Rectal Temp at Hospital 1970's

I have this vivid memory from when I was a kid. My aunt just had surgery and my parents took me and my sister to visit her at the hospital. When we arrived at her room some relatives were standing in the hallway and her door was closed. My mom said hello to everyone and wanted to go in but my older cousin said “you can’t go in yet, the nurse is taking her temperature”. I remember getting very aroused by that and after we went in I couldn’t stop staring at the thermometer in the bright red holder on the table next to her bed. I remember feeling so embarrassed for her.

I had two hospital stays as a kid, the first at age 5. On both stays, I was on a ward with 4 to 6 beds, and the nurses came in about every 3 or 4 hours and took our rectal temps. I was 5 in 1963.

I had a similar experience to kenw.I had a tonsil and adnoidectomy in 1969.It was a large pediatric room with at least 5 beds.Rectal temps every 4 hours and so began my med fetish .I was 5 but I can still remember the squishiness of the leftover vaseline on my hole to this day.

Yes, the nurses never wiped you after. And if they gave you a suppository it always felt like you needed to poop, for some time after that.

Setting the record straight , temp's, and other cr*P …. PLEASE READ ALL and excuse my rant.

70's ??? I got recitals from the late 50's until nearly 70 when the “ electronic thermometers ” showed up. By then then the “ Medical industry ” talked Mom's and hospitals to start using these. Better ?? No !! As incorrect / failures appeared. The “ BIG PHARMA'S ” goal was to sell these units, but the BIG $$$ was in the “ One use ” tips that ONLY FITTED their temp units. Cha-Cling X 100.

I AM in the hospital lab services, industry and see this ALL the time, as they basically give this equipment away, only to have the hospital have to commit to a “ Sole source supplier ”, whether it be hospital labs, or something as simple as a a temperature check, as THESE are disposable AND REQUIRE A NEW ONE.

Best part…..

After these manufacturers upgrade / sell NEW TECHNOLOGY to US hospitals, they get refurbished and sent / sold to a 3rd world country. Then…… Another opportunity becomes available and the SAME trap becomes available for BIG HEALTH CARE.

What's my point with rectal thermometers, or ones in general ??

Before Covid-19 hit, WE / US / World were on a disposable basis, and some JUST tossed out OLD TECHNOLOGY like glass Lab Pipettes for simple lab tests for “ Stupid shit ” like preliminary cancer tests,???? Then NO availabity came about. Really ?? A re useable item to test people just got tossed in the garbage, and then OH SHIT came,.

I still see lab shortages on many life saving / best use items items, and I'm just PISSED OFF that something hasn't been addressed in the next “ just in case ”.

Thermometers or rectal ones…… I got mine ! Glass and accurate.

Sorry for venting.

I had my tonsils taken out in 1972 and I still recall the nurses coming into the room (Shared room), drawing the curtains, and taking my temperature, rectally. Once, they brought by some toys for us to keep, and I remember laying on my tummy, playing with that toy, as the nurse inserted the thermometer into my rectum. She talked to me, I guess to keep me distracted while she took my temperature, and then withdrew the thermometer from my bottom, and went to the bed next to mine, to take another patient's rectal temperature. It might have been on that occasion, or later that day, that I heard some crying going on from the bed next to mine. Curiosity got the better of me, and I hopped out of my bed and peeked around the curtain to see what was happening. When I looked, I saw a nurse taking the temperature of the girl in the bed next to me. I saw the thermometer poking out of her butt, and then saw the nurse look at me, and tell me to get back to my bed. I also looked at the girl who was getting her temperature taken,and, as she looked at me, she started crying again.

I remember it as if it were yesterday. Who knows, maybe that's when my rectal temperature fetish started.

Going back in time, I think that rectal temps may have been done for all ages, in some hospitals, and with others, just limited to Pediatrics, and the severely ill. I knew some adult women, who had it taken that way, even in the 80’s. Of course, one of them was admitted to the psychiatric unit, which may have been the reason for it.

I can attest that in the 1970s-1980s, temperatures were taken rectally in French hospital even for adults. There is even a joke in the comics Les Bidochons about this ("time penetrate some rings"). In my experience however, kids old enough, and of course adults, were expected to insert the thermometer themselves, unless incapacitated.

I am nearly 70 years old and I have never been really hospitalized, even though I have gone through some rather intrusive exams from early childhood to teenage. But back in 1959 a neighbour woman asked me if I wanted to go with her and visit a relative girl of 8 years old, while I was 6 years old. The girl had multiple sclerosis, but the disease wore out eventually so she never got really crippled.

The visit tended to be rather boring for long. She lay in her bed, and I stood there without finding anything to talk with her about.

It was time to go home, but the neighbour had to go out of the room some minutes, and I stood there, even more bored.

But then came into the room a nurse with a jar full of thermometers. She immediately went to the bed of the girl. The girl flexed up her legs. The nurse lifted her blanket. IT appeared that the girl had no clothes at her lower parts. The nurse spread her cheeks an inserted a thermometer in her butt, and reposed the blanket. Then she went to the next patient and one more and did the same. I followed the nurse discereetely to watch. The nurse ignored me totally.

Even though I was 6 years old I found the event extremely arousing. The patients did not seem to dislike the situation,. Rectal tenp was standard in Norway and as far as I know it has not gone out of use even though other methods are also used now.

The neighbour went back and we went away before the thermometers were removed.

I remember having a rectal temp taken in 3rd grade when I had my tonsils and adenoids taken out in the hospital. Had never remembered a rectal temp taken before that.

When I was 16, I contracted a form of atypical bacterial pneumonia in 2002, I had to wear an oxygen mask, instead of the nasal unit. My temperature was taken rectally several times a day with an electronic thermometer on a small wheeled cart. Sometimes, my parents or friends had to wait outside of my room while the nurse took my temp. Knowing that they were just outside of my room meant 75 seconds of mortification for me, while I was on my side with my hospital gown up, or pajama bottoms down. I was allowed to wear pajamas after I was transferred from sub-acute care to a hospital room. Even today, every time that I hear a squeaky wheel cart, I am reminded of that temperature cart headed for my room!

Yes, after I got out of the Navy I had to go the hospital for a Barium Xray. A young nurse came to my room and instructed me about the procedure. She had me take off all my clothes and put on a gown, with opening to the back. She came back to my room and had me get on my back, lifted up my gown and said she would take my temperature (she was quite young) I guess she was told to do it that way. She had me lift my legs, and lubed up my anus, and then the thermometer. Then she proceeded to insert the thermometer very slowly into my butt hole. I tried not to get an erection, but did anyway. I saw her face and she just smiled, waited awhile then removed it slowly, and said now that wasn't bad was it, and took me to the x-ray room, but that is another happening.

I had a barium enema but did not get my temperature taken. Later that day I was in a room placed on some kind of chair and bent over and got a sigmoidoscopy. The room had a gaggle of thermometers ( glass) on a table not too far away. There was a nurse with me but no temperature taken there either.

I was in the hospital for an emergency appendectomy when I was 14 in 1977 or 78 In the north east US. They took my temperature rectally twice a day as I recall, morning and evening. I was in A semi private room with a female roommate. I tried to refuse but the nurse threatened to have me held down so I acquiesce. The nurse would draw the bed curtains and I had to roll onto my side, pull my underwear down and bring my knees up in a loose fetal type position. The nurse would put it in. There was a container for it on the wall next to my roommates.

I was hospitalized for eight days in January 1960 with Asiatic flu. They fed me intravenously through a tube that went into my ankle (the scar is still there) because I couldn't hold anything down. I have no doubt my temperature was taken rectally several times a day, but have no recollection of that - I was all of three.

I saw a short Life magazine article published in the early 1960s that alluded to a grown man disliking having his temperature taken rectally in the hospital. The article also said the rectal method would be used for the foreseeable future.

I saw a short Life magazine article published in the early 1960s that alluded to a grown man disliking having his temperature taken rectally in the hospital. The article also said the rectal method would be used for the foreseeable future.

Yes I remember reading that article years ago.

During President Eisenhower's first term in the 1950s, he had a heart attack and was hospitalized. I once saw a front-page NYT article from the time about his convalescence, and it mentioned that his temperature had been taken rectally. Which I thought would not be the kind of information you'd like the general public to know if you were President. Perhaps people were less squeamish about rectal temps back then.

I was hospitalized as a kid twice in the 1960's and my temperature was taken rectally both times.

I was in the hospital as a teen for pneumonia. Everyone in the pediatric ward was issued a brand new rectal thermometer in a case . A nurse would come around every 4 hours or so and take everyone’s temperature with their own thermometer. She carried a large tube of Vaseline in the pocket of her whit coat, along with alcohol swabs. Some would close the curtains, but others did not. In the latter case you and your roommate could watch each other getting their temperature taken, and in many cases, people walking in the hallway could see in as well. You got to take the thermometer home when you were being discharged.

It's always a shock even though it may be something that you grew accustomed to receiving. Even now, a RT can occur. Several summers ago, I went to the ER and felt rather ill with stomach distress and pain in my abdomen. It turned out to be much to do about nothing - well actually - constipation. I was afraid that it was appendicitis. Thankfully it wasn't and confirmed by receiving a RT and a DRE.

@bbob: “I can still remember the squishiness of the leftover vaseline…”

Vaseline has a distinctive feel, for sure. My mom used a big glob of Vaseline when she gave me enemas. Personally, I'm glad we now have water-soluble lubricants like K-Y.

I remember at 13 being admitted to hospital for minor surgery and being admitted to a 6 bed ward with all boys about my age or older. After my parents left the visitors for a couple of older boys were still there chatting when a nurse came to do my vitals. I opened my top and she listened to my chest and took my blood pressure which was all quite standard and I opened my mouth for my temp and was told to undo the draw string on my pyjamas. I suddenly knew what was happening and why the other visitors were lingering. I was told to turnover facing the wall and felt the air suddenly circulating around my bare buttocks. I felt aroused by the thought of them watching me as the nurse prised my buttocks apart and inserted the thermometer they were waiting to see the new kids reaction. I felt very red in the face when it was all over and I sat up in bed.

I was in the hospital in my early 30's had oral surgery. Temp was taken in my rectum 3 times a day on my side briefs pulled down. Not much I could do to resist couldn't be taken orally..