The last physical exam I received was different for me because I was seeing a new doctor in a completely different practice. I like the doctor that I normally see but I wanted to try a new one that was located closer to where I work. I hate sitting in traffic!
My regular doctor knows me already and knows that I always strip completely and never wear a gown. I do accept the small paper drape that they give me and use it to cover up while the door to the exam room opens and closes.
But since I was seeing a brand new doctor, I didn't know how they did things, and they certainly didn't know my likes and dislikes. So I decided going in to the exam that I would more or less follow their instructions. The nurse called me back from the waiting room, then had me remove my shoes in the hallway in order to get my weight. She showed me to the exam room, had me leave my shoes there and then go next door to the bathroom to leave a urine specimen. I thought it was strange going to the bathroom in my socks, but that's what I did.
Now back in the exam room (shoes still off), the nurse went over my history and meds before announcing that she needed to do an EKG on me (or is it technically an ECG?). She instructed me to now remove my shirts (I remember she used the plural term referring to both my outer and under shirts) while she got the equipment. I confirmed that she only wanted my shirts off and she said yes. She came back and did the EKG with me shirtless and shoe-less but still wearing my pants and socks.
Once she completed the EKG her part of the exam was done. As she was packing up her EKG and preparing to leave, her exact words were: "I’m going to go ahead and step outside. I’m going to need for you to take off your socks and your pants, just stay in your boxers, she’ll (the doctor) be in here in just a little bit, ok?" No gown or drape was offered, and I certainly didn't ask for one.
After she left, I quickly pulled off my socks and started to remove my pants. Of course she made a wrong assumption that I was wearing boxers. I was wearing a jockstrap instead (a Bike swimmer/jogger style with a narrow waistband to be exact). I folded and placed my pants on the chair with my other clothes and took a seat back on the exam table wearing just my little strap! I wondered if she actually thought I was wearing boxers, or if that was just the generic term that she always used for male underwear. I also wondered if she knew that I was only wearing a strap if she would have provided a gown or covering of some sort. Nevertheless, it didn't bother me at all.
After a relatively short wait, the female doctor entered and warmly introduced herself. She didn't seem phased or upset at all by me sitting there in much, much less than a pair of boxers. And she spent a very long time going over my history and meds and conducting a very thorough exam -- all with me in my strap -- without saying a word about it.
The strap was finally removed when it came time for the genital, hernia, rectal and prostate parts of the exam. For that, she didn't actually ask me to remove it. Instead, after she finished with my abdominal exam she pushed the leg support back into the exam table and helped me to sit up again. She then got out a pair of gloves and started to pull them on. As she’s doing that she tells me that she’ll finish up with the prostate exam, and also will first check my hernia. She doesn’t say anything about a full genital, penis or testicle exam, even though that’s what she ends up doing. As I watch, she then gets out a paper towel and lube, opens the lube and squirts some on the paper towel. I’m still sitting on the table as she does all of the preparations, waiting for her to tell me what to do. When it looks like she’s ready, I finally stand up and say something like “I suppose you want this off now". She answers "yes, go ahead and pull "that" down (referring to my strap as “that”, perhaps not knowing exactly what to call it). I take it off completely, turn around and place it on the chair and take a position standing in front of her.
While it was different from my usual exam where I'm nude from the very beginning, it was actually an enjoyable exam experience!