I was born and lived in Europe until I was in my early 20s. I honestly do not remember myself well enough before I turned seven, but I do have a limited recollection of a lady pediatrician examining my external genitalia by simply pulling on the waistband of my white briefs, without lowering them, and quickly looking at what was there (I know what she hoped to find there, if at all). She never even touched my penis, not to mention retracting the foreskin back.
My foreskin was retracted for the first time by that same female pediatrician when I was seven or eight years old. When the exam was almost finished, she told me that she had to examine my penis. She then lowered my briefs, palpated my penis from its base towards the glans. Then, she told me that the head of my penis had to be examined as well. She lifted my penis, grasped the tip of the foreskin with two fingers and pulled it forward. While still holding my penis up, she placed two fingers above the corona, and pushed the skin all the way back until the head popped out completely. "A-ha!" she said, then took a wipe and scrapped the smegma off the head carefully. Then, she brought the foreskin forward. All this was done in front of my mother, who was then instructed to retract my foreskin every time I had to bathe.
Mom never retracted my foreskin though. In fact, she never took me to a physical ever again. She delegated these two tasks to my father. He knocked on the bathroom door when I was about to finish taking my soapy bubble bath with five rubber ducks and another rubber toy that I now have extreme difficulty identifying, and while I was still in the tub, proceeded with retracting the foreskin. I once overheard the parents talking about that exam that I had with the female pediatrician, and then decided to find a male physician for me.
My exams with the new male physician were almost identical to how they were performed by the female pediatrician, but they were much less structured as to what "things" had to be examined and how often they had to be examined. Sometimes he examined my genitals, sometimes he did not. Sometimes he only looked at my penis, sometimes he actually examined it. But, whenever my foreskin had to be retracted, he always retracted it himself.
When I came to the US, I found out that the physicals exams were much more structured and that the physical examination of male external genitalia was indeed a necessary component of each and every exam. I have been examined in the US multiple times before I was circumcised, and each and every time doctors retracted the foreskin for me. I was embarrassed every time they did it but also realized the importance of them examining my foreskin, the frenulum and the glans. I was always asked to wear hospital gowns for all my exams. It is very difficult to imagine how it would be possible for me to retract my foreskin while holding the gown up my chest at the same time.