let his / her fingertips palpate lower, and some of my pubic hair would come into view. In the most memorable and enjoyable exams, the palpation went farther down my abdomen than the training videos I've seen, seem to indicate: even into my pubic hair (though neither ever touched my penis, at this stage.)

My pants and underwear would only come down just prior to the hernia and rectal exams. And even then, neither actually did a genital exam… just the testicular and rectal. (I'd guessed that they didn't typically do the genital exam, and I had no physical signs that one was needed.)

But a substitute doctor last year had a different approach. At the very outset of the exam, he just instructed me to take off all my clothes. I'd never had a doctor ask me to do that, before. He wasn't shy about examining my penis, either.

At my PCP, I remain fully clothed the entire exam, whether it's an annual physical or a sick visit. My doctor will manipulate my shirt as needed (but it is never removed entirely) to get to my chest, back, or abdomen, depending on what he is examining at the moment. When the time comes for the genital and rectal exams, he instructs me to stand and drop my pants. I just pull them down to mid thighs. I then use one hand to lift the bottom of my shirt up to the bottom of my chest, giving my doctor an unobstructed view and access to my genitals and groin.

At my dermatologist, I am told by the nurse to undress, everything off, and put the gown on with the opening in the back.

When, or if, the time comes, I usually am given specific instructions about undressing and what is expected of me. However, there have been a couple of times that have been rather vague and left me guessing a bit.

Some while since I've had an exam but the instructions have been very clear, Strip to your underpants and socks, Take everything off except your pants …. etc, no gown here in UK.

How long is a while? For the medicals I have had with Bupa and Nuffield either in long T-shirt and knickers or gown and knickers until genital exam. My older sister had a medical for a teaching job back in the early 90s and she was asked to strip to knickers and bra but was also given a blanket to cover herself while a female doctor did the medical, breast exam was as intimate as it got. Other than that visits to the GP just involve removing enough clothes to access the part for examination. Maybe a case where they assume males are more comfortable with exposure than females.

Lisa

Monurol1 no he was very nice and it was no changes since last year and he ask if I had any questions and only one I had was first thing they use to do was weigh pee in the cup bp and lab! He added some lab this year.! He did do a bimanual exam and the speculum and I don’t know about other gyn’s but he does it quick and not far! They only checkin for blood! I like it quick! He was down there about to start and said scoot one more time! They want your butt hanging on the edge! I was in those stirrups just like the nurse told me to do and he said let your legs fall wide open! I wish I knew some of his patients I would ask them if he tells them that!

At private medicals paid for by my company I started off with eyesight and hearing tests etc, and was then normally told to undress completely apart from my boxer shorts and lay on the bed. Although one doctor at the same clinic mentioned that it was cold in here today and just had me unbutton my shirt for the ECG etc. So I guess it varies. During NHS GP visits I don't think I have ever taken any clothes completely off, but just pulled them up or down as required. The women at my company had their private medicals done by BUPA and they were told to bring their own dressing gown into work to wear at the medical. They were told to undress everything apart from their knickers and to wear the gown during the mammogram. After the mammogram they went to another room and had a smear test and internal done by a senior nurse, but they kept the gown on at all times….

In my exams I'm told to strip down to my underwear at the start, and then my boxers come off and I'm nude when they do the hernia check and genital exam. I'm fine with it being that way.

I'm told to strip down to my underwear, and at the end it comes off.

I’ve never had to strip for an exam lol. Don’t go to doctors. I can share though from what I know for women. When I went with my mom she was asked to take everything off from head to toe including socks. Then told to put the gown on with the opening in the back. When I went with my sister she was told the same thing just they didn’t mention socks but she took them off anyway. Two different doctors so not much of a variation from my experience. They asked both of them though if they wanted me to leave while they got undressed or examined and they said no.

Personally I prefer they way they did it because I want to see it all from the start lol. Including socks off because I’m a feet guy haha.

I start off stripped down to just my boxers and then they come down for the testicular and prostate exam

@ WannaJ said:

….but I asked him and the nurse did men ever come with their wives? They said if she’s pregnant and they are doing a sonogram to find out the sex! I said I read somewhere that men loved to go watch their wives get examined in the stirrups. Nurse said I would ask him to step out for a few!

I just attended the annual gyno exam of @SammyBliss, my poly-partner/significant other – [see photos here: https://en.zity.biz/index.php?mx=gallery;ox=showalbum;ax=11535]. I saw other men in the waiting-room, and walking in/around the doctor's office, but I do suspect they were there accompanying pregnant women. With that said, Sammy's gynecologist, and the gyno's CNA didn't blink an eye, at my presence in and during her appointment and gyno exam. During the routine Q&A, before Sammy's exam, they asked her marital-status (yes) and then I think they just presumed/assumed I was her husband (legally, I am not, although we do treat each other as if we were married).

I also routinely attend medical exams for my wife, and likewise she attends all my doctors appointments. Sammy has just move to the area, and in doing so has changed general practitioners – making an appointment with the same GP physcian that my wife and I see. I attended that appointment with her as well, and you can imagine the moment of surprise when our GP (who we love!) walked in and saw me with another woman (who was not my wife). She (our physician) quickly regained her composure, and asked rhetorically, “do I wanna know!?” – 🤨 🤔 – Suspecting, yes, she really DID wanna know, (but was too afraid to ask) – we both just laughed, quickly defusing the situation, by explaining we were all “close friends“ and were indeed all aware of each other. 😆

There really seems to be no consistency among doctors in the U.S. but more consistency among doctors in other countries. I have had more doctors than I can count since I have been a child and I do not recall that any two of them had the same stripping down for the exam policies in any two offices. Sometimes one doesn't even have to take off anything, and others one takes off everything. Some give modesty napkins and others do not. Some want you to wear paper gowns and others cloth. Sometimes you need to be naked under the gowns and others you do not. Some say socks off but others do not. Some it is just shirt off and others not. Some it is strip to your underbriefs and others not. In some the briefs will be removed later but some just want them pulled down. I have no idea why it varies so much with doctors in the U.S.! It gets downright confusing! I do like variety when I go to the doctor, but what I do not like is a short 10 minute or so exam that is too short to really get any clear idea if I am healthy or not! However, I have finally found a doctor who actually leaves how far to strip down for the exam up to you and that has been refreshing. He does not leave unlimited choices but does offer a few depending upon how modest each patient feels. The choices offered are stripping down to briefs, wearing a cloth gown with or without underwear on underneath, or to wear nothing at all with or without a modesty napkin. Now my new doctor only does male patients from age 12 and up, so I cannot speak for women. He does have female nurses, but they have never ever come into the exam room. The nurses do your weight and BP in an outer room before you even go into an exam room. The office policy also lists that if you want one other person to be present for your exam you may do so, spouse, relative, friend, or significant other. It has been nice to decide for oneself how far you are in the mood to strip down for your exam. It takes a lot of stress out of the exam to be at your own comfort level.

I've only ever been examined fully clothed. I wonder if it's really that necessary to undress into a gown, though it's boring if not.

I suppose I have a pretty good idea, but still: what is a modesty napkin?

It sounds just a tad too much like a diaper in a way, which would not do much in the way of modesty at all I would think.

Heyhey

for me it depends on what I am there for and then it is just as far as needed

simple as that

Most appointments are fully dressed. Gyno is “take everything off, here's a gown." The dermatologist gave me a gown to put over my bra and underwear.

It’s interesting. My wife was with me for a prostate consultation , the nurse did a sonogram on my bladder. If it would have been just the two of us, I would have pulled my pants down far. As it was, I only went as far as my pubic hair line. Strange.

I suppose I have a pretty good idea, but still: what is a modesty napkin?

It sounds just a tad too much like a diaper in a way, which would not do much in the way of modesty at all I would think.

Just a guess, but I'm assuming it's what I call a “paper drape”, which is just a large paper towel that you can lay across yourself to cover up. But then again, maybe it's something entirely different.

It’s interesting. My wife was with me for a prostate consultation , the nurse did a sonogram on my bladder. If it would have been just the two of us, I would have pulled my pants down far. As it was, I only went as far as my pubic hair line. Strange.

I've had most of my care from the same doctor since I was a girl. Since I was 14 I was given an exam gown to wear. I've always taken everything off under the gown. I figured if he wanted me in my underwear, they wouldn't have given me the gown. He never told me I was doing it wrong.

I have finally found a doctor who actually leaves how far to strip down for the exam up to you and that has been refreshing. He does not leave unlimited choices but does offer a few depending upon how modest each patient feels. The choices offered are stripping down to briefs, wearing a cloth gown with or without underwear on underneath, or to wear nothing at all with or without a modesty napkin.

Just wondering what everyone on here would pick. If I was going purely with what I wanted, I would probably wear nothing. I would select a drape more for the care giver's comfort than my own. But not knowing the care giver well, I would probably strip to my underwear as the most forgettable/least strange thing a patient could do.