Double standard in pediatric office

I heard from my girlfriend who recently started working at a pediatrician's office as a nurse. She started working recently at an office where two pediatricians are females with couple of NP's who are also females. Right now, many young teens and adolescents come in for physicals. She spent the first week going around with pediatricians and NP's.

She told me that she went around with a NP one day and one of them was for a physical exam for a 14 year old male teenager. He needed a physical for sports and school. She said that the NP told the boy to "remove all clothing including your underwear" and left the room. As they entered the room again, she said that the boy still had briefs on, and the NP told the boy to remove his briefs before starting the exam.

The NP performed the physical exam with him naked the entire time, and according to her, he was uncut so she also checked is foreskin. She also said that the NP made him "assume the position" and visually checked his behind.

She also went in with the NP for a sports physical for a girl, and that she told me that the NP told her to undress down to bra and panties and gave her a gown. She said that the NP pulled down her gown to listen to her chest, and pulled the bra up briefly to briefly check the breasts, and pulled up her gown. She also said that the NP had her lie down and only asked her if she had any concerns with periods or sexual issues. There was no genital check, and she never completely took off her gown, bra or panties at any time.

She said that she was surprised that the NP protected the modesty of a girl so much but didn't care about the boy.

My girlfriend also told me that one time she provided the boy with a gown and told him to undress down to underpants and put on a gown for his physical exam. One of the female pediatric doctors then went in to perform the physical exam. She knocked and opened the exam room door about five minutes later to ask about refills on a medication that the pediatrician prescribed to another patient. She said that the boy was naked, with gown and underpants off, and was standing with back to the door.

So I guess these double standards at pediatric offices still exist.

I wonder if the double standard is not in part a vestigial remnant of 19th and early 20th century mores and customs in which it was thought that females in general were more easily embarrassed and delicate of nature. Usually this is for shorthand purposes referred to as a Victorian attitude, but whatever the name it was common in previous times for females to be thought of as weaker in both physical build and mental disposition - more prone to hysterics - and therefore should be spared as much as possible.

Additionally, females were never expected to participate in any form of military activities with all its attendant lack of privacy. Males on the other hand were expected to do military service as a matter of growing up. This was so in many European countries from the 19th century onwards where military service was obligatory, while in the US this was only instituted for a few years during WWI and then again during and after WWII. But even so, for my generation it seemed a given that we would all one day be called up and forced to live in close proximity with a humiliating lack of privacy to other draftees. So, best to get used to the idea as young as possible.

I am certain these attitudes would undoubtedly still have their influence in this present day and age: females are easily shocked and demure of nature, males can take anything and do not (or should not) show embarrassment.

I guess some of the medical professions (NP's) can answer. Is this considered acceptable by today's standards?

Oh how I would love to work at that doctor's office. and walk in on patients all the time. or any office for that matter. to have the power over people and make them get undressed at my command. and then make them do things, like go provide a urine sample in the bathroom down the hall, and they have already undressed. imagine walking down a hallway in an office, in just your underpants, carrying a cup of your own urine, another patient coming the other way, in her underpants, breasts swinging free. yeah. that woudl be all sorts of wonderful. I want to be that patient. being made to walk around the hallways in my underpants only my breasts swinging free. and other patients seeing me, and seeing them. that sounds like fun.

These accounts don't really surprise me. The double standard, whether we want to acknowledge it or not, is real. Boys and girls, or men and women, are treated with a different level of modesty and expectation of privacy. And this isn't just within doctor's offices. Other examples? Physical education classes (at least back in the 70's) and their differing requirements for changing and showering; Required nude swimming for males (YMCA and high school); Group physical exams in school; Military induction physicals and boot camp life; Discipline in schools (boys got bare bottom spankings and girls didn't).

Perhaps the double standard is finally being eliminated and everyone will eventually be treated the same way. But in the past, it sure existed and still does to some degree.

Jimmy, It still exists today.

ADPETXG77 could you ask your girlfriend the age of the 2 female doctors, and the other nurses? Also has she ever witness receptionist going in the exam rooms or exam doors left open? Also Do any of the boy's protest? And if so what does the doctors or nurses say to the patient's? Also if one of the boys have a parent in the room with them does the nurses still chaperone?

I very much believe there is a double standard. I doubt it ever goes away.I do think girls/women need more privacy. Some men are modest; but most by in large don't mind.

I fully agree with Jimmy-Johnson a few posts above. If a man or boy were to protest at a partial open door he would be more embarrassed by something that might be said by the NP or MD about his nudity or modesty. As a teen back in the 60s, we were to comply without any discussions.

I think that there remains a double standard overall, which I suspect comes from years of assuming guys don't mind being just in their briefs or less at the doctor. In part, standing in your briefs is no different than wearing swim trunk. Yet for women, we cover our genital and breast regions so it's only natural to assume we would be permitted to cover up to a larger extent be it with a gown or just in our underwear. Still, there is the issue of modesty and feeling embarrassed when one's protective underwear is removed. I don't think too many guys would trade places for a stirrup exam! Either way having to show all is for many of us a bit sensitive and I feel for everyone who gets uneasy when it's time!

I think that there remains a double standard overall, which I suspect comes from years of assuming guys don't mind being just in their briefs or less at the doctor. In part, standing in your briefs is no different than wearing swim trunk. Yet for women, we cover our genital and breast regions so it's only natural to assume we would be permitted to cover up to a larger extent be it with a gown or just in our underwear. Still, there is the issue of modesty and feeling embarrassed when one's protective underwear is removed. I don't think too many guys would trade places for a stirrup exam!.....

Assumptions almost always lead to bad conclusions. Men, even in their briefs (or boxers or even with a gown), occasionally have to deal with erections. And as for swim trunks, women do wear bikini bottoms.

The double standard, at least when I was young, comes from most of the nurses being female and most of the doctors being male. Today, of course, that is no longer the case. And one's modesty is now respected for patients of both sexes.

Oh, and if women ever had to bend over, as men still do, for a prostate exam with the whole world in the room, stirrups can't be that much worse.

If there is a double standard, does it matter? Some guys don't prefer to wear a gown with nothing underneath. With a male doctor and a male patient, is the underpants only instead of a gown only really a problem? I have had both experiences, although more in underpants only than a gown, and cannot say that one is really better than the other. With a gown only, my rear is bare. With underpants only, I may be mostly bare, but those are going to come down for the hernia check and rectal exam anyway. Underpants under a gown seems unnecessary. I might care if the nurse came back in the room while I was waiting in my underpants for the doctor, but maybe not. The time that my doctor left the door partly open while I was sitting on the exam table in my underpants and back to the door would have been worse if I had been sitting there with my back to the door in a gown only. He was an older doctor and either thought that I was dressed enough in my underwear or didn't think about any exposure when he left the room for a few minutes, but really so what? I would rather a doctor not have to pretend that he is protecting my modesty and miss something like skin cancer than peek around my body in a gown. The whole experience lasts a few minutes anyway so why act like guys are fragile and have to be protected from being seen by a doctor?

In this day and age the NP you speak of is playing a very dangerous game. All it is going to take is one upset boy and one pissed off parent and this practice will be in a world of trouble. These young male patients should be treated with some level of respect for their modesty.

The standards of modesty in American society have changed since I was a kid. When I was little nobody thought anything about seeing a little kid in their underpants. That's what my sister and I wore at physicals and we didn't think anything of it either. These days that's not the case and doctors act accordingly.

The standards of modesty in American society have changed since I was a kid. When I was little nobody thought anything about seeing a little kid in their underpants.

You're telling me things have changed. In second grade Catholic school in New Jersey (in the 1950s) I remember the boys being supervised by nuns as they undressed for a medical exam or maybe it was for gym class, whatever. The nuns were their usual mean-spirited selves and declared that if they found dirty underpants on anyone, they would be sorry. Which I kook it meant that they looked and inspected carefully. Imagine that happening now.

It's seems my experiences buck the general trend here. Although I didn't get a gown when younger and modesty wasn't really considered it was no different for my younger sister. Guess although the standard wasn't exactly high it was at least fair and even lol.

Agracier: Reminds me of testimonies from former pupils of Catholic "reform" boarding schools... the nuns would check the panties as they were going to the weekly wash, in front of other pupils, and shame those whose underwear was dirty. The girls used to (unofficially?) wash their panties in the evening to avoid this fate. A former student told about the day she rebelled and obtained others to rebel against this, and then this ceremonies of showing the panties to the nun disappeared.

Where did you hear this ?? What would be the purpose of checking.

Naturally occurring discharge isn't "dirty" and hardly controllable.

Ethan: I know it sounds crazy. But surely the old ladies were not lying... I guess the nuns felt the girls they had in charge were vile and unclean, morally and physically, and had to be "straightened out" by a strict regimen of humiliation.

I suppose they were more after "skid marks" from wiping improperly than after discharge. But keep in mind that their whole attitude was that the genitals were dirty and these girls discovered their use too early.

Think of it - one old lady said that she long had the habit of not closing the door when she went to the toilet, because, in the reform school, it was prohibited to go to the loo not within sight of a watching nun.

Geeze I'm going to the wrong doctors. In the last 5 years I haven't been undressed for a regular physical ever. Not even a t shirt off. Previously before this doc (which I'm going to change anyway ) my doctor of almost 4.5 years he would have me strip to underwear and a gown. And then after I mentioned the gown and sheet were a waste it was a sheet only . Then he left and 5 years of ugh no hernia check even. Miss those thorough exams

It probably really depends. I don't think I had any more privacy...if anything, because as a girl things were internal, exams required me to be more spread and exposed. I did not usually have a gown or when I did it was not all that helpful. Everyone in the room saw everything anyway...

My kind of "discrimination". Unless (and a high chance of) trolling of course.

About 20 years ago I was working in an X-ray department of a large hospital in the north near ski areas. A lot of young people were injured and needed out services. Gowns were offered to ALL females if pictures were needed of hip areas but the boys or young men were expected to be nearly naked. These were the instructions giver to me when I first started there and I don't remember anyone complaining back then. You just did what you were told

Agracier: Reminds me of testimonies from former pupils of Catholic "reform" boarding schools... the nuns would check the panties as they were going to the weekly wash, in front of other pupils, and shame those whose underwear was dirty. The girls used to (unofficially?) wash their panties in the evening to avoid this fate. A former student told about the day she rebelled and obtained others to rebel against this, and then this ceremonies of showing the panties to the nun disappeared.

Nuns and their motives have always been spurious, deceptive, somewhat fraudulent and very questionable at best.

Nuns and their motives have always been spurious, deceptive, somewhat fraudulent and very questionable at best.

And let's not forget being inconsistent: all smiles and sweetness one day and mean and suspicious the next with a disposition like a raging bull.

I have to conclude that communal living with females only, is not conductive to personal harmony. I wonder if the Vestal Virgins weren't also a bunch of insufferable old biddies. Probably were.

I only had to strip to my underwear as a teen but at some point during the exam that they would be pulled down by the doctor

A receptionist once told that her favourite part of the job was holding teenaged boys (as I was at the time) across her lap and watching them get injections in the bare bottom. When bending over for shots as an adult, I once asked the nurse if she enjoyed injecting me back there, she replied, "We're not supposed to admit it!". Neither of those young ladies indicated pleasure about female buttock injections.

Neither of those young ladies indicated pleasure about female buttock injections.

Shocking! Absolutely shocking.

I have often thought that there exists a double standard regarding male patients versus female patients physical exams. I believe that there is greater sensitivity to protecting modesty for females be it in a locker room or doctor's office. While the physician's preference for the state of a patient's presentation is likely variable, I have experienced more occasions whereby I was stripped to my briefs, had them removed, or just the gown in which case I have been naked underneath. Group physicals when I was involved in college athletics were conducted with no concern about modesty. Strip to one's briefs and then line up for the obligatory doctor exam. Heart, lungs and genital examination all while naked and being observed by the next anxious teammate.

It would be interesting to hear from females about how their experiences. My inclination is to believe that a bra was retained along with panties unless more was to be included. Even then I suspect a gown was offered to shield her from feeling exposed.

Definitely was a difference between the modesty offered to my sister and I during our yearly physicals. The last time we were examined together, I was 16 and she was 12. Though we were examined in each other's presence, my exam was much more thorough and required full nudity, while she did not have to remove her underwear. I remember that the doctor felt her genitals with her underwear still on. The doctor examined my genitals both standing and lying down. I'm sure that both my mother and sister had a clear view of my genitals. I remember watching as the doctor examined her abdomen. I was certain that the genital exam would be next and underwear would be removed. However, the doctor asked her to open her legs, ran her finger up and down her genitals, then gave a quick pinch. That was it. I remember feeling defeated. No embarrassing genital exam like the one that I had to endure. I know that my sister was happy about the situation. I'm not sure if the age difference played a part, or was this a case of the double standard.