Dermatologist... Full body skin exam

I just recently found this site and instantly a fan a medfret 😃

Anyone from Melbourne, Aus and know if there are female doctor who's doing a full naked derm session? 😉

Thanks!

Ironic that despite being a skin cancer survivor where they cut right down to the bone on the back of my hand, had to stitch up a huge chunk of my shoulder, & theh dermatologist herself even cut out a few bits of my chest & back in early onset discovery, that she never examined my genitals.

That must've fallen under the "any questions?" category. After i misdiagnosed my shoulder for a zit that wouldn't heal for a year & my hand as having been scarred from something but i couldn't recall what for several years, that a professional should go ahead & check folds i may not be able to see or assess places where i might not think anything of.

The most exposed i got was waiving the gown & wearing a jockstrap, as if i had to bring the exposure to her. And now with the declaration of no longer doing exams in the near future & transferring me off to one of two males at the practice, I may soon be looking for a new female doc.

She lowered my underwear herself and then quickly but thoroughly checked my pubic hair, all surfaced of my penis, and all surfaces of my scrotum.

Would've been nice if mine did that for me.

Sometimes you just have to make it known you want a full exam. Most doctors are fine with it.

In my case, i guess there's no need to check what you don't have to speak up. 😉

Again with the medical professional bashing. Seriously ENOUGH already!

First of all, waiting in an exam room for 20 minutes is way better than average. Consider yourself lucky.

This again falls back to patients taking responsibility for themselves and their own health care.

No one was rude to you. You are an adult and you don't need your hand held, be babied, or coddled. Why didn't you speak up and tell them you have some questions? They would have stopped and talked to you.

What did you need patient education on? Applying cream to an area is usually pretty self explanatory for most all adults and most kids. Remove cap, apply cream to area, replace cap. Seriously though if you have questions ask, if you don't understand something, ask. If you have medication question when you are at the pharmacy there is always a "drop off", a "pick up", and a "consult" place, and the consult place is where you go to ask any questions you have about your medications. And if they don't have one of those places all you have to do is ask, they are always more than happy to help you. Also most people will assume that you can read. Now with every single medication you get at a pharmacy regardless whether it's your first time getting that medication or the 100th, it will come with an information paper telling you all about it. There is all kinds of helpful information on that. Everything from how and why you are getting it, what it is for, the instructions on how to use it and apply it in your case, and even it's known side effect. Read the paper.

Take responsibility for yourself, for your care, and your own health.

Also when you have the kind of insurance you have, unfortunately you have to take what you can get. A lot of doctors just are refusing to take certain kinds of insurance because they bring in a certain type of people and they just don't want to deal with it anymore. And no, I am not saying you are one of "those" types of people, I'm just saying. Like my momma always said, "beggers can't be choosers", and "you get what you pay for".

As Susie mentioned, you seem to be having a lot of issues as of late with all of the medical professionals that you have been to. I can't imagine every single medical professional in your area is bad? My thoughts are that maybe the problem isn't with the medical professionals.

Mashie

I generally agree with some of the other comments. It really doesn't sound like you had all that bad of an experience to me. The wait that you described seemed reasonable enough. My suggestion is next time get an appointment first thing in the morning instead of late in the afternoon. Doctors tend to run on a better schedule first thing you know.

And sure, maybe the doctor, the nurse, the entire staff were rude. That happens. You can complain to them about it, or to the office manager, the insurance company -- whatever you want. That's you're decision.

As far as the treatment you received, they did give you some cream to take care of your problem. If you wanted more information, you should have opened your mouth and asked. Or you can always call them later and ask for better instructions if you're confused. But it doesn't sound that complicated to me. Problem area? Cream? I think you should be able to figure out how all of that works.

First of all, waiting in an exam room for 20 minutes is way better than average. Consider yourself lucky.

Whenever I go to a doctor or to a hospital for anything at all, I always take a book along in case the wait be long or short. The only exception is to our family doctor, who puts his copies of 'the New Yorker' in the waiting room. Reading the cartoons is good pastime. ... ha ha

As a rule of thumb, I never count on being seen for an appointment at the exact time. Appointment times are just approximations. That's just reality.

Mom I think you need to be proactive about eczema or atopic dermatitis. Here is a link to the Wikipedia article about it which I found to be helpful. I know people laugh about Wikipedia but I find it frequently to be helpful.

In addition, un scented detergents should be used. Sometimes it is just difficult for us to provide complete patient education because of time restraints. It is incumbent for you to educate yourself.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=10&ved=0ahUKEwiWz-XOouPJAhVN9GMKHR2IBy0QFghGMAk&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.m.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDermatitis&usg=AFQjCNEiId1IDJhSEC95fc4u9cKwqZWW5Q&sig2=k1ZV_F5mFHrVr3LjkS8fmg

In my area not many doctors take my insurance so I am limited as to who I can see

I've never understood the reasoning behind such practices. Where I live, anyone can choose any doctor anywhere in the country and still get treated at the same rates ... which means there is true marketplace competition, not semi-monopolies built up by private insurers.

Not to go too far with this, but I don't see how this is justified in the US, which is supposed to be a country that carries the flag for free marketplace competition.

Insurance in the US is definitely tiered. Even with the Affordable care act what insurers pay varies tremendously. What Mashie says about the kind of clientele tends not to be true. The bottom line is the bottom line. A single payer would be better. I sincerely hope this happens here.

A single payer would be better. I sincerely hope this happens here.

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting. They'll never be able to resuscitate you ...ha ha.

On a serious note though: how did individual doctors ever get hooked into signing up for such restrictive schemes? After all, wouldn't they benefit financially from being able to treat a larger patient base?

Liquid, I am dating a private practice family doctor and have been for, well as of Jan 9th it will be 8 years. With all due respect Sir, you are an ER doc which is fantastic but you as an ER doc can't turn anyone away and you have to treat everyone regardless of ability to pay. You also do absolutely nothing with billing. Which again, is fine. Now Doc doesn't limit his patients like that, meaning he doesn't refuse to see people who have a certain insurance, but that isn't always the case.

As a nurse here in Ohio I am the one who has to make appointments out to specialists and other doctors often. And the truth is, as soon as you tell them they are on welfare probably 2/3rds of the doctors offices and specialists will refuse to see them. They have their reasons for doing so on so many levels and I can't say as I blame them. And honestly, I somewhat agree with them. When you are in private practice it is your business, you own it, manage it, and it is your baby. It is yours to do with as you please and see fit. As an American, that is your right.

And before anyone starts giving me the bleeding heart BS about a medical professional should bend over backwards to help anyone who is sick regardless of payer source, just stop right now because I don't want to hear it. It's one thing if you are in the ER, it's quite another if you are at a private doctors office who isn't affiliated with the hospital, an independent. Again, Doc takes everyone so he needs to be left out of what I am about to say.

I have talked with many and I do mean actually hundreds of private doctors and or their staff when trying to get appointments set up with people. Their reasons for not taking welfare patients are always the same. According to them and again, this doesn't apply to all of them but apparently enough of them over the years for all these doctors to refuse to see them. But all of them keep saying the same things, they are rude, they think the world owes them a living, they expect to be treated like gold, they need their hand held, they refuse to take responsibility for themselves or their own care, they are never proactive, they are usually non-compliant, the government forms that have to be filled out for them are crazy and if one i is not dotted correctly then they just don't get paid at all, and the list goes on and on. Then what happens is that doctor ends up treating those people for free, and you can't survive in private practice treating people for free. That's no way to run a business, and yes, a doctors office is a business and has to be run accordingly.

Mashie

Agracier, sadly we all sold out to the insurance industry nearly forty years ago. Mashie, you know I'm a liberal democrat so I don't see things the way you do. I also have worked in private practice and I know the reality of that too.

I certainly don't want to turn this into yet another government-run-healthcare-is-the-answer-and-insurance-companies-are-evil thread. But, it seems that that horse has just left the barn...

So my brief thoughts on the matter: Right now, no doctor is forced to accept any particular insurance, or to accept any particular fee as payment. They can (and many doctors today do) operate strictly as private pay, meaning they set their fees to whatever they want, they solicit customers (AKA patients) themselves, and so forth. By not joining themselves at the hip with one or more insurance companies, they have much more freedom to operate their business (AKA practice) any way they like (within limits). But by doing so, they take on the responsibility of marketing themselves. On the other hand, if a doctor joins the provider network for one or more major insurance companies, they are instantly provided with a much larger pool of customers without much marketing effort. But in return for an increase in customers, they agree to much lower negotiated fees. In summary, today doctors have some degree of freedom, and in turn, we as consumers have the freedom to choose the type of health care we wish to receive.

A single-payer system would mean that our great and all-powerful federal government would step-in and dictate the fees that each doctor will receive for each and every type of procedure or office visit. And as a customer (AKA patient), we would doubtless lose some of the freedom to choose the doctors that we wish to use, to have more choices in what kind of treatment we wish to receive, etc.

While the current system is far from perfect, just ask yourself: Name one U.S. government run program (since NASA in the late 1960's) that actually works better and more efficiently than a similar privately run program.

I've got to say something here. Obamacare is a disaster! My spouse pays $550./mo for insurance premium and it is going up. Before Obamacare, she had private health insurance and paid $139./month. Being on Medicare with supplemental has saved my butt.

Liquid, I am very much a liberal democrat and until Obama I have always voted a straight democratic ticket all the way down the line. Just so you know.

Jimmy, what type of policy did your wife have prior to Obama Care? I suspect your paying significantly more because your coverage has increased and your deductible has decreased. And its a disaster for whom? The millions of Americans who now have insurance? The real disaster in Health Care is the cost of prescription medications. Maybe you can explain to me why the Republicans in Congress have prevented to Federal Government from negotiating lower costs on behalf of its citizens. We are the ONLY country in the world with this policy. Whom are the Republicans representing with this action? Why should we trust a singe thing the Republicans say about health care when they are not representing citizens. If the Republicans would work toward strengthening Obama care, it would be a disaster...for Pharma, for medical device manufactures, for big Hospital profits.....

Let's get this discussion away from politics please, per zity's rules.

My annual skin exams have been nothing like the OP's.

Yes, the doctor examines every square inch of my skin, but only uses a magnifying glass (it's actually a special one) if he sees something suspicious.

I started going to the dermatologist when I developed acne. The dermatologist I visited had everyone do a general skin cancer screening. Before they took you back to the exam room, you'd fill out a questionnaire to update your information. There were two questions related to the skin exam.

Are you comfortable getting completely undressed for the full body skin exam?

Would you like a gown during your skin exam?

I would always check the box that said I preferred to keep my underwear on and that I didn't need a gown. My mom and I would go back to the room, and the assistant would tell me to undress to my underwear. During the skin exam, the doctor would move my underwear around to get a better look, but I wore it throughout the exam.

When I was 16, my mom started letting me go into the room by myself at the doctor's while she stayed in the waiting room. That year as I was filling out the form, I stopped at the exam question. I wasn't sure why at the time, but the idea of getting naked in front of the doctor seemed kind of exciting.

I checked the box that said I was comfortable undressing and, without really thinking, that I didn't want a gown. This time when the assistant took me back, she told me to undress completely including my underwear. She didn't offer a gown before she left.

I stripped naked, sat on the exam table, and waited. I was beginning to regret my decision when the doctor came through the door. However, she conducted herself as if I was fully dressed. During the skin exam, she started with me seated. Then she had me lay down on my back. She inspected my groin, even lifting my penis. Then she had me stand up. While I was facing away from her, I started to get aroused. After she was finished, I sat back down.

It was next to impossible to hide my erection, but the doctor didn't say anything. She finished filling out my chart and left. I got dressed and went back out to meet my mom.

My MedFed started at the dermatologist, and I've enjoyed getting naked in front of her and other doctors since.

A few years ago, I had a skin sore on the back side of my scrotum. I went to the dermatologist who had his woman nurse-practitioner take care of it , which called for anesthetic and skinning the bad layer off; it went to a pathologist for diagnosis. I did not get even a suggestion of getting hard. Part of it, of course is my age and that I have lost the ability to get hard to a large extent. But the main thing is that she had a non-erotic way of handling the organs so I was not stimulated.

A couple of years later, I had a sore that would not heal on the skin of my shaft. Same experience. They know what t hey are up to and do not stimulate you, which could make doing what they need to difficult.

One thing that I find interesting in both cases, is that the authorities always say that exposure to sunlight causes skin cancer, but these where definitely where the sun don't shine. How do they explain it?

hankb

One thing that I find interesting in both cases, is that the authorities always say that exposure to sunlight causes skin cancer, but these where definitely where the sun don't shine. How do they explain it?

Maybe just by making things up. Skin cancer scares are probably great for selling all kinds of sunblock creams and lotions. And i also surmise that we are once again entering a social phase in which society begins to appreciate whiter skin over sun bronzed skin, because paler skin implies a higher social status by way of employment conditions: air conditioned office, never walking to work or working outside, that sort of stuff sort of like a century ago or more.

There is also probably a residual scare left over from Ozone Layer Depletion issue from several decades ago when the possibility of the Earth being stripped of its natural radiation shield was a possibility. Had that happened then the concern would have been really justified. Now i wonder if pharmaceutical/cosmetic companies aren't just milking the easily scared ...

I also wonder how much is genetically related. A person either has or hasn't a propensity for a type of cancer or not.

I know my father had a non-malignant, almost yearly reoccurring skin cancer, that he said was caused by exposure to chemicals and substances in engine rooms of sea going vessels. He never gave much explanation, but every year he had to have a substantial chunk cut away on his back. And seeing how old ships profusely used asbestos and other unhealthy materials in the small enclosed spaces of engine rooms, this seems likely as a cause. My father never got it from sunbathing, that's for sure.

Here's a brief summary of the risk of skin cancers of various kind and sun exposure. Sun exposure IS a factor in producing them and saying anything else is sophistry.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwiy0JmUyb7KAhVW2mMKHS6ADKkQFggKMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.skincancer.org%2Fskin-cancer-information%2Fask-the-experts%2Fis-sun-exposure-the-only-cause-of-skin-cancer&usg=AFQjCNGBMFw8BE-lzfJBy-48uuVZYDpE3A&sig2=Ctr3BJkS3XMl_Ldu5YfoqA

I went to Dermatologist today for the first time for full body exam today. I can't get on exam table cause it was too high for me due my disabled. He was very nice about it. He exam me in my chair. I pull down my pants and look at legs and move my underwear to both side to look at pubic hair and pull up my shirt and look at my back but I was look forward getting total undressed. Maybe I need go back 6 months.

Liquid---Thanks for the article.

hankb

Here's a brief summary of the risk of skin cancers of various kind and sun exposure. Sun exposure IS a factor in producing them and saying anything else is sophistry.

I understand the causality of sun exposure and skin cancers, but yet hankb does bring up a point I never considered prior to his comment. How indeed does skin cancer develop on those parts of the body that are virtually never exposed to light, outdoor or indoor light for that matter?

And while I know that moles are a risk factor, what about areas on the body where there is no exposure to light and no moles prior to developing a skin cancer? What is the causality?

If a melanoma gets into your bloodstream, you're a "gonner". Get the yearly exams.

I reread articles on skin cancer. They're the most common of all cancers. While basal cell and squamous cell CAs are clearly related to sun exposure, melanoma may not be. Melanoma is frequently diagnosed in non exposed areas. Familial history and the existence of "moles" or nevi increase the risk. In addition, "bad" genes, exposure to chemicals and factors other than sun exposure may be involved. It's said that a single second degree sunburn before the age of eighteen increases the risk as well. So suck it up folks, let the dermatologist look everywhere. Melanoma can even occur in the eye or inside the mouth. As Jimmy says once it's metastasized you're a goner. Here's a link.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=13&ved=0ahUKEwjPgp_igsDKAhUC12MKHU5kBBUQFgg3MAw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fm.cancer.org%2Fcancer%2Fcancercauses%2Fsunanduvexposure%2Fskin-cancer-facts&usg=AFQjCNHlpTKN2oo-lJobL_qfU-FlPUIZ9w&sig2=Y2W0QJ3YAx9Qefr8n3c_Gw

Liquid--thanks for the article.

hankb

The doc will probably not say anything about your wax job. I don't have any pubic hair and I've never had a doctor mention it.

The next year, when I was 17, we were back in the dermatologist's office for my annual visit. I'm not sure why, but while filling out the questionnaire I panicked and checked the box that said I want to keep my underwear on.

The assistant took me back to the exam room and told me to undress to my underwear. After the usual paperwork, she left and I waited for the doctor. She arrived a few minutes later.

She did my acne check first, then started the skin exam. The doctor began with me seated and examined my head and chest. Then she checked my feet and legs while she had me remain seated.

I stood up, so she could look at my back. When she got to my waist, she asked if it was okay to check underneath my underwear. I said yes. In previous years, she'd moved the underwear aside leaving me mostly covered. This time, however, she pulled them all the way down around my ankles. She examined my buttocks, then told me to turn around.

I turned around to face her, completely exposed. She checked the inner parts of my thighs and then my penis, lifting it gently in her hand. This time, I managed to stay soft.

When she was done, she told me that everything looked okay. I pulled up my underwear and sat back down on the exam table. She finished filling out my chart and said goodbye. I go dressed and met my mom back in the waiting room.

I have not seen the 'leave underwear on' on any form I recall filling out at the derm office.

Once I had a male nurse assistant ask if I would opt out of a full body check (leave underwear on, I supose) but I informed him I would be fine with the full body check. He shrugged his shoulders and said she would be in soon to check me.