What are your thoughts when you enter - still fully dressed - into the exam room?

I wonder what goes through your mind, when you are beeing asked to enter in the exam room? Perhaps your doc isn't already their?

For me it's the thought that I will have to undress completely and soon be totaly nude!

I great feeling - when I was younger, it occured that I got a boner at the moment!

No problems any more!

Shit, what are they going to find.

A good question, but to me that depended on the kind of doctor I had to visit. I remember in my teenaged time, where I had to see different doctors often, my main fear and thought by the paediatrician and by the gastroenterologist at the clinic was that I got so nausea and that "I hopefully won´t have to vomit", because that happened few times in my earlier youth! I also thought "hopefully, he won´t press and poke so long and hard on my tummy and on my navel again" and "hopefully I won´t have again stomach pain and navel pain afterwards then". By the regular mole exams by the dermatologist my thoughts were "hopefully she didn´t take pictures again", because at every second to third appointment she took pictures for the mole documentation of many moles and nevi all around my whole body. Later my thought was "hopefully they won´t find any suspicious moles again and won´t have to cut some out again". And one of my main thoughts at all doctors was "hopefully it won´t last such a long time as last time". And there were many many other thoughts, too...

Seeing a new doctor for the first time for a physical is always uncertain once you get out of childhood. As a kid, there wasn't any question about how much I would be undressed. It was always to underpants only, even often when sick and not just for an exam. As a adult, even a young adult, I have seen several doctors over the year and there is no way to know before you are told what is going to happen. I remember the first time being told to strip down completely and put on a gown with the opening in the back. I had never heard of wearing a gown for a physical exam and had not worn a gown like that since I had my tonsils out as a little kid. I was a young guy so it seemed weird to be stripping down completely in the exam room, putting on nothing but a thin gown, and sitting barebutt on the table to wait for the doctor. In the years since, I have been in my underwear only for most exams but have had docs who sometimes required a gown. I have been with my current doctor for several years and he is a "strip to your shorts" doc but the first time of course I had no idea what he would require. Of course, the other thing that use to be unknown was whether I would get a rectal exam. Once I got a first one in my 20s, I figured that it was always a possibility but for the next 10 years maybe I got a rectal about half the time, which was still a lot since I didn't see a doctor every year.

For me it depends on the kind of problem and the doctor I am going to. For example for my general cold and cough I go to my family doc. I know she would not even ask me to unbutton my shirt forget taking it off. She just checks my pulse listens to my heart and lungs checks my throat and gives me medicine accordingly. I know what's going to happen so nothing goes on in my mind.

In the last few days I have visited Chest specialist and Gastro specialists for my chest and stomach infection. In both cases I had to remove my shirt which was obvious because of the areas to be examined but since I had visited them for the first time I was a bit anxious about what would happen. What would it be like when I entered the exam rooms in both cases

Along with what everyone else has already said...I think about all of the other people that have been nude and examined in that very room!

For me it would depends on why I am at the doctor. To put it general terms "Ok, so what happens next" probably runs through my mind.

These days, for me, I'm taken into an exam room by a nurse who does vital signs. Then there's the huge pause as my mind races. Am I going to sit here, dressed, to wait, or will she reach in a drawer for a gown or what. Because if I'm going to sit in the room dressed, this is a waste of an exam.

I begin to fantasise about being seen naked and my pulse races and then I have to think about calming down.

I do admit that I look at the exam table and picture myself laying there naked with the doctor probing my abs and genitals. I also have thoughts about stripping down naked with a nurse watching, although that never seems to happen...yet

I usually look around at all the equipment on the desk/ side etc and wonder what the doc will be using to examine me with today. I also think about who else has been naked in the exam room before me. It's great if I get to see the previous patient or know friends/ colleagues who have been in the same room for a thorough exam.

I just wonder what the doctor will an to check. My doctor isn't very standard so it's different every time.

As a kid, I dreaded going to the doctor for any reason unless I was really sick and then I didn't really care. My biggest worry was always whether I was going to get a shot. Once I got to be an older kid, pre-teen age, I got more worried about having to get undressed to my underpants and worried less about shots. At 10 to 12 years old, still worried about getting a rectal temp because that was a standard thing for pediatric office visits, although I can remember feeling so bad with a fever on some doctor visits that I didn't even care when my briefs came down and I got the glass rod. One of the advantages to being really sick and with a fever is that I was so out of it that the things that would have bothered me didn't matter. But if I wasn't too sick to care, then I worried a lot about what might happen even when I had a good idea.

As a grownup, I know the routine unless I am seeing a doctor that I haven't seen before. Then I wondered how this doctor will do the exam. Unless the nurse tells me to undress before the doctor comes in, I'm still wondering while waiting on the doctor. If the nurse provides the undressing instructions, then you know almost everything that you need to know. If the nurse doesn't say anything and I'm waiting fully dressed for the doctor, then it could mean anything from a quick meeting with the doctor with a minimal exam to a comprehensive exam.

As age progresses, I'm increasingly concerned about real life medical issues. As medicine has become increasingly commercialized, I'm more worried about the accuracy and how incomplete my exams have become. Annual exam with clothes on? Bullshit. Piecemeal exam by various specialists, also bullshit. Why can't I get a real physical exam from my PCP?

I've written about my first adult physical before, which was a complete surprise as I was in the doctor's office for a medical complaint and not for a physical. But I didn't realize that internists did full exams to diagnose problems so my expectation was that I would see the doctor for a few minutes and he would look at the swollen spot on my neck and prescribe something for it. I was in my 20s and ignorant of what to expect in a situation like that. I entered the exam room with no expectations that he would do anything than look and feel the swollen spot. Got a huge surprise when the internist said that he need to do an exam and that I should strip down completely and put on the gown that was lying on the exam table. He probably could see my surprise and figure that I hadn't done anything like that before so he needed to be clear about what he wanted me to do. I remember him telling me something like, "Undress completely and that means underwear and socks off too. Put on that gown, the open part should be in the back and you can tie it behind your neck. Once you are in the gown, have a seat on the table and i will be back in a few minutes." I may have looked a little shock but he left and I got busy stripping down and putting on the gown. I felt awkward and vulnerable sitting bare butt in a short gown on the exam table. No way not to feel exposed. I had all physical exams before that one in my underpants so it would have been less of a surprise if he had told me to strip to my shorts. After that exam, I have wondered with any new doctor which way the exam would go.

As a kid, and when I was in the Navy, I didn't really have much to think about. I did what I was told when I was told. The first physical I got after leaving the service was whether or not the NP (It was an employment physical) would do a rectal or not. (Every physical in the Navy was a full head to toe, including a prostate exam.)

That became the question I had for most exams after that. When the VA started with the VA, the first thought was "What is THIS resident going to fixate on?" (Each resident had their own peculiarities.) I stopped wondering about rectals because they would never go there unless I had a specific complaint that would require one.(Most exams, the VA does is a "strip as you go," and most exams the only thing removed was my shirt, if that.)

I have since gotten a permanent PCP (A very competent NP.) I see her every six months, with a full physical every other visit.(since I'm over 50, that means a prostate exam) My main concern these days is whether she will find something wrong.

My thoughts have always been whether I would get any injections and, if so, where but my atitude/desire has completely reversed since childhood.

Througout my youth and adolescence I was terrified at the prospect of the usual treatment - getting them in the bare bottom while bending over the receptionist's lap - not so much for the pain of the shots as what I deemed the childish humiliation of a girl watching me get them back there. As is often the case, my childhood fear has developed into an adult fetish so that I now spend the wait hoping that a beautiful nurse will make me drop trousers, pull down pants and bend over for thrillingly painful buttock injections.

As an adult walking into an exam room for a real exam I always worry that the doctor will find something wrong. My second thought is how "complete" the exam will be and if it will be minimal and a waste of my time or a very complete exam which is what I came for in the first place. If the doctor I am seeing is new to me, the 3rd thing I wonder is how far I will have to undress. If I have never visited that particular office before, I know right off that how far I am told to undress is basically how complete the exam is to be. If only a minimal exam, then I will never return to that doctor again and will seek another doctor for my next exam.

I agree with 1doc1 that when I was a kid, it didn't matter what I thought or felt about anything to do with going to the doctor or getting a physical exam. A group sports physical was as close as I got to what 1doc1 may have gotten in the Navy for an induction exam, except at least my experience was that we got to keep our underpants on while waiting in line. I always heard that the military exams were done in the nude from start to finish, except that maybe by Vietnam the boys got to keep their underpants on for most of the exam. If we were told to strip down, we stripped down. No questions asked.

I think when you go for group exams at school or college, or I guess around school/college age for military entrance (though I've never experienced that), most are too young and naive to object about the lack of privacy and often required nudity.

The doctors are seen as older authority figures so the group just complies and strips off. That was my experience at school and college anyway. If everyone else is stripping to their underwear or dropping their underwear then I didn't want to be the only one kicking up a fuss and objecting. Herd mentality I guess.

Now I'm older I like to think that I'd be more assertive and make an objection, although being honest I do love (and miss) group exams so would enjoy taking part..

I know from a Doctor friend who works at an occupational medical office doing employment physical examinations on young men that those young men tend to usually be apprehensive from the time they leave the car and walk toward the building. Young men 18 to 24 are the most often seen for these physicals as the hiring company selects them right out of engineering and technical colleges. They are protective of their bodies and grimace when told by the Gentleman Doctor to get to their undershorts. Often their eyes bug out in stunned awe as they comply and are soon at their under shorts. Most young men wear white hanes or jokey brand briefs. My friend has been doing these exams for 27years and has enjoyed it very much; as he says why would you go into medicine and not choose the field that gives you the most enjoyment. The briefs do come down to knees as the examination progresses.

I just hope with I put my feet up in those damn stirps that I don't have gas!

Great posts here, the sad one from davidwest in which he recalls from the past what we all can't find anymore, a doctor who actually is going to have his patient undress so that he can see his body; what miked and matt pick up on with 'old school' exams: I will tell you what you are going to do and you are going to do it, no questions asked. Which might explain how we got to where we are, the power having shifted to the patient and our assumptions about what he/she wants.

Mostly thankful that my mom no longer comes into the exam room with me anymore.

I get anxious and worry that something could be wrong. There was a time when I would worry about getting an erection or excessive seating from being nervous before my exam even started.

It is determined by why I am seeing the Dr, as well as which Dr I am seeing.

I don't get anxious or excited when I enter the examination room. I'm more concern with establishing a good rapport with the doctor and working towards treating the illness or alleviating the present symptoms especially if its a new doctor that I'm seeing for the first time.

I have notice a worrying trend in the UK, the GP's are allocating/scheduling less and less time to actually see and examine patients. So I am concerned that they may miss something or misdiagnose something due to their time constraints. I am not too unduly concerned due to my medical background and knowledge, but I feel that this practice has to stop or be curtailed.

RN1993,

AMEN. You took the words right out of my brain I neglected to post.

Andie

Aw thanks Andie much appreciated. Karma to you

I have notice a worrying trend in the UK, the GP's are allocating/scheduling less and less time to actually see and examine patients. So I am concerned that they may miss something or misdiagnose something due to their time constraints. I am not too unduly concerned due to my medical background and knowledge, but I feel that this practice has to stop or be curtailed.

This is absolutely true in the US. Managed care has the doctors overworked. Insurance restrictions have caused compartmentalized medicine where you have to visit multiple specialists to address all your systems.