Are Rectal Temperatures Dying Out?

I am sad to say it does seem to be dying out.

I don't think rectal temps are totally dead. I don't think they're talked about much anymore, at least not outside of our little group here. I do know of a few parents that will take rectal temps on their young children, but have stopped by age 3 or 4.

When my wife had a colonoscopy a couple months ago, I asked the RN who was attending to her. Her response was basically the same as what liquidsky posted. Rectal only for infants and a few other rare occasions, such as a patient vomiting a lot.

I doubt RT will disappear for the fetish crowd. Something going in and out of the butt will always be pleasurable. And those who really enjoy it don't general care about the reading. Its the process.

Rectal Temperatures are not dying out in fact. Check this out.

http://www.webmd.com/news/20151116/rectal-thermometer-remains-gold-standard-for-spotting-fever

From November of 2015. Just ask for it based on "religious desires" they will honor it.

For religious reasons? Are you dreaming? Not going to happen. I'm an ER doc and I know. How totally absurd.

Rectal Temperatures are not dying out . . . . Just ask for it based on "religious desires" they will honor it.

religious reasons??????????

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

I'l be laughing for a while.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Please share whatever you're smoking.

First of all, the entire medical community should know that a rectal temp is the most accurate, but unfortunately, they do not. Why don't they? Well it's simple really, they have no critical thinking skills, or logic.

If you have taken a high school biology class you should have been taught basic concepts like fight or flight. If you took basic Chemistry you should have been taught basic concepts about core temps. Hell for that matter, if you took Earth Science which is required by law here in the state of Ohio in 7th grade, or at least it was when I was younger, then again, you should have been taught the concept of how things work around core structures. And I am so not wording that correctly, but you get my point.

Those concepts basically teach us that the closer you get to the core of something that is "alive" for lack of better terms, the more accurate, more concentrated, and more important things are located. The further out from the core you get, the cooler things get, less concentrated and so forth. This is one of the reasons people complain about cold fingers, feet, hands, and toes. They are the furthest from the core of the body. If you have ever watched a show like CSI or another forensic show you see the coroner sticking a temperature probe in the liver to get the most accurate temp they can to help determine an approximate time of death. It really is just plain common sense, and maybe a little bit of simple critical thinking.

If I have said this once I have said it a good thousand times here. In today's medical world getting a temp on a live person isn't as necessary, critical, or important as it was 50 years ago. Back in the day they didn't have the equipment, technology, ability, or medications even to trouble shoot a diagnosis like they can today. Yes accurate temps are still important and can be a vital tool when dealing with critically ill patients, but for the patient going to their doctors, it really isn't important.

A good medical professional can usually take one look at a patient and tell if they have a temp not within normal limits. Back in the day if you had a temp of 99 point something you got treated with something, usually a huge shot of Penicillin in your ass. But in today's medical world we do not treat temps until they reach 102. Medical advancements have proven over and over that your body often times can take care of itself, if it couldn't then we would have died off millions of years ago. Research has proven to us that having a low grade fever is your bodies way of fighting off the bug you have and even taking something like Tylenol is actually preventing your body from doing the job it was designed to do, or dragging out the healing process longer than it would be if you just left it alone.

All vital signs are important, but they are NOT critical and or as necessary like they were back in the day, and again for the reasons sited above. On critical patients vitals are just that, vital. Sometimes vitals are needed to figure out medication dosages. However for the normal everyday patient going to see the doctor, vitals just are not all that necessary anymore. Again, critical thinking skills and common sense play the most important roles here.

Think about it this way. As I said, a good medical professional can take one look at you and tell if you have a temp high enough to require taking a temp, or treating it. You probably drove to the doctors, you walked in and you walked back to the examining room, under your own power. So obviously you are breathing and your heart is beating or you would not be able to do those things. So, taking a pulse and counting your respirations are a total waste of time and bring absolutely nothing to the table to help form a diagnosis. So that pulls off a temp, pulse, respirations and the last thing is your blood pressure. Again, if you made it to the doctors office I can assure you you have a blood pressure. Out of the 4 vital signs that is the only one that might need to be assessed more frequently, but ONLY if you are having cardiac issues, generally speaking, or need meds that require a blood pressure to calculate a correct dosage or because of the effects some of these meds have. Half the time our patients blood pressure isn't even close to what it normally runs because of issues like white coat syndrome for example.

So please let me say again before I get plastered. Vital signs can be vital and very important, but they are not always necessary these days to form a diagnosis. So if you go to your doctor and they don't take a full set of vitals, please don't feel you are not getting the care you deserve, are paying for, your doctor doesn't care, quite the opposite in fact. Your doctor is putting his time on things that are important and on things that are going to help you the most.

And that is my nut for the day.

Mashie

What religion requires rectal temperatures? The ass worship religion?

^^^ Gee - hove - aaaah ! be my wit-in-arse

He posted the "rectal temperature for religious reasons" bullshit on another thread too and it's absurd. It wouldn't possibly work, and you'd just seem like a kook.

Yeah...as a standard medical practice I think it has pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur. It certainly has clinical applications in some circumstances...the oblivious being heat or cold injuries. But even the young and infirm can now be monitored by ear or forehead thermometers. The accuracy of the ear and forehead scanners remains a matter of debate but I think most health care practitioners are "OK" with the less intrusive methods. (I know that marathon events...running, biking...keep RT's in the med tent but again...that is due to heat injury.)

Did someone mention that rectal temps. are taken for religious reasons ? Maybe in the Duggar family ?...lol. Hey, there's always a first for everything !

RTdude: France too. I guess a majority of adults over 40 used rectal temperatures as children and teenagers, though of course self-taken above a certain age. As I said, these used to be standard in hospitals. Though many of these adults have stopped doing that and instead use tympanic thermometers etc., many still use the old fashioned way.

Things may be different with the younger generations - they grew up in the days of tympanic etc. thermometers.

A major difference with countries such as the US is that, for most people, rectal temperatures are not associated with the embarrassment, or even humiliation, of disrobing in front of an adult and having an object inserted into the anus. Instead, a common practice, once a child was old enough to cope, was to let the child insert the thermometer himself or herself under bed covers. This is what was done in my home, in the hospital where I stayed for appendicitis, etc.

Technology has changed the way temperatures are taken, but rectal temps aren't gone completely, as Nurse Nikki and others have posted.

In the privacy of home, these intimate moments between spouses can be an oasis during a miserable flu or headache.

I dont think theyre dying out, just used when necessary. Ive been to visit people in hospitals several times and have almost always seen a nurse exit a room with the thermometer having the red rectal probe and well attached to it. When you take your own temperature rectally, you tend to notice these things. And i wasnt in the childrens ward either.

NEVER !! As long as we kinksters are around, the practice will live on. I enjoyed RT as a child and the enjoyment has only increased over the years. I sometimes do them in the morning, evening and whenever some activity may alter my temp significantly. Interesting to see how working in the hot summer sun can increase my temp. Keep up the fun activities, folks.

There definitely seems to be a fair amount of people that got their temperatures taken rectally past toddler/little kid years and I was curious. Was there ever a point where you realized getting it taken rectally was "the little kid way"? That most peers your age were not getting it taken that way and had moved on to other methods like oral or axillary? How did you deal with it? Did you confront your parents or were you caught by someone else?

I think the Rectal route for taking temperatures, despite many believing it to still be the gold standard is really dead in the water. I think the both the way we as a people have evolved and all these silly laws and regulations that are all over the place. I can easily imagine a situation when a doctor would take a patients temperature rectally and be hauled up in front of a court for indecency and gross misconduct. Its sad to think of it that way but I would think it plays on medical professional's minds.

Then you have technology which is allowing us to take temperatures in record time and using very non-invasive methods. E.g. The ear. Whenever I visit my Doctor's surgery there is anyone of 5-6 Doctors that you could see depending how becomes available.Every single on of them have a tympanic thermometer on their desk ready to go. I would often take a quick glance around the room on entry to see could I spot any evidence of a glass thermometer anywhere, and most of the time it is a resounding no.

Definitely seems like technology is taking the professions away from this method.

With modern technology - dead. In surgery, they use either a urinary catheter with a temperature transducer or one mounted on the endotrachial tube. Same in the ICU. If you're not sick enough those, you're probably not sick enough for minor temperature changes to matter.

I would believe that rectal temps. are history, at least in America. I read some questionable posts about rectal temps. still being taken, but I have my doubts. If for no other reason, rectal temps. are embarrassing, and inconvenient, in a clinical setting where it seems preferable to see many patients in as little time as possible. Modesty, and legal issues should be considered. We live in a litigious world of false accusations, and lawsuits. Also, what difference does a tenth of a degree difference make, in most cases ? The course of treatment is still going to be the same. For those of us who appreciate it as a fetish, the practice lives on.

Well, I guess it depends on what you read here and elsewhere or what you may hear from "experts" or medical professionals; that would lead you to believe that this method of determining body temperature is dying out, obsolete or 'history'. This is my opinion, that the rectal temperature, though not as prevalent as say it was years ago when thermometers were mercury, and it was considered "the gold standard" which as far as I've heard and seen, it still is; has given way to fears, phobias, taboos and possibly a certain helping of political correctness, and a fear and loathing of mercury thermometers.

It remains a debate I guess as to the accuracy of various thermometers such as digital, scanners or probe styles, having the accuracy of the older glass thermometers to be another factor in the rectal method.

As far as thermometers: At 3AM if I have a sick child, and I have a digital, will the battery be fully up or will it have weakened where regardless of the route used, it may not give an accurate reading. That would apply for any battery operated thermometer/system.

It's just my belief that there are still in certain medical settings in medical facilities, protocols dictating rectal temperatures. As for home use, it probably varies with respect to the particular family, their views and beliefs on the RT method.

Poster JJM raises some valid points too, specifically about our litigious society.

As far as thermometers: At 3AM if I have a sick child, and I have a digital, will the battery be fully up or will it have weakened where regardless of the route used, it may not give an accurate reading. That would apply for any battery operated thermometer/system

The fact is that lips or the back of the hand on the forehead will tell you all you need to know in the absence of a thermometer.

The fact is that mercury body temperature thermometers aren't sold anymore - mercury is a toxic biohazard. It is a danger from the manufacturer through the distributor on to the retailer and continuing to the consumer.

The fact is that the electronic thermometers are close enough in accuracy to mercury (even inexpensive home units) that the error is inconsequential.

The fact is that you're arguing with medical professionals. Your beliefs and feelings don't stand up to FACTS and EXPERIENCES.

5 & ½ years on the shelf . . Time to dust it off ?

Not in my case. Did alot of rt today on my play date

With respect to the actual procedure, in at least medical/ clinical venues it might well be used as indicated as necessary.

As for home use, I would say it is dependent on the family, and their experience with temperature taking. Some people were brought up having rectal temperatures taken while others were not.

With respecting to consenting adults involved in anal activities/ stimulation both physically and psychologically, rectal temperature taking may very well be included.

In some respects, yes it may be fading whereas in others it is still a practice.

I would believe that rectal temps are likely used by a majority of fetishists, and a group of the population that grew up with them, and just prefer not to change.

Unfortunately no longer used in hospitals situations even though they give the most accurate temperature. This seems to make the case for convenience over accuracy. Rectal temperatures are still recommended to determine cases of hypothermia or in cases of heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

Of course, they are dying out. It is the thermal scan or ear scan. Lol! The corner still uses them if you die unexpectedly to determine when you died.

Of course, they are dying out. It is the thermal scan or ear scan. Lol! The corner still uses them if you die unexpectedly to determine when you died.

They can use rectal temp but a more accurate temp to assist in determining time of death would be a liver probe: “This requires making a small incision in the upper right abdomen and passing the thermometer into the tissue of the liver.”