Why are rectal temperatures seen as taboo or lost art these days

Why don’t doctors and nurses do rectal temperature’s regularly anymore these days! It’s pretty well considered taboo!

They don’t often do it on babies anymore much less children, teens or adults!

It’s THE MOST ACCURATE WAY! And it’s the BEST WAY FOR ME!

I just wish it wasn’t seen as such taboo or a thing of the past! I wish they would start doing them again at the doctors office!

The area/ subject of a person’s bottom including medical procedures has for many years been considered, yes, a “ taboo” subject.

That said, not everyone takes that view. Look at the people here contributing to the subject via images and experiences.

There are those who agree that it is the most accurate measurement short of esophageal.

The procedure in medical venues can be affected by many variable. It could be the patient, hospital/medical facility venue, and available technology and in the case of the older mercury thermometers, the focus on mercury as a hazard.

There are probably many who use the rectal method but for fear of being scoffed at or dismissed, or labeled such as “ weird”, “ kinky” or more severe labels, don’t broach the subject with others.

Medicine in general has become 'less intrusive' and unfortunately a thermometer in the rectum is just that.

Mostly its time it takes still used in chemo patients

I worked on a chemo floor and we never did rectal temps!

My late wife had several sessions on the chemo floor but never had her temperature taken rectally. The nurse would wheel round the trolley that held the machine that took her BP and temperature was just a click in the ear as it is usually done nowadays. There would be no privacy for rectal temps.

I can't imagine that temperatures are taken rectally anymore due to time pressures and intrusion, in the real world anyway.

I’m not sure if rectal temps were ever popular or widely accepted in the United States. I don’t think that most parents and nurses enjoyed seeing someone physically and mentally uncomfortable with having a thermometer in their ass. Let’s not forget, that the majority who had their temperature taken that way, didn’t like it, and didn’t end up with a fetish. Besides, anal penetration was likely a lot more taboo in America, and England, than it is today. We had several anti sodomy laws on the books. Europeans don’t share that history, to my knowledge. Nudity, suppositories, and rectal temperature taking, is a common occurrence, or was in the past. It isn’t an indication of a character fault, or psychological problem. Unfortunately, there are mental health “experts,” in America today, who continue to demonize people who would prefer to make their own harmless choices.

I have several younger female nurse friends who have told me that taking rectal temps is still very much a thing, especially if a baby or toddler is indicating a high fever by other means of measurement. Now days a digital probe takes seconds instead of minutes.

They also take digital RTs of their own children when needed.

It's probably because it can be considered sexual. The medical profession is extra careful about anything that can come back to bite them legally. I had a rectal exam to check my prostrate last month. The female PA had a nurse come in to witness. She gave me some type of gown. I just told them I have buns of steel and proceeded to drop by pants. I wanted them to be relaxed so they could do their job.

I was pissed when I took @Shygirl17 in the ER about six months ago for a gall bladder attack. They did not take her temp at all. After asking three times they finally took via the forehead. I then asked for rectal because I don't take chances when it comes to health. They said only if it was higher would they do that. If the methods are faulty they can be off. I have had it happen to me. Had a nurse tell me I had a temp of 99 when it was around 104 years ago.

When it comes to health I take the fetish out of it. Meaning I do what is necessary to ensure we are healthy. That includes a massive amount of research into meds, vaccines, etc. I don't blindly listen to so called medical experts. I look at results for myself. Sadly that has to be done with everything today. Can't trust people to be true experts at their job.

@JJM

I don't know if RTs were ever popular in the U.S. but they used to be commonplace prior to the 1980s. Time magazine even ran a short article in the early 1960s about the use of rectal thermometers in hospitals.

Before the invention tympanic and forehead thermometers, beginning in the late 80’s to early 90’s, there were only two types of thermometers, either oral or rectal. Underarm temps existed as well, but were hardly ever used because they were felt to be highly inaccurate. Glass oral thermometers needed to be left under the tongue for 3-5 minutes, which was not easy for a child, even an older one, to do, especially if they had a cold, were hyperactive, or coughing. Some parents and health care providers felt that most children were able to use an oral thermometer at 5-6 yo, while many others felt 8-10 yo was the correct age to transition, while still others thought 12-14 was better. Some children, regardless of age, still having a hard time, and were felt to be better off sticking with rectal, or going back and forth as needed. Since modern digital thermometers are able to get a result in 10 seconds, it’s less necessary than it used to be. It is still the gold standard, though, and still used sometimes.

Today most hospitals and doctors offices use temporal scans or ear thermometers to take temps. Most hospitals use the temporal scan unless the patient has fever and they need a very accurate reading. No glass thermometer, though; just an electronic thermometer with a plastic probe that goes in the butt. As I have mentioned in another post just think of a generation that will never realize or experience rectal temps and play

I think it could be due to the awareness that there IS a sexual connotation of RTs, a fact amply demonstrated by this forum. Legitimate medical personnel don't want to do anything that may appear sexual, aside from the fact that it easier just to take temps by a brief scan, as is most frequently done today.

I don't think they are lost or taboo. Technology has improved. It used to be that a rectal temperature - in addition to being a safe way to do it for babies - was also the most accurate way to get a person's core temperature, if that was necessary. I had it done a few times for certain reasons as late as my teens, but that was in the 1980s. But now, a reading just as accurate can be obtained in ways that are faster and less intrusive.

Because it's time consuming and modern tech is reliable enough. Super accurate temperature readings aren't really necessary for most diagnoses.

Like many things, advances in technology replace older methods and traditions. To require a rectal temp these days is unusual but not out of the question. Surely reserved for absolute accuracy and the necessity of privacy.

Definitely most accurate, more time consuming and more invasive. But I would err on the side of accuracy when it is advised.

Definitely most accurate, more time consuming and more invasive. But I would err on the side of accuracy when it is advised.

I would argue against the time consuming part. It takes no longer than an oral reading and dropping one's pants takes all of 3 seconds. Same for putting them back on. There's really only a time difference compared to ear and forehead thermometers, and those are so unreliable that they shouldn't really exist at all.

The only real barrier to doing them efficiently is the invasive part, and that's more an issue of perception/personal beliefs at that point. I personally find a rectal thermometer far less invasive/uncomfortable than them shoving a probe under my tongue, so I'd pick it every time given the choice.

If we managed to condition society to view butts as no more special than the stomach or a male chest, I think it would make the rectal temperature much more amenable to the average person. It's pretty simple to only expose the buttocks and keep the front covered; generations of boys have figured it out by mooning people.

I've got 2 thermometers - a Withings temporal one, and a Kinsa oral thermometer. I should try comparing both to a rectal measurement and see what the deltas are. I know that the temporal one can be thrown off because of how I sleep and how it makes my head warm sometimes.

Seriously? 🙄

Because no one except for a tiny percentage of us medfet fans wants a nurse messing with their buttocks or anus for any more time than absolutely necessary.

Perhaps it's much more easier to use other ways of taking temperature, which are quicker and less disinfection involved and also many people just don't like that way, considering it very unnatural and uncomfortable

Nobody had a stronger fetish for rectal temperatures than I as a young person; however, everyone needs to understand that it’s long over, and not coming back. Most temperatures these days are taken in doctor’s offices on the forehead or the wrist. These offices are completely non invasive, and so are the physical exams of today. Clothing does not come off. Stethoscopes are placed over the shirt. Back in the day, glass rectal thermometers were used, and left in the rectum for up to 5 minutes. Doctors don’t get paid that well now, because of fixed insurance rates. Time is money.

Even with a digital rectal thermometer, where it is less time consuming they are not going to have you undress. Finally, and I hope nobody takes this as insulting, there is no nurse that wants to see an older patient's bare bottom. It would be a complete turn off for them. You, having a fetish, probably wouldn’t mind it on display, but no medical personnel are the least bit interested. Just reality.

There is a sexual connotation about inserting anything Into anyone's rectum or vagina. The very act simulates intercourse.

I was going to the doctor's emergency because I felt that I was not well and before the reception the nurse took a blood test and measured my temperature. the blood test showed that my inflammation level was 180, which normal value is less than 10! and he measured the temperature in the ear, the result was 37.4c and the nurse stated that you don't have a little heat, I said that can't be true because the result measured at home before leaving was over 38.7c, but the nurse said that this is an accurate enough result and they don't have time for other measurements, stating that what is measured at home cannot be true. an hour later, when I got back home, my wife measured my temperature again from the rectum, and the result was 38.9. I don't trust the results of ear meters

Scan thermometers are not necessarily accurate. I found that out during the height of covid-19(I never tested positive) scanner readings from a unit I bought found the readings were less than both oral and rectal measurements I took.

For those who enjoy rectal temps, there’s nothing wrong doing it that way..ENJOY them! Nothing wrong and if you feel better or get satisfaction with them, then they are the best way for you.

Rectal temps aren’t seen as “taboo” with medical practitioners, there are simply more efficient and quicker ways to get a temp that is good enough. In most cases, core body temp ( or a better estimate of it provided by rectal temps) isn’t needed, so the quick check with a temporal scan is good enuf…they know it registers a degree or two lower than what a rectal temp would register. Just like your weight, you would get a more accurate measurement if you were naked, but they don’t (usually) need to be that precise.

Oral thermometers are just as accurate as rectal thermometers, they just measure temps in different parts of your body. A temp taken rectally provides a measurement that is closer to your core body temp, but not as close as a liver probe.

These days children are treated as sentient beings instead of livestock-like like in the past.

Also everything needs to be as instantaneous as possible. Three to four minutes of time is likely deemed too costly for the modern medical business model.

@arttemp A rectal temperature with an electronic thermometer takes far less than that. But yeah you still have to undress/dress, you need disinfection afterwards or a probe cover… so it's still faster to use infrared.

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Really, rectal temperatures have become less and less common for a combination of several trends: technology changes, time constraints, growing prudishness (around medical things), and changes to how we treat children.

First, and most important, the technology has changed. Back when I was a child, it was all glass and mercury thermometers. To get a good oral temperature, you had to keep the thermometer in the right place, under your tongue, mouth closed for three or four minutes. And you couldn’t always tell if the patient had done this. Plus you had the risk of the thermometer being bitten and broken in the mouth. And under arm temperatures took even longer, so the problem was worse.

If you took a rectal temperature, you didn’t need the patient to cooperate beyond laying somewhat still. If you kept it inserted into the rectum for three or four minutes, you we going to get the right temperature. You wouldn’t chance missing a fever.

Back then, it made sense to take a temperature at an older age than we would today. Modern digital thermometers only have to stay in the right place for 10 or 15 seconds and give some indication if things went wrong.

These days, you can certainly trust most five year olds to keep the thermometer under their tongue for 10 seconds, so using an oral thermometer makes sense. In 1970, you might question whether an eight year old could do the same for 4 minutes and it might be safer to just go with a rectal reading. The Bates guide to examination of the time even suggested rectal readings for all pediatric patients.

You could make similar arguments for adult hospitalized patients where it wasn’t that much harder to take a rectal temperature. When oral temperatures were harder to get right, hospital were willing to go rectal for adults in more circumstances than today’s technology would necessitate.

The newer technology gives us more options, so we choose rectal temperatures less often.

Next you have time. In most circumstances, rectal temperatures take longer to get than an oral temperature. Ear thermometers are a little faster than oral (if less reliable).And the newer forehead and non-contact sensors are even faster. (Although they are trash in my opinion. I had one read 98 point something while my plain old digital oral thermometer read 102.)

Since time is money, we choose the faster options even when they are not as good, so we take rectal temperatures less often.

Third, you have prudishness. Around things medical, we seem to have gotten more prudish in my time. I am not sure how much this has been the younger doctors and nurses being more prudish and how much it has been the population getting more prudish and the doctors and nurses just responding to that. ( I really need to make a whole post on this topic.)

We have become more prudish in some ways and don’t want to touch or have reveals anything as icky as a bottom or anus, so we take rectal temperatures less often.

Finally, we take children’s feeling more seriously than we did in the past. This is a good thing overall, but it does make us more reluctant to subject them to things they might find embarrassing, even when maybe we should be prioritizing health.

And again, this means that we take rectal temperatures less often.

All of these factors have contributed to the demise of rectal temperatures. Technology has changes the pros and cons and we seem to be choosing speed, cost, and less embarrassment over reliability.

I don’t know if they will completely go away in my lifetime. I think that there are corner cases like heat illness where they will remain. They might or they might even have a bit of a revival, but they will never be used at the frequently they were used pre-1980.

For what it is worth from an non-fetish perspective, I do wish that we would get rid of the infrared based thermometers and go back to mostly using oral and rectal digital thermometers. I think that if you care what a temperature is, oral digital thermometers are really the best choice 95% of time or so, with digital rectal thermometers taking up most of the other 5%. However, I fear that we are heading to times where even the oral thermometers get used less and less.

They don’t really do them anymore in hospitals either. If they did it would be a last resort or absolutely necessary for accuracy. At least that’s the way it seems to be now.