Male patient coughing....heard from the next room

"I'm wondering if any of them ever heard this or asked their boyfriend or husband about what happens in their physicals. There would be curiosity about that but maybe no one asks or has been asked?"

I've had a couple girls ask what happens during a guy's physical. The first time, it happened whenever we (guys) had to get our sport/school physicals in high school. The questions always included something about "dropping your pants" , " letting the doc. feel your penis and balls" or "about the cough cough test. " During the physicals, 4 girls (classmates) were in room helped the nurse & athletic trainer record our vitals. They watched us one by one behind the privacy screen and hear the doc. tells us pants down and the coughs. It never bothered me if girls were present or asked questions about what happened during my physical. Mainly, because my sister was always present during my physicals into my teens. If you went to my doctor, your sister (older/ younger) saw everything including your genitals & hernia exam.

So, next time I actually do go to my doctor with a real cough (like I have right now), I'll be sure everyone in the clinic witnesses me barking my fool head off before and after the actual visit! Don't want anyone getting the wrong idea!

Slightly off the topic, I seem to recall one visit where the "turn your head and cough" command resulted in me actually starting to cough for real. The room must have been dry and my throat irritated enough or something after the exam for it to start. Fortunately it went away soon after I left.

(Doc asked if I was okay and got treated to a rather poisonous look. Poor thing.)

One year, mom arranged for me and my sister as well as my cousins (a male and female) to get physicals from a new doctor. Already I was a wreck and knowing that we would go with our same age cousins made me all the more nervous and apprehensive. The only good thing was that my cousin Anthony, then 14, we in along with my mom, which had to be embarrassing for him, but she left after I think he was undressed. At some point we all heard him cough loudly as we sat outside the exam room door in the hall. At one point, the nurse walked passed carrying a syringe into the room. The next thing we heard was protesting "NO" then clearly whimpering. He eventually returned looking mighty sad soon one of us was very nervous as mom took one of us back into the room and it was time! I managed to go last on this trip but clearly not any better. We all left with a sore butt from having to get yet another school related shot!

The latter part of your post reminds me of my own mixed emotions, Julie. Seeing a girl emerge tearfully rubbing her bottom after getting a shot initially excited me but also made me fearfully aware that I might be next for an injection back there. I don't recall ever leaving the doctor without an injection-sore bottom but that girl's gesture somewhat satisfied me that at least I wasn't the only one to endure that painful humiliation.

I'm with you!

Have had boys tell me back in my school days often one or two girls would be in the clinic and hear the boys coughing behind the screens.

When they came out the girls would often stare at them embarrassing some boys.

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Oooh, poor boys :-D

The girls had certainly fun with the situation.

"Shorerow"

I have not understood in your relation of the boy's school/sport physical at school if the four girls classmates were the same age as you in your class grade and were asked to help the nurse -doctor during your examination for the vitals without seeing you undressed, just hearing the instruction to pull down the briefs and hearing the usual"cough and turn "behind the scrren or watching all the examination including that most embarrassing part of it

I really doubt that it could be possible that you were exposed undressed to their sight?

Yes I always instinctively, I guess, listen for that and I have in fact heard it a few times. As someone posted earlier it is normally just talking. On the other hand I always wonder if the patient in the next exam room can hear while I, briefs around my ankles, am standing in front of my doctor getting examined for a hernia and he having me turn my head and cough and then on to the prostate exam and they hear him order me to bend over the table. I know the walls are thin and if I am able to hear it then I am assured someone in the next room can hear me being examined as well. There are almost no provisions for modesty at the doctor's office. LOL

Yes, I remember hearing " the cough" on more than one occasion. Exam room walls always seem paper thin. The time I remember vividly was when I was when I was about 13. The nurse took my mom and me to an exam room where she told me to undress "but leave your underwear on for now." I was taking off my pants when the cough came from the next room. I looked at my mom and felt my face get warm. She smiled. I asked her if he was going to give me that exam and she said "I'm sure he will. You don't need to be embarrassed, I'm your mother." That really didn't make less embarrassed when the time came to take off my boxers.

I have actually heard that in the room next to me before and it was such a turn on. Knowing that she was examining someone in the way that she would be examining me very soon got me so excited!

Actually, a few years back I was in the waiting room of my doctor's office, and when I sat down there was a younger black guy, probably in mid 30s. My experience with my doctor was that he always wanted to do a prostate exam on my visits. I started to wonder at what age the patient would be to have a prostate exam. When the young black man was called in to one of the exam rooms, I DID wonder if HE would receive one, but I just assumed that he was way too young for that. A few minutes later I was called in to an exam room, not realizing that this guy was in the next exam room. I could hear the guy and the doctor talking, but I really couldn't make out what they were saying. Within a few minutes I hear a loud voice, yelling for the doctor to "Stop . . . You're hurting me . . . I hafta pee." Well, I knew immediately what was happening, and I couldn't believe how embarrassed this guy was, knowing that everyone in the office could hear his protestations. As I was leaving, he was still at the receptionist's desk, waiting to make another appointment. As I walked past him, he deliberately turned his head away so that he wouldn't have to look at me. I have a feeling he didn't come back for another appointment.

I went to a practice that I hadn't been to once on Cape Cod. I saw the guy/patient who went into the back ahead of me. I ended up in the exam room right next to his. My instructions were likely to undress and put on a gown. I kept underwear on only. As I say there, depending upon what they were talking about, I could hear pieces. I understood that the guy was getting married, that he was asking about checking his fertility. I could hear positioning, on or off the exam table, anything being moved. So it was not difficult for me to hear the coughs, the shift, the silence of the prostate exam.

I have also heard another male patient cough several times. The walls at my doctor's office must be super thin. Then again, I have no way of knowing if that was from the hernia check or just a regular cough from illness or whatever.

I find it pretty surprising people have had so many stories to tell about this topic. I assumed most people did not hear or notice anything of other's physical exams.

I have no way of knowing if that was from the hernia check or just a regular cough from illness or whatever.

In my experience, the cough for a hernia exam is quite distinctive and much different from a cough due to an illness. It's one (or two) strong and deep coughs (deep because it's a male after all), a pause of maybe 20 to 30 seconds, then another one (or two) strong coughs. Whenever I hear that pattern, I know for a certainty that the male is receiving a hernia exam. Coughs due to an illness rarely follow that exact pattern and are more-or-less random.

Heard it at sports physicals, when I'd be waiting my turn for that station and was close enough to hear around the curtain or corner. And I heard it a few times when my brothers were being examined and i was nearby but not in sight line.

I find it pretty surprising people have had so many stories to tell about this topic. I assumed most people did not hear or notice anything of other's physical exams.

All you have to do is be in a quiet exam room waiting for the doctor, while another patient is in an adjacent room actually having a physical. If you can hear anything going on in that next room, it opens the door to possibilities of what folks in neighboring rooms can hear.

Which explains why many doctors offices / exam rooms have faint music playing. To perhaps try to mask what could possibly be overheard if things were otherwise totally quiet.

Given my husband is one of only a few men that are seen at the clinic we go to, cant imagine we would ever hear a hernia cough in the next room.

Have totally experienced this. And rather love it when it happens. Agree that there's a pattern discernible that differentiates a hernia exam from a regular cough.

My experience it's not that surprising hearing "the cough" coming from the next room. I guess since the first time, I've either heard another person or have been the one doing the "turn and cough." Many different situations: high school physical ( sports), college and pre-employment exams. I was at my current doctor recently an the nurse was taking me back to the exam room. I passed this "mom" standing outside in the hall when you heard her son doing the "cough test".

My pediatrician office had thin walls and my doctor talked really loud so you always knew what was going on the the neighboring room. Beginning in 7th & 8th grade, as my school called it a "complete male physical" was required for the guys.

The short version: I was in a exam room and my friend was in the other room. I'm sitting on the exam table in my underwear listening to the conversations coming from my friends room. I heard "hop down, face your mom, arms at your side and legs apart, followed by two coughs then another set of cough. My doctor started mine, then I found out about the "coughs". I remember being embarrassed as I stood there as he pulled my underwear down, exposing my penis and testicles then the hernia exam. It turns out another friend and mom were in the other listening to my "coughs".

During my last pre-employment examination, I was sat in the waiting room of the clinic with a few other candidates. I remember seeing other guys nervously filling their consent and history forms and the staff escorting each of them to the corridor with undressing cabins. When I was escorted I was also surprised to see a guy come out of an undressing cabin after his assessment and I could tell that he just got dressed quickly and was still intimidated from just having had his whole body evaluated.

I had a double hernia when I was 13. I was initially examined by a doctor in a cubicle with in a hospital ward when I was first admitted. The girl in the bed next to me would have been able to hear the doctor asking me to cough and then the sound of my coughing. I'm sure she could hear as i could hear her when her doctor asked the her to lean forward and breathe deeply when he listened to her lungs.

I was initially examined by a doctor in a cubicle with in a hospital ward when I was first admitted. The girl in the bed next to me would have been able to hear the doctor asking me to cough and then the sound of my coughing. I'm sure she could hear as i could hear her when her doctor asked the her to lean forward and breathe deeply when he listened to her lungs.

Such was the case as i waited in a curtained off cubicle, as i could clearly hear the dialogue going on in the curtained off cubicle next to me, as well as 1 or 2 cubicles away too. I got to hear "Everything off except your bra & socks", so had it been a place to perform regular physicals, i could have easily heard a "turn your head & cough for me, please" and a cough.

I have never heard anyone, but I have seen the embarrassement in their face when they leave

I have never heard anyone, but I have seen the embarrassment in their face when they leave

Interesting you make those observations.

When we speak of "embarrassment", what age range are we talking? I would expect it more from younger folks.

For some reason, I try to stay subconsciously keen to detect possible embarrassment from folks when they're coming out.

I remember being about 13 in my paediatrician's office for my yearly check-up. This was a fairly large clinic with about 5 or 6 doctors. As usual, after the nurse did the preliminaries I was lead to the exam room and told to "undress to your underwear and have a seat, the doctor will be in to see you." As I sit on the exam table with nothing but my white briefs on, I can hear a doctor knock on the door to the room beside of mine and enter.

I can hear the entire conversation through the paper thin wall. I hear the doctor introduce herself to Jason and his mother. I hear that Jason is 17 and in for a check-up as well and that he had never been to this clinic before, his mother says that they just moved. I can hear the small talk chatter, and the doctor begin examining Jason, check his ears, eyes, big ahhh..., deep breaths, check his reflexes then lie down. I continually listened as the doctor told Jason that she was going to listen to his abdomen then press on his abdomen then the moment of truth when she says ! "I'm just going to take a quick peak in your boxers.

It's ok. Its a normal response" (To which I imagine she found his dick to be erect). A few seconds pass then I hear "Ok if you could hop down and stand here in." A few more seconds pass then I hear "I need to do drop your boxers please." A few more seconds pass then I hear the "please turn your head and cough... cough again, good. You can pull your boxers up and get dressed. Naturally at 13, I was hard, hearing that this 17 year old Jason just got an exam in just his boxers with his mom in the room and had to show his hard dick to his mom and a female doctor. I was pitching a serious tent in my white briefs when the doctor came in to exam me next.

Jman, if you remove the mother, which makes things cringe, incredibly hot at any age, but especially from someone younger imagining it of someone slightly older.

.... when she says ! "I'm just going to take a quick peak in your boxers......A few seconds pass then I hear "Ok if you could hop down and stand here in." A few more seconds pass then I hear "I need to do drop your boxers please." A few more seconds pass then I hear the "please turn your head and cough...

She wants to "take a quick peak" while he's supine. Yet, she's going to ask him to drop his boxers a few moments later anyway.

Interesting....

She wants to "take a quick peak" while he's supine. Yet, she's going to ask him to drop his boxers a few moments later anyway.

Interesting....

I have had an exam done in this manner before. Testicular exam after abdominal while supine and then stand for the hernia. The difference in my exam was that the doctor lowered my briefs while I was supine and then told me to leave them down and stand up for the hernia.