Medicals Exams in the UK

I suppose it was just the norm when I grew up in the late 60's and 70's. First the boys in their briefs all went through the obligatory hernia check while the girls we're in bra and panties. When the girls talked about it they always said that they laid on the table took off their panties and spread their legs as wide as they could for the exam...

Thanks for the reply fennf - yer one other thing if you don't mind - you say not everyone went for the medical - but how many other from your year were asked to go for one 10% or more?

Thanks

About ten or twenty per cent, seemingly selected at random.

Interesting fennf - did you have a blood sample or anything? Sounds like a research project rather than a mass screening - were you given any more details? I'm the same age as you and never had anything more than a couple of injections at school (uk) 😢

what happened in the exam, and made them decide to ask you to take your boxers off?

I'm not sure why they asked me to take my boxers off. They seemed to check everything thoroughly down there and made a lot of notes, but never said anything was wrong, so I wonder if there was just something that didn't feel right but which turned out to be not a problem....

And there was no blood no...

Strange :s did you talk about the exam with anyone else who had to have it?

I agree with daiv this does seem strange- I would have thought that in 2006 and you being 16 at that time - you would have had to give permission to be part of a research project? Certainly there is no way they could have taken blood without permission - you cannot even do that on animals in the UK without a Home Office licence

He's said there was no blood test - I only asked because I wondered if it was maybe some kind of mass medical research study or something, hence only the small sample. As far as I'm aware, school medicals just don't happen in the UK any more.

Hi daiv

I think you are right - school medicals certainly no longer occur in state schools - but I am fairly sure they can still happen in private schools. Although I found my school medicals both embarrassing and exhilarating – the good outcome for me was that I was fat as a kid and after my first medical I vowed to lose weight and take better care of myself – which was a good move as I now love climbing 3000 and 4000m peaks

I remember that they were being done in Sussex in the 90's. Our secondary school did them- I think most were a 'brief chat' type, but a number of the year group were given urine pots for a sample, as part of a more detailed check. I think they chose a ramdom cross section to have more involved medicals. I really don't know if they still do them. I know the other kids found it intensely amusing that their mates had to widdle in a pot.....

Hi Binky - interesting posting - the few pupils who had a more detailed medical - did than involve a complete strip down examination?

I went to a comprehensive school in the late 80s and about 10-20% of us ended up having a full detailed strip down medical - however we all had occasional eye/hearing and dental checks. Frequent school medicals were phased out as they were not considered that useful as a universal screening test. The frequency of medical exams performed on young folk in the US does seem a bit over the top I must agree.

I only had one medical at school in the 80s when I was just leaving infant school so I'd be 7 goin on 8. I had to strip to undies first then pants off for the genital exam

Hi,

ii seem to remember several, almost yearly, medicals in primary school in the early 70s in the UK. taken into the medical waiting room in small groups and made to strip down to pants before going into see the doctor/nurse.

wish it had con tuned to secondary school. :-)

We had those horrible and scary medicals, I think mine was worse, because I was the last boy to go down before the girls started their turn, we had a lady doctor, and my mum was there, the doctor did all the normal stuff, then it was time to drop my pants, for what we called, the cough and drop test I was so embarressed standing there with a boner, in front of mum and the lady doctor, my face felt like it was on fire, then as I went back to the cubical to get dressed,some girls saw me naked but I did get to see some of their pretty knickers, as the first ones went in.

I was 11 at the time living in London, and it was the first time I saw my now wife topless. As a mixed class we had to go to where we hung our coats and all strip off down to our pants/knickers and then we were escorted to the gym where they were checked for height weigh, lungs etc.

Around age 12 in secondary school the whole year group had one .It was done by a school nurse and no one else was present.You were sent home with a letter the week before with date and time.Your parents could come if they wished.The room was very basic in fact it was the sick room.It contained a single bed and very basic medical stuff.The exam was literally height,weight ,eye test.I was then told to lie down.She had a feel of your tummy ,asked if you had any questions and you were done.You took your shoes and blazer off that's all.A slip went home telling your parents you'd had a medical and what the outcome was.

I don't think our school ever did examinations throughout the time I was there. There was a rudimentary health inspection early on in the first year, but it consisted of the school nurse asking "Do you think you have a healthy diet?" and "Do you do a lot of exercise?". Nothing strictly medical.

However, there was a dental exam at some point, but I must have been around nine years old at the time. All it consisted of was a hygienist or whatever she was looking at your teeth with a mirror and then sending you on your way. I'm genuinely surprised that my teeth at the time didn't cause them to recoil in horror! At that time, I had two teeth missing at the front (permanently), and a great big gap between my two front teeth. Of course, the results were "I think he may need braces", to which my parents responded "Oh, you think?!".

Since then I've had the gaps closed and the teeth replaced with bridges, so it's all good.

I went to a private boarding school in England from the age of 13 until 18. The school doctor examined all new joiners with one of their parents present. My dad say in on my entrance exam. There was plenty of privacy with just me, the doctor and my dad. I remember being quite shocked that I had to remove my briefs so the doctor could examine by testicles and penis. It was a pretty emotional day being left alone at school for the first time and I remember fighting back tears as the doctor examined my private parts.

Like most of the boys at school my parents were working overseas and the school basically took charge of all our needs during term times. Presumably my parents had consented but this included the school taking responsibility for annual medical, dental and sight checks. At the start of every year I went back to see the same doctor. The format of the exams was a bit different as about half of my class (so around 6 or 8 boys) would have some initial checks by the school nurse. These would include height, weight, urine samples and BP. All this was carried out in just our briefs, or boxer briefs as we got older.

After that we would be called one at a time to see the doctor in a screened off section of the room. There was only a curtain to give privacy. The doctor would check ears, eyes and throat. Following that he would check heart and lungs with his stethoscope and then prod my abs. My this stage in the exam I was usually fully erect but the doctor rarely said anything about it. For the final couple of minutes I would have to remove my underwear and stand in front of him while he examined my testicles, checked for a hernia and then examined my usually erect penis. If I wasn't erect he would retract my foreskin himself without warning which at the time I thought was normal. Since I have always been asked to retract my own foreskin. Usually the final part of the examination was to bend over the exam table for a visual check of the anus. I think this was to check for haemorrhoids or hygiene. Nothing was ever inserted. Some years the doctor would give me a booster shot before letting me go. I then had to put my underpants back on and try the best I could to hide my erection from my classmates or the nurse waiting on the other side of the curtain. My face would usually be beet red as a rushed to get dressed into my school uniform without my classmates or the nurse seeing my erection. I'm sure they noticed but I didn't get any stick from classmates because I think we were all in a similar situation one year or another.

New to this forum. I can remember my school medicals from the late sixties. They do seem very similar to other descriptions posted here. If anyone is interested I will post my experiences, giving as much detail as I can.

I'm more than certain that there are many members very interested in hearing what you have to recount.

Back in the late 80s...

I only had yearly school medicals at primary school, like others here they stopped after that.

It was always with the grumpy visiting "nit nurse," who usually did nothing other than take our height, weight and go through our hair for lice - for some reason, lice were considered of massive importance back then, although I don't remember anyone ever having them.

However, there was one year when she also checked all the boys' genitals - it must have been towards the end of school, and she must have decided, "now's the time."

I remember it pretty vividly, because we were being called out of class one by one to go to the nurse's room, and when the first boy came back he was a bit flushed and whispered to us, "she fiddled with my willy!" Because we were still in class, no one could discuss it, but there was a definite 'tension' in the room, and as each boy was called and returned he had the same look of embarrassment.

When it was my turn, it was all business as usual - stand on the scales, stand here for height to be measured, stand here so I can check for nits. I remember thinking that the "willy" thing wouldn't be true, but sure enough the last thing was, "now pull down your pants for me."

Looking back, I realise that what she was probaby doing was checking for any undescended testicles, and pulling back foreskins. Later in the playground we all wanted to know, "did she look at yours too?" It caused quite a stir.

It's actually my first memory of a genital exam - perhaps the fuss at that time about it coloured my interest in MedFet these days?

I'd forgotten about the "nit nurse". We had one at school too. She visited a couple of times a year but sadly only checked the hair on our heads for nits.

In the 1960s there was a yearly exam in Surrey County schools. Boring, undress to pants or gym shorts, skinny, a long wait in draughty halls, boys were not as developed as now, Exam by a nurse or doctor never seemed to find anything wrong, only one fat kid per class, Not having your testicles in the right place was common in early years, I think cold hands were the culprit. All-boy's schools meant we didn't get to se the girls in their knickers, (unlike primary school) . Then again, they weren't developed much either. Since we had all been in the shower together it was not an issue. Whoever developed first (or last) got the worst ridicule, but the first had the muscle so watch it!. I remember in the gym, in shorts, lots of skinny bodies, you could play the bare ribs like an xylophone. The whole trick was not to appear different then, so skinny and tiny wasn't so strange. if your parts were very small you were not ridiculed, and -little was know about …reproduction, Now they are all so fat and hairy they can hardly waddle.

The area was Lancashire. The year would be 1966 I think. We (boys) had to go down to a classroom that had been set aside and strip down to our underpants then go back out into the corridor and wait to be called into another classroom. Each time a boy came out the next boy in the line went in and sat down to wait his turn. Inside there would be two boys sitting waiting and two boys being examined. I can't remember much about the examination except the crucial bit. A nurse called us over and confirmed our names then the thing I remember most is being told to drop and step out of my underpants and having her check my genitals including checking that my testicles had dropped and doing a 'turn your head and cough for me' then turn around and bend over and felt my butt cheeks being separated by her fingers, not sure if she was checking for signs of abuse or not.

We had not known what to expect just a letter home to our parents, no details given to us so being told to take off my underpants and having the nurse do this was quite a shock. One lad in my class got and erection during the exam and was told to go and wait until it had gone before she would carry on. Being naked in pairs and on view to the next two boys wasn't a problem as we all showered together after games classes but there was certainly plenty of 'dirty boys talk' afterwards about the nurse 'holding our willies and examining under the foreskin and touching our bottoms.'

I was lucky I got back, dressed and back into class quite quickly but some of the boys were waiting in the corridor in their underpants when a group of younger girls came past giggling even though the whole school had been told not to use that corridor that day.

My impression of UK state school medicals in the 70s was that they only really focussed on known problems and routine vaccinations, but didn't do any full medical checks. I was born with a lump in the middle of my chest (was a benign cyst and was removed in my early 20s), and that was the only thing that I was ever called in to school medicals for - they'd just check that and nothing else, as far as I can recall.

I was born with a lump in the middle of my chest (was a benign cyst and was removed in my early 20s),

I had the same thing in a way. At university I was told to go to a specialist for further assessment for a spot in my right lung. The pulmonologist - a very old specialist recommend by our then family doctor - diagnosed me as having tbc, which was quite far off the mark. After a year's antibiotic treatment and no change, it was then diagnosed as a cyst. But that wasn't the end of it because some years later and after a sudden bout of pulmonary bleeding it turned out to be a teratoma - benign tumor - and that was removed very quickly.

So, can't say the medical exams in school helped out that much.

I went to school in the UK till 1996 and I honestly do not remember any medical exams at school except ones for injections and vaccinations. Maybe my memory isn't as clear but I'm pretty sire I would have remembered

I'm fairly certain that regular school medicals in the UK were discontinued in the 1980's

Do Scotland still have school physicals?