Ever wonder that as a teen all those rectal temperatures were really that necessary

I wonder. I just bought all the reasons they gave me. Maybe they just liked doing it ??? I am ok with it now, it has become a real erotic thing.

I never as a child questioned the necessity as much as if it meant a shot would be given later. Pedi exams always felt unnecessarily scary and uncontrollable. The RT part was so routine.

As I got older, I surely wondered why does this need to happen? By then modesty was a major factor and sensitivity to having a genital exam became a major preoccupation. The occurrence of spontaneous erections at the thought of being naked and examined happened way to often. The embracing of fantasies surely added to the arousal connection, which clearly remains steadfast today!

I think that the process is subtle and likely associated with many different emotions depending on one's age at the time and the experiences associated with having to see the doctor. Many of us just endure the physical exam without too much distress even when having a shot while others have more serious problems and related experiences. It's a bit hard to generalize given that but we all have questioned, “OMG why do I have to get a RT?”

While I was going to the pediatrician I never thought about if it was necessary or not, but always hated getting rectal temperature, which I did all through high school. Looking back now I am sure the nurses enjoyed it. On the rare occasions that a doctor did it I don’t think there was that enjoyment.

In a hospital setting either in an ER or on a ward it was probably done, no doubt much to the dismay of the teen patients.

I don't ever remember getting a RT - even as a young kid, always Oral. As a teenager, if they tried - the RT would've ended up in the Nurses ass!!!

When I was 14, I had my temp taken rectally when my appendix was removed. My room mate was a 16 or 17 year old girl. both of us had rectal temps before and after our procedures. Both of us had rectal temps at home, so it was no a big deal.

I wasn’t given a choice about much to do with my health care until I went away to college and even then I usually did what the medical staff asked inpatient or outpatient. I was fortunate in one regard that when switching pediatricians at 10 or 11 the new office did not take rectal temps. The hospital I was in as a teen still did and the nurses went right down the ward taking temps and writing it in the chart. I thought it was unnecessary because my own pediatrician wasn’t doing them and we had to lift the Jonny pull down our underwear and turn onto our side and pull our knees up to our chest a few times a day.

Rectal temperatures were probably continued with older children and teens because physicians felt it was safer and reduced risk and liability. From what I’ve researched it seems that the cut-off age in most clinics was usually between the ages of 8-12, after which the child was switched to the oral method. To my knowledge clinics in the U.S. were not using the rectal method with teenagers unless they couldn’t responsibly hold a thermometer in their mouth due to illness or disability. Rectal temperatures were referred to as “the gold standard”, taken for reasons of accuracy but if this were true why would clinics switching their patients to oral at any age? This seems to be evidence that they had little to do with accuracy and more to do with safety and the liability of potential injury (or mercury poisoning) caused by children biting oral thermometers. So the question remains, were rectal temperatures necessary? Probably not but obviously it was left to the physician’s discretion who would have argued they were in fact necessary for safety. My pediatrician’s office took my temperature rectally until I reached 13 which for me was well past the age of risk for biting a thermometer. If I were a practicing pediatrician during the time of glass mercury thermometers it may have been prudent to continue taking rectal temps as long as possible but I likely would have decided against it out of compassion for the child. I think it’s safe to assume that as older kids our rectal temperatures weren’t taken for accuracy but likely because our doctors didn’t want our parents suing them.

My pediatrician did rectal temps to age 13, after that his nurse asked my parents how they wanted it taken. I turned 13 in 1971.

Wow, that's strange she would ask your parents. I can't imagine any parent telling the nurse to take it rectally at age 13. Did your parents ever tell her to take it rectally?

My pediatrician did rectal temps to age 13, after that his nurse asked my parents how they wanted it taken. I turned 13 in 1971.

Mom ask the nurse to ask me what I wanted, she was fine with it being done either way. I never minded rectal so I just let the nurse do whatever she was set up for. At this time they didn't even keep oral thermometers in the exam room but had to go out of the room to get one. I pretty much always got rectal till I left home at age 18, to join the US Navy.

I don’t think nurses liked doing it in a sexual way, but perhaps more in a motherly way of seeing a cute bottom. Our society has lost all sight of anything like that, as everything is sexualized. I do remember thinking that they sometimes got satisfaction from it if you were acting bratty, like getting bared for a spanking would elicit a grin.

The closest example of this I can think of was my grandmother wanting to wash my back in the tub when I was 12. That might raise some eyebrows in this day and age, but she had a very motherly smile and I could tell it was a special thing for her to be able to wash my back and bottom, since it was a distant grandparent who didn’t get to see me growing up often.

. Rectal temperatures were referred to as “the gold standard”, taken for reasons of accuracy but if this were true why would clinics switching their patients to oral at any age? This seems to be evidence that they had little to do with accuracy and more to do with safety and the liability of potential injury (or mercury poisoning) caused by children biting oral thermometers.

There was no good reason to do so. Oral temps are accurate enough to tell you if there is a fever present. A former member used to say she could tell just with the back of her hand and give meds as needed. Once the age of being able to keep it in your mouth has arrived it is needlessly embarrassing and could lead to showing up at zity at a future date!

Swallowing some of the mercury from a broken thermometer will not cause mercury poisoning unless done on a regular basis. Swallowing broken glass on the other hand, is dangerous.

Yes many times I think why does mom need to take my temp rectally after i was 14 but mom made the rules and i could not argue with them !

Interestingly I didn't wonder at all. Getting temperature measured in my bum was normal for me. I grew up with that method and I have accepted it until now. Last time my parents took my temperature rectally was after being I hospital to get my tonsils out.

When I was a kid I even thought that having fever has something to do with my bum, because it was measured there and I received suppositories against it. When I was 14 and we spoke about ways of taking temperature at school (8th grade in our biology lessons), I was first to answer and of course I answered “in the bum”. Especially the other boys started joking about that, but our teacher came to my defense and told us, that I was using the accurate method and we should find out on ourselves which different values we would measure using different areas to place the thermometer. In discussions the days and weeks later I found out that some boys kinda liked that method taking the temp rectally (14yo boys!). Some told me that it feels very interesting and they would have never attempted if I wouldn't have told in class how my temperature was measured at home.