Nurturing nature of the rectal temperature

Have others noticed the nurturing aspect of a rectal temperature.? It is one of my favorite things about it. Aside from it very intimate nature, there is a real feeling of being cared for . Often times, right after the thermometer was inserted, my mother or nurse would stoke my up-turned bottom or back to relax me while the rectal thermometer was registering. "Just relax now, that's a good boy." Lay still for me" "Just a few more minutes and we're done" and words like that come to mind.

I'm not sure about nurturing.... But the last female that I took a rectal temp on told me that it was a feeling of comfort from her childhood. She never minded it as a young child, and getting it again at the age of 31 brought back a lot of fond memories...

Yes, I can relate. There is a feeling of comfort with the procedure. You are, most cases, not feeling well when it is done. The caregiver, be it mother or nurse is reassuring and gentle and the procedure in most cases ,feels good. The old style rectal thermometers needed to be inserted in the rectum for at least three minutes while ones anus and rectum tingled as the bulb was inserted with a slick lubricant. In many cases, mom stroked my back as she waited for the results.

It was always reassuring to have mom or my step mom or step dad rub my back and bottom as the silver pear shaped bulb slid into my lubed rosebud hole. I felt their finger holding the end of the glass tube so I wouldn't push it out. It was nice to hear them say..."Your being such a good boy, or I'm so proud of you for being still and letting me do this."

Their loving soft hand going round and round, right cheek then left gave me relaxation. I loved the sensation of the thermometers lines coming out as it was being pulled out of my sensitive hole.

Definitely. I think the reason I like being convinced into a rectal temperature using phrases like, "that's how little girls get their temperatures taken" and "lie with your bottom up" is because is makes me feel taken care of, which is something I didn't always get growing up.

No doubt about it. Look at the rectal temperature scene from the Courtship of Eddie's Father when a young Ron Howard gets his taken by Shirley Jones when he becomes ill. It was the catalyst for young Eddie to like her and she eventually becomes his mom.

They are definitely nurturing. Having someone feel your forehead and telling you that they need to take your temperature, especially rectally is both a very caring act, because they are actively looking out for your well-being, but also a very intimate act, having to roll over and bare your bottom for someone even if it’s only for strictly medical reasons opens you up to intense physical and emotional feelings. For myself it was one of the main ways my mother showed caring nurturing feelings.

And coincidentally just this morning I had to take my wife’s rectal temp when she was feeling a bit under the weather. Not a task that I ever get tired of…lol.

Certainly have realized this aspect. My experiences have been those with a caring female whether mom, aunt, nurse or other mature person both in reality and fantasy. Present wife not interested (though source of many fantasy scenarios for me) but ex-wife was! Perhaps if you pm me we can discuss this mutual interest?

I do not remember having my rectal temperature taken by someone else in my life; however, when I take my own, I like to imagine a kind and loving female nurse stroking my head and reassuring me while it registers. I wish I could get an actual female to take my temperature while having another female stroke my head in real life.

Just went to my Dr., yesterday, and they took my temp, in my ear?? 😃 Mike.

One winter, I had a miserable bronchial infection with persistent cough and high fever that scared me. My husband got up in the middle of the night, took my temp and gave me rectal acetaminophen for the fever. I think you could call that "nurturing." I also consider it nurturing when my husband or daughters would make the dinner, do the laundry, vacuum the house, mop the bathrooms, pick up the cleaning, etc., if I happened not to be feeling well. A surprise back rub from hubby before bed to help me sleep. I think we all can use a little TLC sometimes. ?

Rectal temperatures had a different kind of affect on me. After traumatic experiences at the doctor's office and hospitals which you can link to in my profile, I was scared to lay on my belly and would usually protest. hearing those phrases you mentioned said to me would calm me down enough so I would roll over I would lay on my belly and allow the nurse to take my rectal temperature, instead of being nurturing, I was releived that it was just a thermometer in my rear end and not some painful procedure back there.

Most assuredly the nurturing aspect plays into the experience. Besides the physical sensation...there is the humiliation factor as well...bare bottomed in full view of another person with a thermometer inserted and sticking out. But again...the feeling of being looked after by someone who cares certainly plays on the emotional senses.

I very much agree with everyone so far, that rectal temperature taking feels very nurturing. It's a big aspect of why I think I love it so much, and the same is true for my partner. I've said so elsewhere, but there's something that's really hard to replicate with anything else about lying down and having someone who cares about you slowly go through the motions and take your temperature.

Yeah. It just feels amazing.

I found myself nodding my head as I read several of these entries. Both at home and at the pediatrician's office, I recall a gentle, calming atmosphere before and during having my temperature taken. It was more structured at the Dr's office, but typically similar. Once I was told to turn on my tummy, I knew it was coming and also the nurse's voice got a touch softer, kinder and more patient. I would be told that it would not take too long and to relax and be still for her as she shook down the thermometer after rinsing off the alcohol it was sitting in within the glass holder.Once inserted, I would lay still and feel her hand on the small of my back to reassure me until she felt it was time to remove it.

I agree with these comments. Once I realized I wasn't going get a shot, I thought a rectal temp was act. These days if course it's 15 sec with a digital thermometer under the tongue. Takes too long to put you in a room where you can pull down your pants.

Are there any boyfriend/girlfriends or married couples that share in taking each other's rectal temperature? If so what is your experience?

When I'm sick I indeed find it nurturing and caring that my wife asks me to go to bed and roll on the side, or to come across her lap for temperature. The same applies to suppositories and enemas.

Even if you have to take it without a partner, it's kind of relaxing, if not necessarily nurturing. You're usually sprawled out on a comfortable bed or sofa, able to stretch out, and feel a cool breeze on your body.

Nurturing, caring, being sensitive...whatever you wish to call it. If I'm feeling sick with a nauseous headache and my husband sits down on our bed with a thermometer and Vaseline, and gently helps turn me on my tummy on slips down my mighty bottoms, I'd certainly call that nurturing. And on the intimacy and nurturing scale, that's pretty high. If what follows is a trusty Acetaminophen suppository for the headache and a loving back and body rub, and then he lets me sleep, that's out of sight! My birthday, 2013. Actually happened! I still remember it well, with smile!!!

I agree with other responses here. There's certainly a nurturing element that resonates, as temperature taking (especially rectal, but even oral) conjures up memories of being taken care of while under the weather.

In my experience, having a friend take it in real life or in a roleplay situation plays on the nurturing element, too - someone who cares enough to take your temperature and to do it in a way that may be a little awkward is a pretty cool feeling.

In my experience, having a friend take it in real life or in a roleplay situation plays on the nurturing element, too - someone who cares enough to take your temperature and to do it in a way that may be a little awkward is a pretty cool feeling.

That's exactly how I feel; I've never heard anyone articulate that before. I think I tend to crave rectal temperatures when I want to be nurtured. It also does something for me when I protest and am forced into it. It feels like someone cares enough to do what is necessary to take care of me, even though it's unpleasant for me.

I got the flu once and started vomiting and my teeth were chattering from freezing and burning up at the same time. My lovely 28 year nurse wife took control of matters and promptly saw fit to take my temperature. She knew putting a thermometer under my tongue might cause me to throw up again. She went into the bathroom and I heard her rummaging through the drawers near the sink. She came back out with a small jar of Vaseline and a thermometer case with a red cap. It didn't even occur to me what the Vaseline was for. The thermometer had a stubby bulb and she looked it over and shook it down a few seconds. I started to open my mouth for her to put it under my tongue, and she said "it's not going there baby, it's going up your butt." I didn't want her to stick it up there, but I was too sick to really care. She plunged the thermometer down into the Vaseline, then took it out with a big blob on the tip. She said "okay, turn on your left side honey." I was already naked in bed. She took the thermometer in her right hand and asked my to nudge my right knee toward my chest. She parted my buttocks and slid the thermometer up my rectum in one gentle motion. I gasped because I hadn't felt that kind of sensation since I was a 5 year old child. It's amazing how sensitive you are there, especially not having anything inserted rectally for so long. My wife told me "try to relax honey, it's alright. I'll take it back out in a couple minutes okay." She must've thought I gasped in discomfort, but quite the opposite. Her hand caressing my butt and legs felt good on my feverish skin. Her right hand cupping my backside so the thermometer would stay in place also felt reassuring. The kind of comfort only a gentle caring wife can offer. I was so sick with the flu, but that couple minutes of care she provided was so pleasurable.

There is nothing more nurturing than caring for someone when they are sick. All the patient has to do is roll over and the caregiver takes care of everything else. A soothing bun rub into a bare bottom with a thermometer inserted into it is the essence of nurturing.

Great question and proposition. I had not considered that there was a nurturing aspect to receiving a rectal temperature. Yet, unlike other procedures, there surely is a component that is possibly comforting during a most intimate and likely embarrassing experience. Hearing a parent or medical provider announce what is to be done for most of us is a source of anxiety and vulnerability. It's not routine to bare one's bottom let alone have your rectum entered - aside from sexual activities - by a stranger. A parent may but it's not routine otherwise.

So I now agree that in that moment, hearing a nurse say, "Just relax your bottom, take a nice deep breath, or it's almost over" has to be an attempt to ease the patient's worry. Feeling my lower back rubbed or the hand across my bottom sometimes helps as well. At some point, I adjust to it being placed inside me and time passes. Then I think for each of us it becomes a mix of feelings and physical reactions, which makes this particular experience so unique.

There must be a reason why the words nurse and nurturing are similar. I never wanted to be a nurse by profession, but there have been times when my husband and daughters told me that I missed my calling. I hadn't thought of it this way, but I guess one definition of nurturing is leaving work at noon to come home and care for my husband and taking his rectal temperature because he's continuing to run a high fever. Calling our doctor and getting a prescription, driving to the pharmacy and back home, starting Rob on the RX, giving a quick back rub while I check his temp again, and then racing back to the office for a 2 p.m. conference call.

Great topic and I agree with the posters here. The nurturing aspect of getting your temperature checked rectally is I remember from my mom. She always used those nice common phrases like "that's a good boy...hold still now" and "almost done", while I would lay face down on my bed or over her lap. She would rub the small of my back or butt cheek in circles while we waited.

At the pediatrician's office when I was a kid, it was a little more scary and embarrassing for me. I can remember being told to roll over on the paper covered exam table in just my tighty whities. The nurse would pull the back of my briefs down off my butt to my thighs and then use her gloved finger to wipe some Vaseline over my hole. Then she would shake the thermometer 3 or 4 times and spread my butt cheeks to insert it. (I swear that that kept that exam room at like 40 degrees. It would be so cold in there.) I would get goose bumps feeling the cool air back there. And then she would hold my back still to make sure I did not push it back out.

I definitely agree with the nurturing aspect of it. One of my earliest RT memories was when I was very young. I was stripped to my underwear and the nurse lifted me up onto the exam table and lay me down on my left side. She then pulled my briefs down and gently inserted the thermometer in my bottom. It felt great physically but even better emotionally knowing that she was taking care of me.

There was definitely a nurturing aspect of having my temp taken. Nurses I had as a child were usually very nice about rectal temps. “OK sweetie, on your tummy for me, this goes in your bottom.” Then as they parted my bottom they would tell me to relax, and be still. The cold thermometer would poke its way up my butt, and then I was almost always told I was a “good boy.” Some nurses would rest their hand on my bottom or pat my bottom gently. At older ages I would get an intense erection from all the sensations. Mom would be looking on, and everyone would be staring at my butt for the next 3 minutes. In a way, this was a nurturing feeling, though embarrassing at older ages. Then the thermometer would be slipped out. During my hospital stay, the nurses would wipe my bottom which was quite nurturing, but the doctor’s office would leave me with a gooey butt that would remind me that I got my temp taken.

Yes, having one’s temperature taken in such an open and vulnerable way requires trust, and triggers endorphins, especially in those of us who still remember and celebrate the procedure. It also required submission and patience. It taught us how and when to be submissive for our own good. It taught us how to wait while being submissive. Being nurtured in such an intimate way taught us a lot early in life, something the newer generations are missing. Receiving a rectal thermometer is very nurturing.