Undressing at the pediatrician

Is it different depending on which country you are ? I‘m from Germany And everytime we went to my pediatrician I had to take off everything. Sometimes including my socks and sometimes not . But we don’t get a gown for normal exams. How is it in other countries ?

Might be different country by country. But probably more different from generation to generation.

Pediatrician for me was 60s and early 70s. First pediatrician had me strip down to my briefs, and then they came off about half way through.

Second pediatrician, starting in 6th grade, I was stripped down to my briefs or boxers until he came into the room. But when he started the exam, always by weighing me and taking my height, he told me to take off my underwear and I was nude throughout.

I would be surprised if any pediatricians today do that.

I was always asked to take off everything except my boxers growing up to the pediatrician…those would eventually be pulled down or asked me to lower them.

Is it different depending on which country you are ? I‘m from Germany And everytime we went to my pediatrician I had to take off everything. Sometimes including my socks and sometimes not . But we don’t get a gown for normal exams. How is it in other countries ?

Same as it was in Mexico.

My experiences in the U.S. during the 1970s and 1980s are similar to @Kurtis0213 and @Tighty_Whiteis_Now . After being called back to the exam room, I and my brother were instructed to remove our clothes except our underwear. This included the socks because the doctor would check our foot reflexes when he came in. We would have to take off our underwear when we had a genital exam or a rectal temperature. I would be very surprised if that level of exam thoroughness is practiced today in the U.S. considering the changes in healthcare.

For me personally, sick visits didn’t require any undressing, but for physicals, I was always undressed to my underwear and rarely given a gown. I was allowed to keep my socks on until I was about 15 or 16 years old, which is when they started telling me to take them off. That’s also when my doctor started checking my feet.

I was a kid in the 1970s and a teenager in the 1980s - in the US - and back then undressing was pretty common. I think it is less so today.

I remember my pediatrician required me to be completely naked. I had to give my clothes to the assistant and lying on the table. He let the genital examination to the last part and I was dreaded by the anticipation. I remember staying still, avoiding any eye contact and avoiding also to stare to my naked body, too embarassing. I only stared to the room ceiling feeling the doctor touch moving from my neck, chest, abdomen and finally arriving between my legs. Sometimes that part was also painful and waiting he finishing his job was not so easy also knowing everything he was doing was seen by adults present in the room.

I remember I was 17 getting a physical my mom told me I needed. I still was going to pediatrician at the time. I checked in went to my appointment. The nurse took vitals and told me to take all clothes off. Gave me a gown. soon enough female doctor walked in with another female nurse. Doctor told me to step off table and remove gown. I was naked rest of time.

I'm an 80's kid and it was late 80's when I first remember seeing a doctor, who wanted to examine me for a cough, and my mum held my shirt up for me so he could use his stethoscope on me. That was one of many exams where I only had to take off what was needed for the doctor to examine a particular part of me. Shirt off completely was common for the doctor listening to your chest when I was growing up. With anything from waist down, I don't remember having to take everything off, just my trousers and every now and again my pants too. I get the feeling stripping down to pants and ‘waiting for the doctor to come in’ wasn't the set-up in England and it isn't now either - you tend to go straight in to your doctor's office and what you ask for help with will determine what (if anything) they want you to remove.

The thing is, going back to the original question, that I'm not sure I ever actually saw a paediatrician apart from on one occasion, which was a pre-op check-up at the hospital, and even then I don't know if I didn't just see whatever doctor was assigned to do that rather than a specialised person who usually treated kids. I only suspect he was because of how good he was with me so he was obviously used to examining kids, but to be honest that felt just like seeing my GP (which is what we called a PCP in England), and in England it was the case that kids saw their family doctor rather than specifically seeing a paediatrician. I still think of that set-up as the American one although I expect it happens in other countries. To answer the original question, yes I've been in nothing but my pants in front of (I think) a paediatrician once (and I wish I'd had more exams like this, looking back on that one), and yes he did also ask me to drop my pants to look at my penis, but for every other exam I just remember taking off what was needed rather than everything.

I have gone to a Family Physician since I was 7 years old - not a pediatrician - but I think the procedures were pretty similar.

Before I turned 14, they considered me a ‘child.' The nurse always wanted me to get undressed to my underwear. Before I was 12, that meant stripping down to just my panties. When I was 12, I started wearing a bra, so I was undressed to bra and panties for my physical exams when I was 13 and 14.

I started getting a gown when I was 14. When I went in for my physical exam when I was 14, the nurse handed me the gown and told me to get undressed and put the gown on, and then she left the room. I wasn't really sure what she wanted me to take off. I thought that since I had been in by underwear with no gown the year before, since she gave me a gown, she wanted my underwear off. I'm still not sure what she really wanted, but the doctor didn't say anything when he saw that I was naked under the gown.

I have gone to a Family Physician since I was 7 years old - not a pediatrician - but I think the procedures were pretty similar.

Before I turned 14, they considered me a ‘child.' The nurse always wanted me to get undressed to my underwear. Before I was 12, that meant stripping down to just my panties. When I was 12, I started wearing a bra, so I was undressed to bra and panties for my physical exams when I was 13 and 14.

I started getting a gown when I was 14. When I went in for my physical exam when I was 14, the nurse handed me the gown and told me to get undressed and put the gown on, and then she left the room. I wasn't really sure what she wanted me to take off. I thought that since I had been in by underwear with no gown the year before, since she gave me a gown, she wanted my underwear off. I'm still not sure what she really wanted, but the doctor didn't say anything when he saw that I was naked under the gown.

Were your breasts and genitals examined more frequently or in a different way when you got the gown compared to before? Did anything else change about the examination?

We had certain verification algorithms. Doctors have been following this for the most part. Until the age of 12, the child was stripped to panties. The genitals were examined at the very end, lowering the panties, although this was not always done. If necessary, panties were generally removed from the child. No screen, no adjoining cabinets. Any outsider could look into the office, even during the inspection.Any doctor in general could come in just like that, or someone's mother, to clarify something with the doctor. Children under 14 did not want to be taken alone and were examined only in the presence of adults.

Ironically, my pediatrician never had me strip off my clothes, period. Most of the adult gp’s did require me to strip off everything, excluding my underwear. I haven’t had that happen in close to 20 years. I think that it depends on the particular doctor. I find it humiliating, and probably unnecessary.

I had two pediatricIans in two different states here in the US. The first was male the second was female and the first I went with my biological mother then later the second with my stepmother, but at both for yearly physical I was told to strip to my underwear or underpants depending on the age of nurse. It was very awkward undressing in front of my stepmother and then waiting for the doctor and nurse to come back in. At the end my underwear came off for the genital exam.

Here in germany i aways had to strip to my underpants at the beginning and naked at the end for genital exam

It is more a function of what gender you are IMHO. I was examined in the US by a female from 13-15 and from 15 onwards I was examine by a male. My female doctor had us (I had my exams with my younger brother) both strip to underpants when we were escorted to the exam room by the nurse. The nurse would watch us undress until we were both in just our briefs and we would only dress after both of us were finished with our checkups. It was embarrassing but the briefs let us keep some very minor sense of modesty until we had to have our genitals and rear ends checked and even then they the briefs were never completely removed just pulled down in the front or back.

At 15 we got a new male doctor since my younger brother ,who was 7 then, was shy about having a woman examine him. So we went to the new doctor's office which was in a much larger practice in a multistory building. We were weighed,blood pressure checked, and vision test done in our street clothes in the hallway. I thought that I would not have to take anything off for the exam. The nurse escorted us in and the doctor came in a few moments later. He had us both strip absolutely naked for the exam. So literally we were standing in a strange room with a new doctor both of us wearing not a stich of clothing while my mother was observing all of this with some glee on her part. Plus it was on thing to be undressed down to your briefs, because you are covered in a place where a man feels most judged. However when you are naked the sense of being judged becomes more acute,if a stranger walked in the first thing they would be looking at is your genitals,and depending on what your perception of your penis size is you would obsess over them looking at your privates

When I was a kid and feeling sick and taken to the doctors they would often decide to do a more detailed exam of me and tell my mother or father "can you strip him to his underpants only for me please?". My big brother would also be there in the room with us and so got to see me examined stripped down to my undies, either briefs or boxers, depending on how old I was. I would stand against the wall to get my height measured, get on the scales to be weighed and then hopped onto the table. They would then check my eyes, ears and throat, listen to my heart, lungs and tummy with a cold stethoscope and do reflex checks on me. When I was 5 or 6 the doctor would then let me listen to myself with his stethoscope and I loved listening to the sound of my little heart beating away and the gurgling sound inside my tummy.

Until he was 13 it was the same for me brother so if he was ill I would be there and see him strip down to his boxers and get checked over, whch as he was getting older I could see it was embarrassing for him, the same as it was when I started puberty. A bit strange as at home we would both lounge around in our boxers when we got up and had breakfast and only got dressed after a shower. As this is Scotland maybe the Wim Hoff in us both (and I actually do take a cold shower even in winter every day these days!). But it was just somehow different being checked over like a piece of meat having your weight read out, taking deep breaths in and out with others watching over me etc.

I never got a genital exam when I went to the doctors, only in my school exams and looking back it would have been further embarrassing had I had to pull down my undies in front of my brother, or him me, and got to see each others willy being examined but it never happened.

@S3b1_98,

The exam didn't change that much, except, of course, I was wearing a gown instead of underwear. As far as the exam of my breasts and genitals, no, I can't really say that it changed that much at age 14.

First I was being examined in bra and panties. Then bra was removed and eventually panties too. Same pediatrician, same procedure every year until I was 18 and left for college.

For me personally, sick visits didn’t require any undressing, but for physicals, I was always undressed to my underwear and rarely given a gown. I was allowed to keep my socks on until I was about 15 or 16 years old, which is when they started telling me to take them off. That’s also when my doctor started checking my feet.

Yeah similar. Once i hit 18 i started to take my socks off. Furst year he ran through a physical and i thought i was done, but he pulled my socks off and checked pulses. super uncomfortable. One year it was only shoes/socks off And the amount of foot tests i got was insane. my feet are super sensitive so checking pulses on my toes and feeling my feet was a but uncomfortable. i had a neutral babinski too, and i just remember him stroking a few times on my sole. it was awful.

My most recent physical exam it was shirt/shoes/socks off. I was barefoot the whole time. Shirt off for a second.

but if my physical is in the summer I usually wear polo shirt, khakis and flip flops now since barefoot is normal now.

@S3b1_98,

The exam didn't change that much, except, of course, I was wearing a gown instead of underwear. As far as the exam of my breasts and genitals, no, I can't really say that it changed that much at age 14.

Did you have to take off both bra and panties at the same time or were you allowed to partially get dressed inbetween before age 14?

Was the gown ever removed completely or was it just moped up or down for the different examination?

@S3b1_98

Did you have to take off both bra and panties at the same time or were you allowed to partially get dressed inbetween before age 14?

Was the gown ever removed completely or was it just moped up or down for the different examination?

Before I turned 14-years-old, but once I started wearing a bra, I had to get undressed down to my bra and panties at the very beginning of the physical exam. My doctor would come in and start the exam with me like that. After he checked my head and neck, he would check my back. Then he would move around in front of me and tell me that he was going to examine my chest, and asked me to remove my bra. After I did that, my bra was off for the rest of the check-up. At the very end he would tell me that he was going to check my private parts, and asked me to take my panties off – so, both bra and panties were off for a few minutes at the end of the exam.

Once I was 14 the gown was never all the way off. He would pull the top down to examine my chest, then put it back up. He lifted the bottom up to examine my abdomen and pelvis areas. When he was examining my abdomen, he would put a small paper drape over my private parts.

The closest I came to having the gown off was during my first physical in the gown, at age 14. He was examining my spine, and asked me to stand up, bend forward, and touch my toes. I didn't realize I was supposed to tie the gown behind my neck. Thus, when I stood up and bend forward and touched my toes, my gown slid all the way down, and was basically just around my wrists as he examined my spine.

Wish it was still that way.

My exams have differed based on my age. I remember when I was younger I stayed in my clothes, and then the doctor would lift or ask me to remove various articles of clothing to conduct the exam. I’ve also had exams where I was given a gown, but only had to remove my outer wear (shirt, pants, shoes, etc.). More recently, though, I’ve been naked under the gown.

Same here in Switzerland. All my exams i ended up nude. I sometimes wondered if it was always neccessary Or if she just liked the View.

I sometimes wondered if it was always neccessary Or if she just liked the View.

As a Child I didn't know any better, but now as an adult I wounder that as well…

Never had a paediatrician when I was young. In England we just saw the family GP. If I had to have my chest listened to or my belly, I was bare from the waist up, if anything below that I was exposed there too.

The office I went to for my exams during high school for sports physicals and general visit was inside a large old house of old lady pediatrician. There was sometimes a nurse working there. When the nurse took me back to the exam room, I went through the basic vitals in just my briefs, but then made it a point to have me take them off before she left to go get the doctor. One time she stayed in the room to make sure that I took off my underwear, and after that, she left.

At the pediatrician, after I turned 12, I got a paper gown with my socks and panties on. Before 12 I just wore socks and panties.