Modesty at exams for children, teens & young adults

My pediatrician i went to in the 80s and 90s did not use gowns, always in underwear or panties only when dr walked in to do a physical, and he did thorough exams including rectals. Now a days almost all drs in usa, even for children and teens, provide gowns or drape. But i often talk to young adults on fone sex lines who will say they have a gown only long enough for dr to walk in, then as soon as he walks in it comes off-leaving women either naked or in panties only. Could women be saying this just to turn me on and keep me on phone longer listening to their exam experiences or can some women out there vouch that this is often the case? Have some of you been examined naked or in panties only during a physical ? That is supposodely the norm in france and other countries for women and men of all ages. had it not been for my experiences in which modesty was not respected i probably would not have developed this medical fetish

What was his rationale for a rectal exam on a well (you were well, right?) child?

Sounds very odd, in a healthy individual.

I had them at follow up appointments for my bowel surgery until I was about eight, but I can sort of understand that as the technique used connected the end of the functioning bowel to the rectum in a different way to normal. Quite why it needed to be checked some eight years after the surgery did seem a little odd though...

A thorough physical by definition implys the entire body so drs may feel obligated to look at the butt even if there only spreading the cheeks. mine did. you can check the health of the bowels by doing a rectal exam at any age. i read a post from a 16 year old girl in florida (i think on voy,com several years ago) who had a sports physical at a drs office and was asked to wait in her panties for the dr with her mom in the room. dr said he needed to pull her underwear down to check her development, then said to keep underwear down and roll over on her stomach, then he inserted a gloved finger in her rectum. all she could say was 'gross as if she was only shocked by that rather than her nudity or the comfort of being on her tummy. that was like the exams i got

I also remember reading a post more than 10 years ago by a 13 year old girl who said she was only in bra and panties at a recent pediatrician physical, no gown. she said dr pulled panties down while she was on her back to check her development and then told her to roll over. then he stuck a finger in her rectum and said "bare down like your going to the bathroom." i was only about 5 years older than her at the time; think i was 18 so i did not reply to her post. so my experiences have happened to others too.

How exactly does "voy.com" work? It seems like a bunch of one post threads to me. If you could elaborate, I'd be very appreciative.

I was born in the early 90s, and remember my pediatrician until I was about 12 didn't use gowns. I stripped to underwear and sometimes had to take that off if the doc had to do a rectal or genital exam (uncircumcised so proper foreskin retraction was a box to check for the doc). That doc usually used a rectal thermometer too. When I was about 12 I switched to a different doc but there I was just told to disrobe completely and lay on a table, then given a small paper sheet to cover with while I waited, but it was thrown away after the doc got there. Come to think of it, they did rectal temps too.... I guess it's just what I was used to by then.

From what I remember as a child a gown was not provided at a physical exam. When I was a teen (late 1970's) I was referred to an Adolescent Medicine specialist due to some developmental delays. She administered a very thorough physical exam every year requiring I strip to my briefs and at some point I was completely naked for the genital exam. It was somewhat embarrassing for me at the time but she had a professional and caring demeanor.

I don't ever remember being given a gown until I was a young adult, probably in my early 20's. As a child going to a pediatrician (this was in the 1960's and early 1970's), I was always instructed to strip down to just my briefs for a physical exam. Most of the exam was conducted that way with me in my briefs. Then those were either pulled down or removed for the final parts of the exam. I also remember sometimes the briefs were removed earlier in the exam, shortly after the doctor entered the room, leaving me nude for most of the exam. It was a multiple doctor pediatrician's office, and I remember that I always rotated between the different doctors, depending on who was available. I think each doctor had their own preferred way of doing their exams.

Asthma clinic in sixty's uk often striped bare no gowns for weighing and measurements of height and limbs as early asthma meds were rectal administered meant regular rectal exams never made any difference if were boys or girls to medical staff or our mothers at the time as all regarded as children

Never had a gown until I was in my 30s. I was just in my underwear.

I was never offered a gown when I was seen by our family physicians back in the 70s and 80s. It was usually strip to my undershorts for any kind of an exam. Gowns were made a big deal as we came into the 21st century due to malpractice suits, modesty issues, etc. I never had a rectal exam until I hit 40 years old. I get an annual prostate exam now, but I'll be 50 this year.

No modesty for me then either! Grew up in the 70s and 80s.... Always undressed to underwear -- which was tighty whities then). Did not see a gown until early 2000s..... which are just silly. Never fit right, they are awkward... and they are going to see it all anyway!

My doctor has always had me undress to just my underpants. No rectal exam though.

Another 60's, early 70's kid here. It was always the same for me, my sister and cousins. We all went to the same doctor. It was standard to strip down to underpants. We didn't know what a gown was.

I was a kid of the early 90s. Visits to the pediatricians always meant stripping down to my white briefs. I never wore a gown till I was 18.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s and graduated from high school in the early 80s and my experience was no gown, only strip to underpants. Never realized that gowns were used in doctor's offices until I had my first real adult physical in my 20s. Then I was given a gown and told to strip completely and put it on. Have to say that many of my physical exams growing up were group physicals for sports every year from junior high through high school and it wouldn't have been practical or necessary to put a hundred or more boys in gowns just to line up for a group physical. The way those gowns fit, it would have been just a long line of guys with their bare butts sticking out of a a short gown. No point.

I went to a pediatrician in the 70s and 80s and I was always stripped to my underwear for physicals. Until I was 11, the doctor would just feel my genitals by reaching inside my briefs. I changed pediatricians at 11 at which time I began having my briefs pulled down to expose the penis and scrotum and started having both visual and palpation examination including a check of the meatus, testicular and hernia exams. This is when I began getting a lot of excitement after the exam thinking about how embarrassing the experience had been.

I was never offered a gown util I was about 30. By that point I was used to stripping down to my underwear for my yearly physical exam so I declined the gown from that point forward.

I was born in 1976 . In the UK as a child the Dr. I seen would see me in my pants and vests whether it was male or female . To be honest I only ever remember seeing male Drs . Sometimes he would lift the vest to examine me , other times he would get me to take it off . Now as an adult a visit to the Dr is very similar . If you go with a cough etc he asks for me to remove my top and sometimes my bra . We don't ever get a gown at the Dr surgery . Not even for a Pap Smear.At a hospital visit we get offered them but not always . At a urology appointment with the consultant I rarely do . At an appointment with the uro/gynae consultant ther is nearly always a gown offered . My children are teenage girls. At the Drs surgery it's always been the same for them . Wherever needs examining those clothes come off . There are no gowns available. At a hospital appointment with a consultant for a child , there are no gowns available either . The consultant just asks for clothes to be removed as necessary for her exam.

So how ridiculous that we have shifted to current conditions, logic, fears, presumptions.

Very! I haven't been able to figure out why we're so suddenly modest - especially when you consider that at the same time we seem to be much more open about sex and nudity. Really strange to me.

Modesty, I find the concept amusing.

My pediatrician in the 1960's was a Korean War Military veteran.

He did not have modesty in his vocabulary.

Boy or girl, if you were there for a physical, you got naked. No gowns,. No underwear.

Didn't like it, but never thought about it.

My mom was always in the room and if i had complained she probably would have laughed and told me to just get my underwear off.

At 61, I seldom have take off more than my shirt during a check-up. Oh, yeah, I get bent over the table once a year, but my young internist seems more embarrassed by experience than I am.

I had open heart surgery a few years ago and I was reminded then that in a medical situation, modesty has no place. Spend a week with an open backed gown and 20 year old aides bathing you and you will forget about modesty pretty quickly.

Case in point, mohawkmed.com? I'm assuming that he's a gay doctor, given his expertise with HIV. You can read where he has trained and worked, and hospital affiliations. His is a private practice, so his practice decisions are likely his and, given that he has written about what to expect, you can see his logic. An internal medicine background, which some have posted elsewhere might make a difference? Because I really believe that what is taught, how one is taught, ends up in one's practice, where a doctor can make those decisions.

Modesty is overrated no question. I understood that being allowed to wear underpants for group sports physicals in school was a effort to provide some modesty for those exams, which years before had been done nude. Our fathers, uncles, coaches, and doctors were WWII and Korean War vets and probably thought that allowing any clothing at all was ridiculous after they had gone through nude induction physicals. Not sure why or when the change occurred but the culture was becoming more modest even though there is not much modesty in wearing briefs or a jockstrap only for an exam. Anyone here old enough to recall when the change happened or heard about it from older brothers or relatives?

Anyone here old enough to recall when the change happened or heard about it from older brothers or relatives?

I think the move toward more modesty was a gradual change and occurred at different times depending on where you lived. In my case, high school P.E. and group physicals in the early to mid 70's provided for no modesty at all. The change to more modesty where I grew up (upper mid west) had to take place in the late 70's or early 80's. But in other places in the country it might have occurred even later than that.

I grew up in the late 50's and 60's. I was always told by the nurse to strip to my underwear before the doctor saw me. Then she would take my temperature, rectally until around 7 or 8. I was never given a gown. As an adult the nurse usually takes my vitals and I remain clothed until the doctor sees me. The exception is when I am there for a procedure, like a cystoscopy at the urologist. Then I undress from the waist down and am given something to cover up with.

Wrestlingpoet: I'm assuming that he's a gay doctor, given his expertise with HIV.

Seriously?

When i was examined by my pediatrician i Always wore a slip. Only when he had to take a look at my penis and testikels he lowered my slip for a few moments. I never felt uncomfortable.

I think that yearly medical exams are actually a custom in only a few countries. It is certainly not the custom here in Belgium or in France either. You go to the doctor when unwell or as a follow up for a chronic illness or something serious like surgery or the like - or if you're a hypochondriac 😃. Annual exams. whether ill or not, is not the custom. And this in spite of the low cost of medical health care.

I know that when we lived in the US, my mother, a Belgian, would often complain whenever the dentist or doctor sent a note in the mail telling it was time for our annual exam or check-up. She really thought them to be unashamed money-hounds, grubbing about for custom from people who weren't ill. And to have to pay a manifold higher fee than she was accustomed to back in Europe on top of that ...

Don't know the answer to the progress of modesty in going from more to less nudity in exams or group exams but from photos of military exams from World War II to Vietnam, it seemed that everyone was nude in the World War II period and then in underwear only during Vietnam. Not sure whether Vietnam changed this as more draftees went through the process in the late 60s and early 70s when modesty was increasing. My age group of teens in 70s may have benefited from the military changes on that in our group physicals for sports as we were allowed to wear our underwear for physicals but were still stripping down to a jock or nothing for wrestling weigh-ins where our weight meant everything. What was happening for those of you who are older and had group exams for school in the 60s? Anyone old enough to have seen the change occur one year in particular?