Pediatric Examinations

I think it has changed over time, and can be regional or urban/rural. I gather where I lived was a throwback to an earlier generation. My last exam with my mom watching was in 1992, and I was in a suburb of a second tier city in the South. Also my pediatrician was pretty old, nearing retirement. So I may well have been getting the 1965 treatment.

The closest video I've found to my experience indeed is from 1960, so this likely is how my pediatrician was trained:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI4q-hGSRL4

The only differences in my case were that instead of wood paneling, the exam room had nursery rhyme themed wallpaper, and the height and weight in just my undies at 6:00 in the video were done at the scale down the hall and by the nurse, not the doctor.

Because of the editing, you need to pay special attention at 9:45 to see that this exam is just like mine were. First, you see the mother's sleeve at the left of the frame, so you know that the boy is looking at his mother while the doctor has pulled his undies down to his ankles. You also can tell that the mother has a very good view of her boy's penis and testicles during the exam. While the editing left out the part where the doctor pulled down the boy's undies, it kept the part at 10:00 where he pulled them back up. Fortunately, there was no tickling during my exams.

Finally at 13:15 it showed a page making clear that this type of exam should continue until age 18.

Obviously, this isn't how these exams are done anymore, but I'm glad I found this video as evidence I'm not remembering wrong.

I had only one exam at age 13. It was head to toe included my genitals.

And like in the last video, my father was present all the time.

I remember usually having to undress to my underwear during most of my non-sick visits to the pediatrician. My genitals were checked while I was lying down before age 10.

I remember wanting to attend a summer activity camp that required a physical exam around age 11, my mom took me and that was the first time I remember feeling some amount of shame because it was the first time I remember having to stand for the testicular exam and getting the doctor's finger for the turn head and cough hernia check.

It wouldn't have been as embarrassing for me since my mom was sitting in a chair at the head of the table, but then the doc asked me to turn around to face the table and bend over while he checked my rectum on the outside. Some shame to see my mom while I had my cheeks spread.

@thegenesis I guess they checked for hemorrhoids.

Until the age10-11 doctor would pull my undies down to knees. After that they would ask me to do that. They didn’t specify down to knees while asking, but I myself always thought it was necessary to pull then to the knees or even lower. On one occasion my undies slipped down to the heels.

Always. Basic check, hernia check, and he would have me bend over for visual inspection of the anus. No big deal. I didn't love going to the pediatrician and felt self-conscious, but I never considered it as anything but a necessary annoyance. My mom was in the room until I was 12 I think. Back in those days we didn't suspect everyone of being a child molester.

I remember getting checked “down there” for as long as I can remember. Early on the exams were pretty basic with my dr pulling down the front of my underwear and pressing around my groin. As I got Into my teens, my dr began feeling my testicles as well. It was around this time that I started getting filled erect at most of my exams. I posted about one exam in particular in a previous post which I think triggered my fetish today. Long story short, my doctor was not shy about “examining” my penis and telling my that my erection was “healthy”.

I remember quick checks as a kid, just a second or two, and sometimes a look at my bottom hole. After/during puberty it was a lot more in depth and really weird and embarrassing for me. After the first time or two I would straight-up lie to my pediatrician's face and tell her I was on my period so she wouldn't do it.

...After the first time or two I would straight-up lie to my pediatrician's face and tell her I was on my period so she wouldn't do it.

This wouldn't have worked with my dr growing up who still externally examined me and separated labia even if i was on my period at the time.

I remember quick checks as a kid, just a second or two, and sometimes a look at my bottom hole. After/during puberty it was a lot more in depth and really weird and embarrassing for me. After the first time or two I would straight-up lie to my pediatrician's face and tell her I was on my period so she wouldn't do it.

I remember hearing the girls in high school talking about using this excuse for both school physicals and physicals at the pediatrician. I'm not sure how well it worked, but I definitely remember hearing them talking about it.

@sensei1980 Did the highschool physicals include a genital exam?

@sensei1980 Did the highschool physicals include a genital exam?

@Pecan_nutjob yes, both genders received genital exams and the girls also received a hernia exam. I found this out when a group of girls returned from the nurse's office and were talking in class. The teacher asked them what they were talking about and one of the girls answered "how do they check girls for a hernia?" Turns out the doctor pressed their groins and had them cough, then inserted a finger and had them cough again.

@sensei1980 Inserted into the vagina? Or elsewhere? (I'm completely ignorant of how hernia checks are conducted.)

At the pediatrician clinic, the first nurse always told me to undress to my underwear-shorts after entering the room. Mom always helped me to undress and folded my clothes on the extra chair. The first nurse then checked my vitals. This always included checking my height and weight on the scales. After this, she always told me to lay on my tummy on the examination table so she could check my rectal temperature. She tells me to turn my head and look at the animal paintings on the wall until the rectal temperature check is done. I then feel her fingers in the waistband of my underwear-shorts as she lowers them to my knees.

After the first nurse is done taking my rectal temperature, and she raises my underwear back up onto my waist and tells me to sit on the edge of the examination table. A short time later, the doctor arrives to the room. She checks my blood-pressure, and then my breathing and heart with her stethoscope. After that she checks my mouth and ears with the lighted scope. The doctor then tells me to remove my underwear-shorts and lay on my back on the examination table. She then does a full-frontal body check head-to-toe. After that, she tells me to turn over and lay on my tummy. She then does a full back-body check head-to-toe. While all these checks were being done, the first nurse is writing on the examination sheet form.

After the doctor leaves the room, the first nurse tells me to remain laying on my tummy. I watch her as she walks over to the counter. While there, she flips a switch on the wall. A few seconds later, a second nurse enters the room. She is holding a tray with a shot syringe and a container of cottonballs. The first nurse then tells me to turn my head and look at the animal paintings on the wall. She then guides the second nurse to administer the medicine to me in one of my bottomcheeks. After this is done, the first nurse tells me I can get fully dressed as she hands mom a prescription for a medicine that I need to take at home.

@sensei1980 Inserted into the vagina? Or elsewhere? (I'm completely ignorant of how hernia checks are conducted.)

@Pecan_nutjob fingers pressed into the groin and then fingers inserted into the vagina. There is an older educational video showing a female doctor performing a hernia exam on a female patient. Maybe someone will be able to locate it. There is also a thread where a female member describes getting a hernia exam for an occupational physical exam. Hopefully this can be located as well.

@sensei1980 I don't quite understand this American obsession with checking hernias on teenagers. I've never had that examination and never heard of any teenager having a hernia… Inflicting a vaginal penetration for that is abusive, don't you think? Many teenage girls are ill at ease with that.

@Pecan_nutjob Youth sports are BIG in America. Kids get into competitive sports through school or other organizations from a young age and winning is very important at nearly all levels. Impact sports are also very popular, like football and hockey, and weightlifting starts as early as middle school. Hernias are a fairly common athletic injury and it's just assumed the kid's playing sports at some level. Even just playing in gym class gets physical more often than not.

I don't quite understand this American obsession with checking hernias on teenagers. I've never had that examination and never heard of any teenager having a hernia…

Perhaps it has to do with the importance attached to sports in high school. Sports are strenuous and who knows if performing strenuous sports activities might not cause one? American football can be pretty rough stuff for instance.

In other countries, I get the impression that sports in school are all good and well and often mandated by government ministries as part of a curriculum, but they are not taken that seriously and students are expected to master their subject of study, not engage in sports to an excessive degree.

Mmh. I see. One thing is that in France there is the basic school sports curriculum, which does not require physicals (in fact, you need a physical if you need to opt out of part of it, not to opt in) and is not competitive (though some teachers act as if it were).

And there are extra activities, some offered through the school sports clubs, or other clubs, with varying degrees of competitiveness (which, in some cases, is quite excessive - testimonies abound). These used to require a yearly physical, though this has been suppressed because private doctors complained that they were spending valuable time signing off perfectly healthy teenagers for sports instead of dealing with actual sick patients.

Let's not forget physicals for working papers and driving permits. Seems like so many things require physicals here in America. I remember having multiple physicals a year many times as a teenager. You would always hope that the doctor would just sign the papers since you already had a physical that year. More often than not, you would find yourself naked in the exam room with the doctor's hands on your genitals. I always had the impression that Europeans were more open with nudity and engaged in it more often than Americans. These posts lead me to believe otherwise. Perhaps in America we have a conservative outward appearance masking our hidden perversions.

@sensei1980 While Americans seem more prudish, a number of things that were done in the US would appear quite intrusive to the average French. It would for instance seem preposterous that a nurse would take a rectal temperature on a 13 year old patient in full command of their mind and senses, instead of asking the patient to stick the thermometer himself or herself in the rectum; yet a number of Zity members report this happened to them, including one to whom the nurse said that if she resisted, help would be summoned to hold her down for her temperature.

@sensei1980 If someone did multiple sports at school, say soccer, athletics and NFL were they required to have a physical for each one, or could they all be signed off with one examination? Are there different requirements in the physical for different sports?

@Pecan_nutjob I only remember one instance as a teen where I was asked to submit to a rectal thermometer. I had been running a high grade fever for three days while staying at my great grandmother’s house. My mom decided to take me to the closest ER. The doc took me back alone. I don’t remember all the things he did but I definitely remember him insisting on using a rectal thermometer. Having been born in the fifties, I begrudgingly complied. It was 104!

Probably around the age of 7 or 8, I was allowed to use an oral thermometer at the GP’s office. I never saw a pediatrician.

@Srgfgahs I understand it had fallen out of fashion, but apparently it was still done in some US hospitals in the 1970s: "pediatric ward rules".

I always had the impression that Europeans were more open with nudity and engaged in it more often than Americans. These posts lead me to believe otherwise. Perhaps in America we have a conservative outward appearance masking our hidden perversions.

Not to get too political, but you have a for-profit healthcare system in America, so there may be some financial incentive to perform unnecessary examinations.

In the UK we have state funded healthcare so we have the opposite problem. The health service has a limited budget, so they want to avoid performing any examinations or treatments unless they are really needed.

@sensei1980 If someone did multiple sports at school, say soccer, athletics and NFL were they required to have a physical for each one, or could they all be signed off with one examination? Are there different requirements in the physical for different sports?

@Examined this may vary slightly by state but generally one sports physical clears you for the entire year. There could be exceptions like wrestling where there's a lot of close skin contact requiring a skin check that other sports wouldn't need but general sports participation is just a form they take to the doctor.

Realistically, if you schedule the kid's annual physical at the right time that can be their sports physical too as long as you have the doctor fill and sign the form. There's no real reason to pay for two exams when you know what forms need signed ahead of time.

@sensei1980 If someone did multiple sports at school, say soccer, athletics and NFL were they required to have a physical for each one, or could they all be signed off with one examination? Are there different requirements in the physical for different sports?

Once per school year covers all activities. Multiple exams are not administered.

I always had my genitals checked after about age ten or so. The doctor would have me lying down usually, and he would palpate my abdomen, before quickly pulling down the elastic waistband of my underwear and pinching/prodding my penis. Usually he'd then have me stand up and he'd do the whole "turn your head and cough" thing. Once I started growing pubic hair, the doctor would usually run their fingers through my hair as well.

My pediatrician always examined my vagina, spread my labia, and looked between my cheeks. Never was internally examined by him but had the same basic exam until I was 18.

A lot of school physical in the US trends back to post WWII. During the war the Federal government assumed an unprecedented amount of power. One of the things they decided to take on was childhood illness and malnutrition. 36% of American men were rejected as unfit for service during WWII and most were because of malnutrition related issues from childhood. There was a huge push in the 50’s and 60’s to improve overall health and fitness of Americans, especially children. By the 80’s it was less necessary as healthcare to inner city and rural Americans became more available.

Many Europeans have difficulty grasping how low the population density is in much of the US or how diverse and large this county is. That creates a unique set of circumstances.