Teenage Genital Exams

Despite variances in method and procedures performed, the one constant in teenage medical exams seems to be the visual and tactual examination of the genitals. Every trip to the doctor during adolescence involved a genital or hernia exam, regardless of the reason for my visit. Girls have described everything from a peek down the panties, to an external, and even sometimes, internal exam. Some exams seem to focus entirely on the genitals with little else checked. School physicals often fit this modus operandi. It would seem that these doctors are genital obsessed. If other aspects of an exam can be omitted at will, why then must the genital exam remain constant? Do conditions affecting the genitals occur at such a rate in teens that frequent exams are warranted? If anyone wishes to postulate or share stories of past experiences, please do.

You pose an interesting question, though I NEVER received a genital exam in any form until I had a yeast infection when I was 16. It was shortly thereafter that I went on birth control, so I had a full pelvic exam at that point. Before then, no doctor had so much as peeked at me.

I think in general, for adolescent patients the purpose of genital exams is 3-fold. One reason (probably the obvious reason) is checking for good health, the second part is assessing sexual maturity and proper development, and the third part is giving the patient an opportunity to bring up concerns that might not be brought up otherwise as well as provide age-appropriate information and instruction.

I wouldn't say doctors are genital-obsessed. I'd say they are using the physical exam as a very rare opportunity to give real assurance to an adolescent that everything is, in fact, normal. Issues like stomachaches, sore throats, injuries, and fevers are issues that anyone would be comfortable bringing up with a doctor. Genital issues, especially in adolescents, are far less likely to be brought up.

I think in general, for adolescent patients the purpose of genital exams is 3-fold. One reason (probably the obvious reason) is checking for good health, the second part is assessing sexual maturity and proper development, and the third part is giving the patient an opportunity to bring up concerns that might not be brought up otherwise as well as provide age-appropriate information and instruction.

I wouldn't say doctors are genital-obsessed. I'd say they are using the physical exam as a very rare opportunity to give real assurance to an adolescent that everything is, in fact, normal. Issues like stomachaches, sore throats, injuries, and fevers are issues that anyone would be comfortable bringing up with a doctor. Genital issues, especially in adolescents, are far less likely to be brought up.

If you were having a genital exam during every visit to the doctor I would say there is something wrong with this picture. An annual physical, ok

You are having an issue with the junk, ok. Every appointment, though? That is excessive and possibly criminal in nature. I had the boys examied a couple of times beyond an annual physical due to a delay in puberty.That is also an acceptable circumstance.

I don't know who you've been hanging with but if you had a genital exam every visit something is wrong. As a physician I can say with assurance that the last thing we want is to embarrass any patient particularly children. On the other hand, maybe you're projecting. I'm always so straight forward when I examine patients. It's just work to me. I'm always amazed what some people think we're doing.

When I was a child and teen I think I only got genital exams if I was there complaining about stomach pains. But I never had any kind of annual physical or wellness exam like some people seem to. I think that's less common here in the UK.

I can remember them palpating my stomach for a while and then lowering my briefs to take a look at my genitals while I was lying on my back. They would check my testicles for any pain and usually pull my foreskin back too and ask if it hurt. I never had a hernia check or a rectal exam.

To provide a concrete example, I submit my school physical experience. The exam consisted of only a few seconds of ausculation followed by a thorough genital exam. The girls returned to class red faced, so it appeared that they encountered a similar fate. Many students spent the rest of their school days dodging subsequent physicals. It was a hot topic for discussion til the day of graduation.

Genital exams in children are mostly intended to check for normal development. Boys are more at risk for hernias and hence those tests. Uncircumcised boys are checked to see that their foreskin retracts appropriately. For healthy girls, there shouldn't be a reason for a reason for an internal exam. I remember my best friends sister who was only nine was really upset after a physical where the doctor "stuck his finger in". I think she was justified. I never had a digital rectally exam until I was in the ER with a suspected appendicitis. I didn't get another one till I was an adult. During my exams as a kid and teenager, the doctor examined my entire body from head to toe. Why would they skip my genitals? I went to the same doctor year after year and I really wasn't embarrassed to be naked, I swam naked at the YMCA.

In the nineties, a group of parents sued a local school district over genital exams performed on female students during school physicals. They claimed that they had not been informed that the procedure was to be performed, and thus, could not have given consent. The court ruled that while the exams were so rushed that they could not have diagnosed anything, no criminal wrongdoing had occurred.

This brings up an interesting question: It seems, judging by what I've read on this forum, that genital exams performed at school seem to last longer and be more involved than at the regular doctor's office. Am I correct? Never having had a school exam, I can't say "Yea" or "Nay" for my experiences. My genital exams at the doctor's office, followed by me turning around for an even quicker visual inspection of my anal region, would last a total of one minute, if even that long.

If you were having a genital exam during every visit to the doctor I would say there is something wrong with this picture. An annual physical, ok

You are having an issue with the junk, ok. Every appointment, though? That is excessive and possibly criminal in nature. I had the boys examied a couple of times beyond an annual physical due to a delay in puberty.That is also an acceptable circumstance.

Oh I agree. Getting a genital exam every visit, regardless of the concern is completely inappropriate. I wrote my response under the lens of the yearly physical where a genital exam is warranted every time.

Never had a genital exam in school. Perhaps because i went to the family doctor for annual physicals. It may be for students whose parents did not submit medical forms, showing clean bill of health. One time under time constraints, my son's school demanded we prove via forms to be filled out from his doctor that he had a clean bill of health; otherwise, he could not attend school. They offered the option of having the school nurse examine him, which i okayed, given the time constraints, and what was at stake.

Genital exams in children are mostly intended to check for normal development. Boys are more at risk for hernias and hence those tests. Uncircumcised boys are checked to see that their foreskin retracts appropriately. For healthy girls, there shouldn't be a reason for a reason for an internal exam.

This is an excellent point of view! I totally agree with you. In many cases, genital exams as a teen are just controlling method to be sure that your development is right in schedule. I understand very well why it is important. Boys are more at risk what comes to hernias of course.

I got external genital exams from my GP as a pre-teen and teen. They were embarrassing, especially as a 'tween and teen, but they were done quickly and professionally. Once reached puberty they were accompanied with questions about my period, which added to the embarrassment.

@sensei1980 , Since most of us who have responded have not experienced school based genital focused exams, we can't shed much light on your original post question. However, your post is in the exam section under medfet. Your own profile and avatar show a great interest in exams. Some memories may have been enhanced over the years. That happens.

In the US, there can be a lot of variance from one state to another. While I experienced no medical exams at schools in Texas, Pennsylvania may have been very focused on genitals in frequent school based exams.

I suffered from severe constipation from age 6 so my pediatrician had to look at my bottom anyway. I think it was convenient, especially when I was going through puberty, for him to go ahead and have a look at my vagina.

School physicals often fit this modus operandi. It would seem that these doctors are genital obsessed.

Disagree teens are obsessed with genital examinations not doctors. The fact that we relate that part of the anatomy to sex combined with the lack of privacy during group examinations leads to embellishment. Have found most teen genital exams only last seconds . Males appear to have the greatest obsession when questioned be it us girls or boys wanting to know what they are in store for often the first reply is quote, they check your balls. The stethoscope exam that consumes most of the time is made little or no mention.

Add another factor where do we hear these tales? Fetish sites , need I say more.

MJL

When I was at school, there was a medical exam done in the final year of school, the year before us had it done, however the nurse and physician conducting the exam demanded the guys drop their pants for a genital exam, a lot of the guys just simply refused. It caused quite a stir, we were a normal comprehensive school in Northern England. I had friends in that year, and they were resolute that a Quack from the Education Committee had a any right to invade their privacy and also try and humiliate them publicly in front of a female nurse. The entire reasoning behind it still mystifies me, if a young man has a hernia, he will seek medical help, its something that has symptoms, and painful symptoms at that, its not asymptomatic, I am not a Dr. but I have read the arguments by professionals stating that there is no reason to examine a high school child intimately See:

http://patientmodesty.org/sportsphysicals.aspx

The year we had to have the same exam, it was changed, to a cursory, look over with just your chest exposed for a brief auscultation front and back. Now its the norm everywhere in the UK, if a child or parent needs any more than that they can go to their Family General Practioner at no cost, the systematic humiliation of children in schools has to stop, its a wonder the human race ever got this far! A schools job is to educate not humiliate, degrade and terrorize children by exposing them and invading their dignity and modesty. All children in the UK are protected under the children's act for any medical assistance, leave it to them, not a school.

the systematic humiliation of children in schools has to stop, its a wonder the human race ever got this far

Ha ha ha ... do you think that Great Britain would ever won an empire if the boys in their public schools were such wimps? Humiliation? When they join up to do their National Service, then they will learn what humiliation is and disabuse themselves of notions of unnecessary modesty.

A schools job is to educate not humiliate, degrade and terrorize children by exposing them and invading their dignity and modesty. All children in the UK are protected under the children's act for any medical assistance, leave it to them, not a school.

Schools do not conduct medical exams. BUT often, for reasons of expediency and functioning as a venue where virtually all children of school age will invariably be present, schools function as a convenient LOCATION where government/state mandated medical exams can be conducted by medical personnel designated for the job. Don't make out as if teachers or administrators conduct any medical exams. They do not. They may function as chaperones or be on hand to supervise and keep order, but otherwise they play no part in the medical proceedings.

Think for instance how school buildings function as locations where polling/voting booths are placed during elections. The schools obviously don't hold or organize elections, but the buildings are put to good use during election days.

Firstly there is no national service in the UK

Government has no business either in the pants of schoolchildren, as Pink Floyd once said, "leave them kids alone".

You have some strange ideas agracier

"big easy guy"

you are wrong to be so rude about school physical examinations

may be in the past when conducted in group they were not enough respecting of the dignity and privacy of the students but now it is not true, they are no more group exams in the nude like a lot of years ago and they can be useful

all the students aare not going to see a doctor at his or her office each year for a real check up of their health.

and it is possible to do it at school without money and by real professional doctors and nurses

I don't think that it is really a big issue for a boy student to let a nurse or a doctor-male or female- to inspect his genitals to check if there is no problem

sometimes they will detect an issue like phimosis or any other one...

the check of the spine is also useful and of course an auscultation and a check of reflexes and an eyes test and ear test

it is not humiliating at al since it is good for them

Firstly there is no national service in the UK

I think he was talking in the past tense.

To add to that, the only medical examination at school where I saw a doctor or had to take off anything other than my blazer and/or shoes was in 1988. It isn't the norm to even have a brief auscultation in UK schools these days.

You have some strange ideas agracier

The ideas I have are the result of having grown up during a time - the 1950s-60s - when society had just finished transitioning from the era of the great world wars interspersed with an era of deep poverty and deprivation.

The world wars and the low key, but still all pervading ideas about imminent conflicts, national preparedness and military service were of such a nature to encourage youngsters to take things in stride and be prepared one day to play their part in the defense of the nation. That meant in practice being inducted and drafted into the armed services. Now if there is one place where modesty has no place at all, it is in the military. Once a soldier, give up all ideas of shame and privacy. So the thinking went, the earlier boys start getting used to group nudity and discipline and lack of modesty, so much easier it will be for them when they do their military service. And the better soldiers they will make. Hence nude swimming at the YMCA, nude showers in school after sports and medical exams without modesty.

The era of poverty known as the Great Depression, deprived many people of even the basics of health care, often the difference between an early preventable death and health. Individuals and charity organizations cannot, and never have been able to provide the scale of help needed to alleviate such wide-spread poverty and the resulting lack of health care, screening of preventable diseases and conditions, especially for the most exposed members of society: the young. Only governments had the financial means to make a meaningful contribution through various national programs. Using schools to conduct medical exams in is simply a convenient and inexpensive way of utilizing a public building for more than one purpose. Schools are used in the same for more than just teaching the curriculum: they are also sports centers, function as locations for social events or meeting halls for support groups, a place to put on a cultural event as a play or music evening, for a place to locate polling booths and so on.

I'd really hope those are not all that strange kind of ideas ...

Agracier,

It would appear that you are postulating that an ulterior motive exists for conducting this type of exam. That the exams are conducted under the pretense of ensuring the health and well-being of students, but serve a dual purpose with regard to breaking down modesty. Perhaps some students were subconsciously aware of this implicit intention. Combine that with a proclivity for sexualizing control and you have the genesis of MedFet.

Mizz Lenka,

If teenage boys are genital obsessed, it would appear that teenage girls are breast obsessed. It was fairly common to hear girls ask if the doctor viewed or examined another girl's breasts. Perhaps both genders are equally obsessed with maturation at that age. A girl's breasts and a boy's genitals are likely the most visible manifestation of sexual maturation.

Combine that with a proclivity for sexualizing control and you have the genesis of MedFet.

Perhaps so, but it doesn't seem to have worked out that way for the large majority of the population, since people who are into medfet are a very small minority when all is said and done. Medeft is not a very popular fetish after all.

I kind of missed out apparently. My teenage physicals (of which I had only a few - didn't go every year) were usually pretty cursory - either took a quick look or a quick turn your head and cough. I don't remember any real time spent looking at things or feeling around.

I often worried about getting excited at the doctor since even as a teen I had a medical fetish, even if I didn't know what fetish meant! I guess some level of self-control and more than a measure of nervousness kept things pointed down, especially since there wasn't much time spent touching or looking down there.

I've more than made up for it in play exams. :-)

@Sensei1980

You are correct breasts are a big deal as a teen till one gets older than pelvic exams become the main attraction.

breasts are a big deal as a teen

They were a big deal for me to check out as a teen. And that led to internal wiring and circuitry.......

In our small town, all of us girls were in the gym with just our bra and panties on until it came time to check our boobs and bottoms. We all took off everything and got in a line for the doctor to check us. He would check our boobs and then our bottoms. The freshmen girls thought it was gross; seniors it was no big deal any longer after 3 prevoius years.