Medicals Exams in the UK

BigEasyGuy. Very interesting post. Could you maybe give a little more detail about the age of the boys concerned and the specific year? I have never heard of cases where boys flatly refused to submit to what was (presumably) a mandatory examination.

Something else which puzzles me...you mention that all the boys had to have an end of year physical. The last time that happened to me ( every boy in the year having an exam) was 1963 in Junior School. I had an exam (medical ) every school year between 1964and 1970. But, I was very much the exception to the rule. Never once between 1964 and 1970 did an entire year group (nor even one entire class of boys) have a full medical. Innoculations - yes (entire year group). Head lice inspection and height /weight checks (but otherwise no physical exam)...yes (entire year group).

It's my perception that, for various reasons, medicals ( as in terms of the really thorough ones I used to receive at school ) were tailing off during the 1970s / 80s. I was a teacher myself when Ì grew up and graduated. So I can confirm (at least in the schools I taught in between 1973 and 2013) that there was not even one occasion when either an entire class or year group had medicals 'en masse'.

Again, I would be very interested to hear / read what everyone else has to add to this. Fascinating. Of course, different LEAs may well have had their own rules / regulations...but some trends were definitely national.

To schoolmedsboi

We only ever had three medical examinations when I was at school. There was on the week before we started school when I was 5, this was a cursory look over, coed and not intrusive in any way. Then an exam in last year of junior school when we were 12 before senior school. Again, nothing intrusive, had to take your shirt off. The last medical which I mentioned is when your 15-16 last year of school. I went to a pretty rough school in the North of England, This one time, word got around the school about the resistance from a lot of the guys not allowing an intimate inspection of their privates, as far as I can remember, if the pupil said no, and I remember a kid who was in the year above me telling me he said, "No Way" , they just let it go and moved on, no teachers were involved and I don't remember and discipline over it, I do remember some teachers stating that the education board have no business in the pants of the pupils. No annual medical examinations, nothing for sport, nothing in anyway, I remember the head lice inspection in junior school but never happened at senior school. I also remember getting TB inoculation I the first year of senior school. I was never seen by our family General Practioner once from 12-16, however saw him during a home visit when I had tonsillitis when I was 8 or 9. I agree it differs from County to County. I'm glad I was left alone to develop naturally.

Heyyyy BEG...Many thanks for that. Yes...it does sound as though there was something decidedly odd about what you have described. I mean, a proper formal medical for each boy would have taken 15 - 20 minutes each as an absolute minimum. There should have been advance notification for everyone about a thorough physical examination. Parental consent forms would have had to have been signed etc., etc.

Something about the whole procedure does sound not quite right. Yes, I know the NE of England very well. In that situation (& you mention no teachers or parents involved ) in the late 1970s / early 1980s...with tough / disaffected working class youths....I can definitely see how such a situation would arise.

Still, definitely extremely interesting. I wonder what the actual background to it all was? Of course, anyone in any kind of authority, just always expected 'children' to do as they were told and obey with blind faith and witjout question. Society / schools was / were changing rapidly during the era you describe. Whatever did happen in your school is a clear demonstration that the whole scenario was badly planned and poorly managed. Still very intriguing though.

I remember my school medical in either 1984 or 1985 in Scotland you had to undress from the waist down so your genitals were exposed for the school nurse to exam/feel I remember sitting outside with other boys saying they would walk in on your medical show you a porn magazine so you would get an erection in front of the nurse they also said the nurse hit your erection if you got one with a spatula I remember being called in to the room by the nurse and told me to stand in front of her and drop my trousers and pants I dropped my trousers and she and your pants which I did and suddenly she squeezed them I could feel the inside of my testicles as she walked away she looked over her shoulder and said dress yourself. I remember stopping for a second outside her door too pull up my trousers properly I do not remember walking back to class but sitting in class with my heart rate beating fast because of the medical. I have thoughts of recreating it. I like knew my testicles would be felt but it is still emabarrassing.

(Coda: In 1982 my wife and I successfully applied for our first mortgage. As I was the main 'breadwinner' - I had to undergo a full medical before the mortgage application was approved. I was 29. There was no hearing test and no eye test....but, otherwise, it was more or less identical to the medical just described. I had to strip naked by the end and...yes....genitals etc were closely examined. In 2017, I cannot imagine anyone in the UK nowadays applying for a mortgage having to be examined that initimately, if at all.)

I had a similar experience in 1974 When insurance was mandatory for the mortgage..

Guess that's a UK thing. I've never experienced even having to show medical records, much less having to have a physical when applying for a mortgage. And i'm much older.

@Rockdoc said

(Coda: In 1982 my wife and I successfully applied for our first mortgage. As I was the main 'breadwinner' - I had to undergo a full medical before the mortgage application was approved. I was 29.

@JTMac said

Guess that's a UK thing. I've never experienced even having to show medical records, much less having to have a physical when applying for a mortgage. And i'm much older.

Not is a UK thing but possibly was, and even then perhaps only for some depending on certain criteria and the provider.

I've never heard of any medical evaluation as condition for a mortgage application during the time it would have affected me, and I started my mortgage during the early 1990s. Back then, and certainly now, mortgage providers are more concerned with your earnings and your lifestyle to determine whether you are likely to keep up with your repayments.

I've never heard of any medical evaluation as condition for a mortgage application during the time it would have affected me, and I started my mortgage during the early 1990s.

Never heard of that condition in Belgium either. And I've had 3 mortgages, starting in the late 1970s, 2 even after I had a lung removed because of cancer. Still no medical exam was required, but I do think my premium on the mortgage repayment insurance was a bit higher to cover a possible risk.

Just to clarify.The medical was not for the mortgage but for the compulsory life insurance policy.

@Rockdoc - Thanks for that. It did later occur to me that it could have been for the life insurance. Again, I don't even recall being asked too many health related questions when I took out a mortgage. If there were any, they were so trivial that they were of no consequence. I seem to remember being asked if I smoked (I don't and never have) but I don't believe there was much else.

I would have believed it could have been for a mortgage, if the loaner was afraid the borrower might croak & not be able to paid back the mortgage, because as they say, "you can't get blood from a stone".

Thanks for those replies everyone. Yes...the medical was to do with having to take out some kind of loan related to the Life Insurance part of the mortgage. I was obviously healthy enough...as the loan was approved. Well over 30 years later....all paid off.

You are all correct...I do not think that having a really exhaustive medical ( or indeed any kind of medical ) would ever happen nowadays and certainly not one where virtually the entire exam would be conducted with the patient in the nude. That was the very last examination I had when I was asked to strip completely naked. My previous exam ( pre -university ) when I was technically an adult, at just 18, had also seen me having to strip naked. Again, it just doesn't happen nowadays. Several of my nephews and friends' sons have gone off to Uni during the past few years. To my certain knowledge, none of them have been obliged to undergo a medical of any kind.

Obviously I felt that I was treated with maybe just a little more respect, sensitivity, courtesy when I was an adult....and I am sure that my many childhood medicals sort of helped to prepare me....but I am sure that I still felt slight embarrassment being completely naked for quite a while in 1982 ( aged 29) in the presence of both the doctor and the nurse - especially during the inevitable genital exams.

My last year in school,when I was eighteen I had a full medical and had no choice in it. Was sent into the nurses room where there was a doctor and two nurses. I remember sitting down and the doctor telling me not to sit down but to go behind the screen and take everything off except my underpants. As I got undressed behind the screen I could hear them talking and saying how good it was to give patients privacy of getting undressed behind the screen. As I took off my trousers and stood in a pair of black briefs I wasn't so sure. I can still remember standing nervously for a moment before the doctor called to come back round when I was ready. I walked back round in just my briefs and could feel I was slightly aroused but I'm not sure they could tell. I didn't have to drop my underwear. The doctor just put his hand inside during the exam.

Years ago I was checking out a website, can't quite remember what it was called, but several of the posts mentioned school physicals at boy's schools were nude at some point or another, this was in the 60s in the UK.

Years ago I was checking out a website, can't quite remember what it was called, but several of the posts mentioned school physicals at boy's schools were nude at some point or another, this was in the 60s in the UK.

I only experienced one medical at school and it did involve nudity. It was at a mixed junior school I attended in the mid sixties and I would have been around 8 at the time. It took place in a room which had been made into a waiting area with chairs against one wall and one area was screened off the full length of the room with those curtained folding type medical screens with a gap at the far end where you entered.

I was sat in the waiting area with my mother and was just in underpants and there were some other parents there with their boys. One of my classmates was already behind the screen and then suddenly he appeared for a few seconds in the gap at the end of the screened area walking towards the wall before turning around and walking back behind the screen and he was totally nude which was a bit of a shock.

When my turn came my mother and I entered the screened area where there had been a walkway created using rubber gym mats and at the far end against the wall was a desk with a man and woman sat either side facing down this walkway. The woman was the school community nurse and I assume the man was a doctor as he did a brief examination (nothing intimate) and used a stethoscope and the nurse weighed me. Then the nurse told me to remove my underpants and walk along the walkway to the end and back again. So like my classmate before me I was totally nude as I did this and as I turned at the far end gap I got a glimpse of the people in the waiting area for a few seconds before I walked back towards the nurse and doctor who were observing me. Then I was allowed to put my pants back on and return to the waiting area and it was over.

I don’t know if this happened regularly at that school as a few months later we moved to another area so that was my one and only experience of it.

I studied in London for a semester during college and at one point during our first week we were sent to the university health office for “medicals.” It wasn’t a super thorough exam. Shirt off (bra on, if I recall) for stething, but that was about it.

I only ever experienced two medicals in school, one on starting school at 5 years old and another at around 13 or 14. Neither were thorough in the least.

My mum was present for the first one and all I really remember about it was taking my Y-fronts down and the woman (not sure if she was a nurse/doctor/dinner lady) having a prod about my crown jewels and retracting my foreskin. The only other aspect of it I can remember was she held a fob watch or wrist-watch at various positions around my ears and asked if I could hear it. Don't recall a steth being used at all and I believe I would remember as I think even at that age I had a curiosity about heartbeats.

The second one was the infamous "drop your strides and skiddies and hope you don't get a stauner* cos they'll smack a spoon down on your bellend if you do!!!" examination. The kids in the year above who'd had it the year before would particularly relish passing down lurid stories like that about what was going to happen. By the time it came round everyone had visions of a Nurse Ratched like character grabbing your spuds and squeezing them hard just for the fun of it (which actually sounds slightly appealing now but was an absolutely horrific thought back then). The reality was much more mundane; drop your kex and an old male doctor cupped your stones in his hand and said "cough". The only other thing I recall was being asked to walk around the room, I guess to check you weren't lame or something?? Again, I don't recall a steth being used.

In Further Education / college a few years later, absolutely nothing. No contact with any medical professional whatsoever and never screened for anything officially at all.

Dinamapper

* stauner - a Glaswegian hard-on.

Great post Dina

Yes Stauner Glaswegian for erection , that took me back .

You could have written that post for me as it’s exactly my experience . In my case though I was youngest in class , born in a different year from rest. So rest of the class got their medical or “balls test” as it was known , 1 year before I did . Lots of lurid stories as you say about what went on . I was really bricking it when I eventually got mine. As it happened there was another guy in the year who missed it for some reason , so we were both taken together . He went first . I remember seeing his pants lowered showing his bum to me as the old doctor did something in front of him, obviously the balls test . So nervous , no erection was possible thankfully . My turn was over in seconds . So niaeve I was convinced the examination would show that I’d been masturbating and that the whole school would find out. So stupid!

Nice seeing a fellow Glaswegian on

Hi,

I have replied on this subject previously, I was on the threshold of a major change in our school in 1980. The year before us, had the dreaded 'ball check' but a lot of pupils simply refused, and stormed out. The year we had our final year medical, it didn't happen at all. Though we were all dreading it. I was adamant I was going to decline their last attempt at control and humiliation. As it transpired, no height, weight, just a Dr, who looked in your mouth, opened your shirt slightly and made a lame attempt at stething you. Then off we went. To this day, I really wonder what they got out of the exercise. I understand now that in UK schools, physical exams are pretty much obsolete. As I feel they should always have been. Schools are for education, not systematic abuse and humiliation of their pupils. On another note, if the boys in a school are subject to any kind of genital inspection, why aren't the girls? Clearly a case of discrimination. I used this argument last time I was required to have a check for a hernia exam, I politely declined, and stated, I would not be discriminated against. Women and Girls are just as likely to suffer from them too.

https://www.everydayhealth.com/hernia/symptoms/differences-between-hernias-men-versus-women/

And for the members on this site who feel that the authorities were doing this on behalf of the welfare of the children. Please! If I needed to see my GP as a child I did, it was not the business of my teachers or the education committee.

As I feel they should always have been. Schools are for education, not systematic abuse and humiliation of their pupils.

And for the members on this site who feel that the authorities were doing this on behalf of the welfare of the children. Please! If I needed to see my GP as a child I did, it was not the business of my teachers or the education committee.

Schools as such, as institution in and of themselves, do not perform medical examination. Other authorities that are under Ministries of Health or whatever do these. It just happens that for practical purposes, schools are the easiest place to reach all children and ensure they are examined.

School examinations were instituted in a time when health care was not free and not available to all families. It was a very charitable way to ensure basic health care for all children, especially the poor and less affluent.

And lest anyone make any remark about how such is no longer necessary, do note that poverty levels are rising in most developed nations. Children are especially vulnerable when growing up and many conditions that are easily treatable when young, if left untreated, can become severe problems later in life.

And lastly, medical examinations are not about abuse or humiliation. I'll echo what others here say and that perhaps youngsters (and their over-protective parents) need to get over their silly inhibitions and unfounded fears and not expect to be mollycoddled. There is no need to act the prude. There was a time when nude swimming was mandatory as well as military service (where one had no privacy or concerns for inhibitions AT ALL).

Nice seeing a fellow Glaswegian on

Cheers @Amunro19, likewise, nice to hear from a fellow weegie although you seem a bit further travelled than me. 😃

As it happened there was another guy in the year who missed it for some reason

Umm....yeah, that could have been written for me. I feigned illness not only on the day of the first appointment but also the rescheduled one too in the vain hope it all went away. It didn't and eventually it caught up with me and off I had to trot. My insistence that it was purely coincidental I happened to be off for both of these wasn't bought by my peers who dubbed me 'The Coincidence Kid' for a while. There were a few other stragglers when I went but I'm pretty sure we were called into a room one by one so there was no additional shame from being watched by anyone else like you had.

Like you say, I was absolutely bricking it. I don't really know why?? I don't recall thinking 'they'll know I've been chugging for Scotland' (even if, like most teenagers, I was). I can only guess it was some deep fear of being found to have something wrong or different in some way? This was back in the day when pretty much the only glasses that kids had were issued by the NHS. The frames weren't exactly stylish and were available in about 2 or 3 colours. I never needed them personally but some of the kids who did were teased or bullied. (Not being sanctimonious but I never indulged in that, in fact my first crush was a girl who had a blue pair of those specs. Ahh, young love!). It's irrational I know, but I guess that was perhaps a component of my fear.

schools are the easiest place to reach all children and ensure they are examined....especially the poor and less affluent.

@agracier I think that's a very fine principle but the reality for a lot of us who experienced it, certainly in the 80s, seems to be that it was just a waste of time, a lot of 'bricking it' for nothing. We weren't really being examined. It was cursory at best. I can certainly say that I never perceived the exams were about deliberate humiliation or abuse, just that they were poorly executed.

DM

I should off course have referred to it as “the baws test” . Balls test far too proper. I’m always intrigued that there’s now a brand of underwear called bawbags !

I would say that if you would not forcibly submit grown men to some procedure, then it's probably wrong to submit teenagers to it.

If you would not think of going to an office building (which a school essentially is), rounding all males and all females separately and asking them to disrobe etc. in front of others, then it's probably wrong to do this to teenagers.

“the baws test” . Balls test far too proper.

Indeed! Very proper!

...there’s now a brand of underwear called bawbags !

The Bawbags brand of underwear always brings a chuckle. I see they're now doing ones called 'Cool De Sacs'. 😃

All this talk of baws reminds me of a guy I used to work with whose second name was Ritchie....(you know where I'm going with this)...inevitably he was better known as Mabawsa. Ba-dum-tish! I'm here all week...

To Pecan nutjob

Your absolutely right, people in authority seem to thinks its okay to do exactly what they want to children, who are vulnerable when they feel like it in order to satisfy their own bureaucratic needs. We would not subject adults to it nor, volunteer for it. Of course the revenue too that the medical industry defraud from parents too.

Here in the states, children are subjected to intrusive medical examination every term, if the want to play sports, it's not about the protection or well being of the child. Its so the parents of the child cannot sue the school if something was wrong with the child prior to playing sports. It didn't happen in my day.

As a child we played sports at break times, before and after school, no one was allowed to interfere with us to rubber stamp our suitability to indulge in physical activity. I don't ever recall any kid dropping down dead either as a result of physical activity.

Yet over and over I have read recently poor examples like how a school in Buffalo New York feel the need to remove the panties of school girls to check the tanner stage or developmental maturity of pupils in a school setting? To me this is institutionalized abuse. We have seen how this can all go wrong with the likes of Dr. Larry Nasser and people of his type who flock and deliberately place themselves close to children. I'll say it once and I'll say it again, schools need to stay out of the pants of children, period. Stop throwing them under a bus, for excuses of the litigious culture we live in. Treat them as you would expect to be treated yourself.

@agracier I think that's a very fine principle but the reality for a lot of us who experienced it, certainly in the 80s, seems to be that it was just a waste of time, a lot of 'bricking it' for nothing. We weren't really being examined. It was cursory at best. I can certainly say that I never perceived the exams were about deliberate humiliation or abuse, just that they were poorly executed..

If you are not a medical professional, it's hard to know what is cursory or not. Doctors are able to diagnose certain conditions by looking alone.

In the case of my wife, when still young and after a school exam (1950s), her parents were advised that if she were not treated for a preventable skeletal condition, that later in life, it would develop into something very serious. Well, her parents did nothing about it, despite school exam recommendations and she did indeed develop a condition that landed her in a wheelchair later in life.

The point being that school examinations can pick up on things that parents do not pick up on. And that they can be correct in their findings.

If you are not a medical professional, it's hard to know what is cursory or not. Doctors are able to diagnose certain conditions by looking alone.

I get what you're saying, but why limit it to conditions that can only be detected visually? Can a heart murmur be picked up just by looking? Asymptomatic arrhythmias? Childhood hypertension? Yet a couple of simple tests with nothing more sophisticated than a stethoscope and BP cuff may spare more serious complications down the line. Conversely, I'm not saying every kid starting school should be subjected to a battery of invasive tests on the off chance there's something sinister going on but if you're going to bill it as a 'Medical Inspection' at least do the basics, unlike what I experienced. I stand by my opinion that mine was cursory.

I'm sorry to hear about your wife, that's really rough. I'm sure it happens that parents don't pick up on things that a doctor might, but to be told your child has a serious condition and then do nothing is inexcusable.

All the best,

DM

I have had many medical examinations (mostly prior to operations) in the UK and overseas. Generally you are naked under a hospital gown, which is usually removed for most of the procedure. Stirrups are used to put my barefeet in. Sometimes a restraint strap is placed over my lap to stop me from moving around.

Generally, the nurse will come in, ask you to undress and will position you laying on your back with your legs in stirrups, and your bum close to the edge of the table.

I always try to analyse what’s such a turn on about Medfet . Of course as a bi guy I get to inspect other genitals , that’s a turn on . However it’s the post in first page by anglesboro which describes guys in a medical room , with white briefs,blue briefs and red briefs that really brings it out . It’s the fact that guys are objectified . There’s no personalities , it’s just a production line , guys waiting to have their hernia exam , that’s the turn on .

If you are not a medical professional, it's hard to know what is cursory or not. Doctors are able to diagnose certain conditions by looking alone.

In the case of my wife, when still young and after a school exam (1950s), her parents were advised that if she were not treated for a preventable skeletal condition, that later in life, it would develop into something very serious. Well, her parents did nothing about it, despite school exam recommendations and she did indeed develop a condition that landed her in a wheelchair later in life.

The point being that school examinations can pick up on things that parents do not pick up on. And that they can be correct in their findings.

Agracier,

I'm a retired physician in the US. Very sorry to hear about your wife. What was your wife's skeletal condition if you don't mind replying? Scoliosis, for which she could have had early corrective surgery? Or something different? I was diagnosed with mild scoliosis at age 14 and mom was a gifted nurse. I was very lucky that it only required a lift on one shoe and never progressed to the point of requiring surgery. I used to get fairly severe intermittent back pain, but that's been gone for many years now.

Eric

. What was your wife's skeletal condition if you don't mind replying? Scoliosis, for which she could have had early corrective surgery? Or something different? c

I honestly forget the name of her condition, but it was certainly not scoliosis. She did not manifest any symptoms at all until in her fourties. Prior to that we built a large addition (in brick) to our house together and in her thirties, she was an avid mountaineer, having been to the Karakorum in Pakistan and to the Andes and of course the Alps and the Pyrenees closer to home.

But in her mid fourties it was clear all of that was in the past. Curvature of the spine and hips, inflammation requiring injections into joints and after a few years wheelchair bound for the most part. I do remember she had a mylo dysplasia complicating things and making her prone to infections.