Do you ask or tell your doctor everything during your examination

Absolutely not. I don't tell him how much I drink, but I figure if I tell him 4 drinks a week, he marks down eight. I don't tell him I occasionally have a cigar. I don't tell him anything about my sex life, or the fact I masturbate periodically (just to keep the pipes running smoothly). Other than that, it's pretty much open season on his questions. .

If his nurse is attractive I ask about injections such as booster shots.

Absolutely not. I don't tell him how much I drink, but I figure if I tell him 4 drinks a week, he marks down eight. I don't tell him I occasionally have a cigar.

When i had annual exams with my company's health services, I could never admit to certain indulgences, for fear of losing my job. And similarly to blindside, I never admitted how many drinks, for a few reasons. But they would treat 4 drinks to be as, how shall i say - "severe" ?, as if you had 8. Ironically my most recent primary care made some comment like 4 is ALL i should have per week. And i don't feel like arguing about it.

But I have otherwise been honest about indulgences with my current primary care. With HIPPA laws, confidentiality & attempting to deal with my own health in a realistic sense, i've been more honest & open.

I tell my doctors 4 drinks per week.

How else could you share a bottle of wine with dinner and have two random drinks during the week?

If you can't honestly ask or tell your doctor everything, maybe you need to look for a new doctor.

You'd be surprised.. Or considering where we're having this conversation, maybe you wouldn't.. believe what some people have told me or asked me about. My job is to help you take care of yourself and be safe.

Doc

I have to tell my doctor everything, and I do mean everything because if I don't then I get the belt across my bare ass. And sometimes I even get the belt across my bare ass when I Do tell him the truth because the truth maybe wasn't following doctors orders, lol. Sometimes I just can't win. I'm not complaining, hehehe.

Mashie

I'm trying to be better, at least with anything that may be relevant. We both have a similar goal (my health), and I expect my doctor to be absolutely honest with me, therefore I should do the same, correct?

I haven't always done this, but I'm telling myself now "if things start to go in a direction that I'm not interested in pursuing that can always be brought up and dealt with then, because I never have to do anything I don't want to and there are usually options."

There was a general misunderstanding at my previous doctor about how many sexual partners I'd had and when I became sexually active. This doctor was also my mom's doctor, and I don't know if my mom said anything that would have led her to believe that I was sexually active when I was 16, but I definitely was not. And I told her that on many occasions. So then when I went to college, she asked if I'd had any ADDITIONAL partners, and that was right after I'd had sex only for the first time. So I told her just the one, but she didn't seem to believe me. In years after, I never did end up telling her I'd had a total of 4 sexual partners because I didn't feel comfortable with her knowing that. Going to a new doctor soon. With a clean slate, I'll tell them everything. I don't know why everything got so muddy at the previous doctor's office.

I don't know why everything got so muddy at the previous doctor's office.

Sounds like it was because you shared the same doc as your mom, while being young at a controversial sexual age. And it seemed like an issue of who said what to whom and how the truth would go over.

I tell my doctors 4 drinks per week.

Why would a doctor ask unless there were signs of problems with alcohol or unless you mentioned it yourself. I've never been asked since my family doctor knows I am a killjoy when it comes to drinking. When seeing other doctors for the first time, say a specialist, they will perhaps ask about smoking which I can also truthfully admit to never ever indulging. But drinking? I can't say I have ever noticed being asked ... so probably not.

Why would a doctor ask

Whether through a questionnaire on a standard form for an annual physical at work, or during a verbal health discussion at the start of the physical, they're always trying to get info on weekly consumption of coffee/tea, tobacco, alcohol, etc. I figure that information can help them with cause & effect. In the event they detect something wrong, they have something to attribute it to.

Whether through a questionnaire on a standard form for an annual physical at work, or during a verbal health discussion at the start of the physical, they're always trying to get info on weekly consumption of coffee/tea, tobacco, alcohol, etc. I figure that information can help them with cause & effect. In the event they detect something wrong, they have something to attribute it to.

I'm really sorry, but I have never had a formal verbal health discussion nor seen a doctor go through a standard form or questionnaire. Doctors just ask what the problem is and go from there on. And certainly never ask about drinking coffee or tea (I mean tea? C'mon, be serious. Does EVERYTHING have to be harmful nowadays?). It doesn't sound like pertinent medical information, at least not to my ears, anymore than asking about possession of firearms sounds pertinent to American ears.

But coffee consumption was thought of concern with me. My hands were vibrating. Part of it, like a racing heart rate, was white coat/new medical office syndrome. Part of it was stress from trying to find the office. Coffee? Possible. I had the same thing happen when I drove to Portland for an important meeting. Again, I had no idea where I was going. I had assumed 'city' meant traffic, which isn't Portland if you have lived in NYC. When I attempted to write, my hand wasn't helping.

Absolutely. My doctor cannot begin to help me if I withhold information from him. Sometimes the smallest, seemingly irrelevant, things are the clue to the diagnosis and the path to treatment. And if the doctor doesn't have time, or doesn't want to listen (assuming I am not just wasting his time), it's time to find another doctor, as I did once.

There are three people you NEVER lie to: your doctor, your lawyer, and your clergyperson.

There are three people you NEVER lie to: your doctor, your lawyer, and your clergyperson.

Doctor (omission is OK if there isn't an emergency to treat), lawyer and accountant.

I'll tell a clergy person the same quantity of Truth as they tell me.

With the advent of electronic medical records and the complete lack of true computer security, there are two levels of honesty between me and my doctor - I may tell the human things that I will demand never be entered in the computer.

Lawyers and accountants get EVERYTHING.

If I'm going to go through the trouble of scheduling an exam for a health concern, I'm going to share everything I can in the hopes that that information can be used to aid in the diagnosis.

I'll tell a clergy person the same quantity of Truth as they tell me.

I wish we had a laughing out loud, laughing my ass off or rolling in the floor laughing my ass off emoji! 😁 😁 😁

There are three people you NEVER lie to: ........ and your clergyperson.

You have got to be kidding. Since when have clergy ever been known for being so utterly truthful themselves? Why even bother reciprocating?

Maybe you mean a specific person in the hierarchy of a church or something, but even if you mean ordained clergy in general, I fear that I have lied my ass off to them on so many occasions I could not even say how often. And I don't mean this in a mean spirited way, but rather that I do not even care to engage in conversations with them beyond what is necessary out of social politeness (say at a funeral or something like that). Then they'll get platitudes that are just rote talking.

And if you count clergy at high school or university, I would have been thrown out before graduating if I told them the truth to their faces. So, to clergy, lying as a social art is something that I think is a necessary skill that one should learn as a way to be polite and avoid useless, time-wasting talk.

I tell them everything medical.

I've told them about hemorrhoids before and every doctor or nurse I've ever had acts very uncomfortable when I bring that up.

I'm bi but not active with men, just toys. Sometimes I wonder if I should tell them so maybe there is an additional anal exam I could get but at the same time, I don't know if that wouldn't make them act weird around me.

Uncomfortable when we're told about hemorrhoids? You must have been dreaming. Nothing makes us uncomfortable.

Well it happened. I thought it was weird too.

Sounds like you're in the medical field. Should I disclose I like to be penetrated anally, even if just toys or no?

Liquidsky is a physician.

Do NOT tell that you like to anally penetrated. Your sexual preferences will be known to your insurance companies and all your doctors and others who happen to see your health records.

THERE IS NO PRIVACY. KEEP YOUR OWN COUNSEL.

KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT.

Holy crap! That's bad! I didn't know it's the type of stuff that would be broadcasted like that. Damn!

Uncomfortable when we're told about hemorrhoids? You must have been dreaming. Nothing makes us uncomfortable.

I haven't brought up hemorrhoids before because I haven't seen the point - is there one? I'm not ready for surgery, and they don't look nearly as bad as the pictures I've seen, so would there be a reason to mention it? I figure the result would just be "yeah, you've got hemorrhoids. Eat more fiber, don't strain ...," so I just endure and hope they go away.

Because it's all part of a conversation between you and your doctor, whose insight into you might be just that: you're the patient who, among other things, has hemorrhoids, knows diet change options, surgical options, and has made the ones he wants to make. An informed patient. So if, down the road, it was something else, he would not be surprised to find that you had done the research, thought about the options, and had made a decision about the something else.

Personally, my right hand has a (insert what happens when you end up with a v, a slipped tendon? beneath one finger, in this case middle and pinky). I pointed it out. He noted that it could be repaired. I chose to leave things as they are. So he won't be surprised that I have known of a cataract in my left eye, which I left until it got to a certain point, and the weather changed, to spring, to get the surgery scheduled.

I haven't brought up hemorrhoids before because I haven't seen the point - is there one? I'm not ready for surgery, and they don't look nearly as bad as the pictures I've seen, so would there be a reason to mention it? I figure the result would just be "yeah, you've got hemorrhoids. Eat more fiber, don't strain ...," so I just endure and hope they go away.

Do you KNOW you have hemorrhoids? Are you qualified to diagnose them based on internet pictures? Could it be something much more serious? THAT'S why you tell them. Let the professional make the diagnosis.

The doctor who treats himself has a fool for a patient.

Do you KNOW you have hemorrhoids? Are you qualified to diagnose them based on internet pictures? .

I once thought I had hemorrhoids when I was in my early 20s. I woke up one morning with a burning pain and deduced it could not be anything else. I made a doctor's appointment, announced to him my own hasty diagnosis and was mortified almost to death when he examined me and then told me that I had a big cut running length-wise internally on my sphincter.

He didn't ask me how i got it, but I knew right away: my girlfriend's untrimmed finger nail from the night before I woke up with my imagined 'hemorrhoids' ...she'd been a bit over enthusiastic and not trimmed her nails ... ha ha.

So, just saying, never assume a diagnosis if you are not really qualified.

@agracier

she'd been a bit over enthusiastic and not trimmed her nails ... ha ha.

I bet that was a "nail biter" moment. .ha ha

Anyhow I agree with the consensus. .don't take risks by self diagnosis

I've never been asked anything by a doc that was to personal for me to answer. But I am very open with my doctor. Things about sex and masterbation and such I am OK with telling a doctor that is treating and/or examining me. It is important to talk to your doctor about your physical and mental health in all areas and be honest.